West Virginia Gov. Justice uses Foster Care Month to promote successes while numbers remain high

Still, Justice believes that slow and steady progress is being made by the DHHR’s new interim leadership as it also works on splitting the massive department into three new departments.

The DHHR announced Wednesday it is celebrating National Foster Care Month. And Justice issued a proclamation declaring May as Foster Care Month in West Virginia.

“Everyone knows the battle we have with our foster children and everything from the standpoint of trying to do more and more and more of the right stuff for them,” Justice said Wednesday afternoon during his weekly virtual administration briefing from the Capitol. “This month is meant to strengthen and hopefully uplift our children, as well as the professionals that work all the time to make all of this happen.”

“At DHHR, the Bureau for Social Services is committed to ensuring that all West Virginia children in out-of-home care and families receive adequate support and appropriate support services that best meet their needs,” said Dr. Jeffrey Coben, interim cabinet secretary for DHHR. “To do this, we really rely on the entire community – our families, volunteers, other members of the community who help children and youth in foster care find permanent homes and connections.”

According to the DHHR Child Welfare Dashboard, there are 6,262 West Virginia children in foster care as of April 16 – a nearly 47% increase from 4,274 children in foster care 10 years ago in April. According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count report, nearly 20 out of every 1,000 children under the age of 18 were in foster care in West Virginia in 2021, giving the state the highest rank for the number of children in foster care.

The West Virginia Legislature passed two bills dealing with foster care and adoption. House Bill 3061 increases the independence and authority of the Foster Care Ombudsman tasked with investigating complaints within the foster care system; House Bill 2002, which increases the tax break for adoptions.

However, no bills dealing with foster care were introduced by the Governor’s Office. And other bills, including a bill to create a child welfare information system to provide better communication and access to resources for foster families, never made it out of the session.

Justice said that just because there were few bills dealing with foster care this year doesn’t mean that his office or DHHR were not working to improve the system, including the Child Protective System which has seen substantial vacancy numbers. Current CPS worker positions are 72% full as of April 14, while Youth Services worker positions were 69% full.

“I think we’re making real headway on this front,” Justice said. “DHHR and the people at DHHR were already doing a lot of really, really good work, but we can improve it. The Legislature was on its path to doing something, and what we did was just work together with the Legislature.”

In April, DHHR announced initiatives to deal with its CPS vacancy issues. The department increased funding for Adult Services, Youth Services, CPS salaries by 20%, modified retention bonuses to 10% of base salaries for second and fourth year employees and 5% for sixth and eight years employees, created a special hiring rate of $50,000 for CPS positions in the Eastern Panhandle, and allowed retired DHHR employees to return to work and still draw retirement, as well as other initiatives.

Coben said DHHR has hired 40 CPS workers throughout the state since January, as well as signed up 50 students from state colleges and universities for a new internship program at DHHR beginning this summer. The department also announced additional funding for child care providers based on enrollment through August 2024.

“Our goal from the beginning has been to really strengthen our Child Protective Service agencies, our foster care system, and really our most vulnerable citizens across the state,” Coben said. “I think that we really had some strong positive momentum and we continue to build on that momentum.”

But in February, the switch by DHHR over to its new multi-million-dollar P.A.T.H. system caused delays in payments to foster care, adoption, legal guardianship, and adult services providers, causing hardships for those providing those services. The department created an application for reimbursement in March for families and service providers.

DHHR also is implementing a split of the department. House Bill 2006 will terminate DHHR and split it into a Department of Human Services, a Department of Health and a Department of Health Facilities effective Jan. 1, 2024. Coben and DHHR are still working on a document laying out a plan for implementing the split.

Coben encouraged those interested in becoming foster families to reach out to Mission West Virginia at missionwv.org.

Steven Allen Adams can be reached at sadams@newsandsentinel.com.