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The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia is seeking $1.4 million from lawmakers in the upcoming Fiscal Year 2027 budget to help cover the costs of its Family Treatment Court program – and possibly to expand.
Family Treatment Courts are designed to support parents in overcoming substance use disorders while working to reunify with their children who’ve been removed from their custody. The West Virginia Legislature created the courts as a pilot program in 2019, and made them a permanent program under supervision of the state’s Supreme Court in 2021.
On Tuesday, representatives from the Supreme Court presented data showcasing the success of the program, as well as graduates, to lawmakers.
“The magic of the Family Treatment Court – and treatment courts in general – is, there’s a treatment team and a collaboration from various stakeholders to work together in a non-adversarial situation,” said Justice Thomas Ewing, who previously presided over the program in Fayette County.
“There’s weekly hearings before a judge and the treatment team and the judge work together to try to implement behavior modification techniques to help that parent overcome the complications from substance abuse,” said Ewing.
The goal, he added, was to help safely reunify children who’ve been removed from abusive or neglectful parents as quickly as possible.
Those whose parents complete the program spend about 11 months in foster care, less than half the national average, according to data the court presented.
Fifty-five percent of participants graduate from the program, for a total of 312 so far.
MaKayla Evans is one of them. She brought her 7-year-old daughter to the Capitol with her on Tuesday.
“She is just a few months away from the age I was when I started using… I started using at 8,” Evans said.
“I spent my whole childhood pretty much under the influence of some type of substance. By middle school, I was classified as a full-blown addict, and by the time I graduated, I had gone over the slope of what most people would consider hopeless.”
She completed the program in Nicholas County in 2022 and today is a full-time parent, a peer recovery coach and a volunteer in her community.
Evans said Family Treatment Court, “taught me not just how to navigate being a parent, but they taught me how to navigate being an adult.”
Family Treatment Court now serves 19 counties. Stephanie Bond, director of Probation Services, said the program works because participants are making real world changes.
“They’re not locked into a rehab where they don’t have access to drugs, or they are not surrounded by their friends or former friends, or any other negative influences,” Bond said. “They are learning to manage their triggers and navigate life in real time in their natural environment.”
The court requested $1 million from lawmakers last year, but the funds were not approved in the final budget.