Foster Care Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Funding Medicaid And Navigating The Nation’s Foster Care Crisis, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, health care services for nearly 30 percent of West Virginia’s population may be difficult to access if lawmakers don’t fully fund the Medicaid program in an expected special session. Emily Rice has more.

On this West Virginia Morning, health care services for nearly 30 percent of West Virginia’s population may be difficult to access if lawmakers don’t fully fund the Medicaid program in an expected special session. Emily Rice has more.

Also, in this show, America has a foster care crisis. More than 390,000 children are in foster care nationally. On the next episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay looks into the shortage of licensed foster homes. Last year, more than half of all states saw a drop in licensed foster homes, partly because new foster parents don’t stay in the system for long.

A wide range of agencies and nonprofit organizations offer help navigating what can be a complicated system. We listen to an excerpt from the new Us & Them episode called “Our Foster Care Crisis.” Listen to the rest of this episode Thursday, April 25 at 8 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting, an encore broadcast on Saturday, April 27 at 3 p.m. or you can listen on your own time here on wvpublic.org.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Chris Schulz produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Us & Them: Our Foster Care Crisis

Across the nation, more than 390,000 children rely on foster care. However, a shortage of licensed foster homes is creating a national crisis. While official foster care cases are carefully tracked, many informal examples of kinship care aren’t part of the data. For this Us & Them episode, we hear the experiences of those who’ve been part of the foster care system.

There’s a foster care crisis in America. Nationally, more than 390,000 children are in foster care. In West Virginia, that’s just over 6,000 children who need a safe place to call home. Last year, more than half of all states saw their number of licensed homes drop, some as high as 60 percent. That challenge comes because new foster parents don’t stay in the system for long.

On this episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay hears about the shortage of licensed foster homes. Foster care is most often needed because of parental substance use, mental health challenges, poverty and neglect.

While official foster care cases are tracked and overseen by state agencies and nonprofit organizations, there are many informal kinds of so-called kinship care that are not official or included in state data. Some experts say the number of those kinship cases drives the stakes of the challenge much higher.

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council, CRC Foundation and Daywood Foundation. Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.

Dominic Snuffer was 5 when he and his four younger siblings went into the first of their foster care homes.

“I was in several foster care situations… I think three or four. It always seemed short and seemed as if we were getting bounced around. The hard part was probably just the beginning, how much I just always try to keep my siblings in check. I felt as if, if they behaved in a way, just like the other situations we might get taken away. It feels like yesterday that I got adopted. It went by fast. The things that make me smile was definitely adoption day. ‘Cause I knew, I finally found a family and I could try and live out the rest of my childhood.”

— Dominic Snuffer

*Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Larry Cooper is executive vice president of Innovation at The Children’s Home Network (CHN) of Tampa Bay, Florida. The agency works with kids in the foster care system and also provides services to prevent and support families from ever entering into the foster care system. Cooper has worked at CHN for more than 20 years, and he’s spent 8 years licensing foster homes while recruiting and training new foster parents. Cooper says some of the challenges bringing in new foster parents comes from an approval process that’s strict for a reason – but can take more than 12 months. A lot of people drop out along the way.

“You might fall off because of just life experiences that you may be going through. You might have a change in jobs. You might have an illness in your family. You might have a death in the family. And so I used to see for every 100 parents that I recruited, I might get only four to six families actually get a kid into their home for every hundred that would call me and be interested in becoming a foster parent.”

— Larry Cooper

*Photo Credit: The Children’s Home Network*

Marc and Brandi Wilson live in St. Clairsville, Ohio — just across the river from Wheeling, West Virginia. Brandi was a Child Protective Services worker in West Virginia for 20 years. One day back in 2014, her work at the Department of Health and Human Resources and her personal life collided when they became foster parents to a baby related to Marc.

“They both took the stand and said that they give up the rights to their child, I just started breaking down. [Brandi] was sitting beside me like this and she looked over at me. She said, ‘What’s wrong?’ I said, ‘I can never imagine saying that about my own child.’ She was kind of numb to it because she’s worked in the field. It was hard to hear somebody say that.” — Marc Wilson

“It wasn’t until he was sitting next to me in the courtroom that I realized not everybody hears relinquishment. Not everybody hears abuse, neglect. Not everybody hears that – as CPS workers [this is] just everyday language. So once I was with him and realized, OK, this isn’t everybody’s life. They may have drug issues, domestic violence, gangs coming in and out of their home, but these words are not everyday life for a lot of people.” — Brandi Wilson

*Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Rachel Kinder supervises The Kinship Navigator Program with Mission West Virginia, a nonprofit that’s been around since 1997. Kinder has been working with the foster care system for more than two decades, and has seen lots of trends. In 2019, there was a record high of 7,200 children in West Virginia’s foster care system. She says, while it’s one thing to count the legal cases overseen by the Department of Human Services, there are many informal kinds of kinship care that are not official or included in state data.

