A class action lawsuit against the West Virginia foster care system will move forward without delay, a judge ruled this week.
The case, originally filed by a dozen minors in foster care in 2019, alleges “over-reliance” on shelter care, shortages in case workers and a “failure to appropriately plan for the children” in the state’s custody. It claims “children in West Virginia’s foster care system have been abused and neglected, put in inadequate and dangerous placements, institutionalized and segregated from the outside world, left without necessary services, and forced to unnecessarily languish in foster care for years.”
In a 2025 ruling, U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin dismissed the case, acknowledging a plethora of problems but stating that he did not have the jurisdiction to address or correct those problems. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals returned the case to Goodwin last month, ruling he had not only the jurisdiction but the obligation to address the situation.
The state then filed a motion to stay the case because they intend to file a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, asserting, among other items, that a delay would not substantially injure the Plaintiffs.
“I disagree,” Goodwin wrote in his ruling. “This case began seven years ago and has been mired with delay. And while Defendants are certainly entitled to seek further review of important constitutional questions, they cannot continue to stall this litigation.”
“We are talking about a system in which children have case workers with caseloads that are very, very high. There aren’t enough places for the children to live in. The children are sent out of state in very very large numbers,” Marcia Lowry, executive director of the nonprofit A Better Childhood, said. “The state is not doing its job.”
Lowry said the state’s position, “that kids can just wait another year before this all plays out” was “cynical.”
“These problems have existed for a long time. Every six months or so, another dead child winds up in foster care and dies. Other children are not getting the services that they need. Children are put in places that are really not suitable even for children,” Lowry said. “The legislature knows what’s going on. The executive branch, that is the people in charge of running these governmental agencies, know what’s going on, and they’re not doing anything to fix it.”
The Department of Human Services and the office of Gov. Patrick Morrisey did not respond to a request for comment.
Goodwin set a trial date of March 16, 2027.
