Delegates Open Session With Updates On Child Welfare

As has been the case for several years now, the state of West Virginia’s child welfare system was a topic of much discussion in the leadup to the legislature’s regular session. The House Committee on the Judiciary wasted no time on the second day of session, hearing from two state officials first thing Thursday.

Cindy Largent-Hill, director of the Division of Children’s Services for the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, reported that the state needs more guardian ad litems. Guardian ad litems are attorneys appointed by a judge to represent the interests of children or other people who cannot protect their own rights. 

“Last year I shared with you that we had close to 200 attorneys who were doing that work,” Largent-Hill said. “We go into 2026 with 187 attorneys that have completed the paperwork to be on our list or on our register to do that work.”

As it stands, Largent-Hill said that many guardian ad litems cover multiple counties and are often in court every single day with little time to do other necessary work. She said judges are also at capacity, with dockets full of juvenile cases. The courts are recruiting, Largent-Hill said, meeting regularly with students at West Virginia University’s College of Law.

“It’s difficult, it’s challenging. It, on the surface, is not lucrative, but it definitely can be rewarding,” she said. “We’re encouraging those students and kind of giving them a taste of that kind of work.”

Fostering In Hotels

Largent-Hill was appointed by Kanawha County Circuit Court Judge Maryclaire Akers to monitor the Department of Human Services’ practice of housing children in foster care in hotels and other unlicensed facilities. Her appointment was prompted after the attempted suicide of a 12-year-old child in a Charleston-area hotel last February.

Thursday she told lawmakers monitoring had led to changes in the administration of medications, the use of restraints on children and increased training for Department of Human Services staff responsible for the children in these settings.

“They needed some more training, because the children in those hotels were not the easiest to always manage, and most of our kids, sadly, in the system, are on medication,” Largent-Hill said. “So medication administration training was provided to those workers, as well as how to deal with an escalated youth and some other trainings that were provided.”

West Virginia Watch reported Thursday that a child was injured in an Airbnb short-term rental property after the state placed the minor there.

According to Largent-Hill, the state averages between 15 to 25 children being housed in hotels on a given day, a fact she admitted was surprising for West Virginia’s size.

“Unfortunately, over recent years, the number of beds in West Virginia has decreased.” she said. “Prior to 2025 we decreased the number of beds available by about 149. In February of 2020 we had 810 beds. In February of 2025 we had 661 beds.”

Largent-Hill said part of the issue is that West Virginia lost its psychiatric residential treatment facility (PRTF) beds, and very few children qualify for the limited number of acute care beds available in the state. For children that need specialized care out of the home, that leads to situations like housing in hotels while waiting for a bed out of state.

“Using hotels is a symptom of an issue within the entire child welfare system,” Largent-Hill said. “We are using more out of state beds, or we have more use going out of state. I should say we have, I think, about 400 kids out of state. That’s higher than it’s been in quite a while. But again, I just said we have no PRTF beds. So when you need a psychiatric bed and you have a child who is wanting to hurt him or herself and you want to keep them safe, you’ve got to look for that type of bed.”

Gov. Patrick Morrisey has proposed a multimillion dollar investment in facilities to reestablish child psychiatric care in-state and end the practice of housing children out of state.

Largent-Hill concluded her presentation by urging lawmakers to work together to overhaul the state’s child welfare system and “make it work for West Virginia’s children.”

Listening Tour

Alex J. Mayer, cabinet secretary of the Department of Human Services, presented the results of a statewide listening tour conducted last year. He said the eight sessions were revelatory, identifying a high rate of inconsistency across the state and the need for a comprehensive safety model.

“States govern their child welfare systems and the practice by which they assess families and remove children and move through the process by a practice model,” Mayer said. “In West Virginia, we’ve never had a practice model, and as you might imagine, not having a practice model fundamentally makes it challenging to have consistent practices, to have consistent policies, to have consistent training.”

Mayer said community engagement will be crucial to any long-term solution to the state’s child welfare situation. Several times he alluded to Morrisey’s plans to get churches and other faith based communities involved to support families and eventually take on a sizable role in the foster care system.

“We hear a lot from foster parents, kinship families, children, even bio parents, that there’s not a lot of support for them in those moments where they might be having challenges,” Mayer said. “Having a person to call, or having someone come and drop dinner off can go a long way in ensuring that a foster family remains involved, and is able to keep that child, they don’t feel like they’re on an island by themselves, which is something we heard a lot about.” 

He cited an example of a community that came together to construct a bridge for a family that was facing separation.

“The community is the one that drives by that bridge,” Mayer said. “I don’t drive by that bridge. My workers oftentimes aren’t driving by that bridge unless they’re called to the home. So, you know, having the community be a part of this solution, I think, is essential.”

Mayer also spoke candidly about the limitations of multidisciplinary teams (MTD) based on feedback he heard in the listening sessions. MTD’s bring together professionals involved in child welfare cases – from lawyers to healthcare professionals and educators – to coordinate or cooperate in the investigation of a case. 

He said some people lauded the system for its collaborative work, while others said their team had limited participation or never met at all. During her presentation, Largent-Hill said many guardian ad litems were too busy in court to attend such meetings.

“We do know that it does provide a lot of value, getting all those voices at the table and learning from one another about what’s happening in that case,” Mayer said. “We’re doing a lot of work in that area to create more standardization. But I was a bit surprised by the lack of consistency, because of all the good things I was hearing about all these MDTs.”

The House Judiciary committee will meet again Friday morning, when it will take up two bills directly related to some of the issues discussed in Thursday’s presentations.