“I can tell you the number of kids in formal care, so if there are 6,078 kids in foster care in West Virginia, right now 58 percent of those are in kinship relative placements. For kids in informal care, where grandma or an aunt or some type of relative or even what we call fictive* kin has stepped in, it’s almost impossible to get numbers on that.”

— Rachel Kinder

*Fictive care refers to placements where a foster parent knows the child but is not related to them. This could be a teacher, family friend or a neighbor.

*Photo Credit: Mission West Virginia*

There’s a clear need for foster families across the nation and in West Virginia. Nikki and Louisa Snuffer knew they would consider becoming foster parents when it came time for them to start a family. There’s a lot going on at their Sissonville home. The couple currently has 12 children, ranging from ages 10 months to 20 years old. Plus, they breed French Bulldogs.

“It actually was a pretty easy decision, because we were both on the same page almost always with helping people. I’ve known since probably my early high school years that I did want to do foster care. However, we really wanted no more than maybe three. And the way life and things happen, we got five at one time. I have two brothers who were put in foster care that I never knew and I still don’t know. So we made a commitment that when we got into it, that we would never split up families.” — Louisa Snuffer

“If they call us for a sibling group, we’re not going to say no to them because that was our number one belief. Like, ‘We need to do whatever we can to keep siblings together.’ When we were initially approved, we were approved for four children. So, DHHR told us we could have four children in the house, given the space. And that was kind of our cap. I said, ‘Maybe we’ll do three tops,’ you know, that seems like a manageable number. And the very first call we got for placement was a sibling group of five. Of course we said yes. We had to do a few things to get approved for a fifth child. They moved in with us. Things went great.” — Nikki Snuffer

*Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Nikki Snuffer is holding her granddaughter. Many of the children the Snuffers have cared for, they know through Nikki’s job at Winfield High School. She’s an instructor for the Future Leaders Program, which is the National Guard’s high school curriculum that’s taught by veterans. In the program, students learn leadership and life skills, science, career prep and other subjects.

“[For] my kids that have gone to Winfield, I make them go through the [Future Leaders] program. Not because I’m teaching it, but because even if it wasn’t me, I’d want them to get these skills. It’s the kind of things that are forgotten these days.”

— Nikki Snuffer

*Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

New Information System Aims To Ease Fostering In W.Va.

During the recent regular session, legislators passed a bill aimed at improving foster care communication and accountability.

House Bill 4975 incorporates foster and kinship parent information systems into the existing Child Welfare Information Technology System.

The bill was the product of two foster parents serving in the West Virginia House of Delegates, Del. Adam Burkhammer, R-Lewis County, and Del. Jonathan Pinson, R-Mason County.

Pinson said they were both elected to the House of Delegates four years ago and have been working to pass this bill since then.

“We immediately found common ground in wanting to improve the current West Virginia foster care system, and the opportunity for folks to help as foster parents and if they choose to adopt out of our foster care crisis,” Pinson said.

Burkhammer said the complex foster care system, combined with Child Protective Services (CPS) investigations and court orders can be intimidating for potential foster parents.

“All of that can be a little overwhelming, and trying to cross-communicate between all of them can be a struggle,” Burkhammer said. “The communication is lacking, so as a parent, you just start to get a little frustrated and feeling in the dark.”

This new communication system will work as an electronic hub for all information on the child’s case.

Pinson said he believes the communication breakdown is no one’s fault, just a symptom of an overburdened system.

“Everybody involved in these children’s cases, are doing their very best and are working really hard,” Pinson said. “But communication among several stakeholders who are all busy, who are all maxed with their caseloads and workloads, just proves to be very, very difficult.”

Burkhammer said access to medical records, in particular, can be vital for a child’s health and well-being in the foster care system.

“When they come into our care, we’re not sure where they’ve been going to the doctor, what medications are they taking, and all of those things,” Burkhammer said. “We also wanted to bring in the health aspect of it, just to give parents the ability to be able to care for the children and make sure everybody’s healthy and safe at the end of the day.”

Pinson said West Virginia leads the nation in the number of children who are currently in state custody per capita. There are more than 6,000 children in West Virginia state care. He said he believes any family who is willing to foster or adopt should have access to information and a smooth transition.

“When a family is willing to open their home and allow these children into their home, we believe that they ought to receive excellent support around their decision to try to help,” Pinson said. “What we find is many times families are less frustrated because they have a child come into their home or children, multiple children come into their home, and they can’t get basic questions answered.”

Pinson said he wants all foster and adoptive parents to have access to the stakeholders and information of the child in their care immediately. The communication portal approved in the bill allows for a digital space for people involved in the child’s care to communicate quickly and effectively.

“They could post this question, they could post this concern or this emergency,” Pinson said. “And everyone involved with that child’s case would see it immediately and get an immediate notification. And then that way, the attorneys who need to know that information, they get it at the same time that the CPS worker gets it, at the same time that the child placing agency worker gets it.”

If you are going to take a foster child out of the state, for example on vacation, Pinson said the foster parent has to ask permission.

“Well, I know families who have had to cancel the family vacation because no one was able to respond to their vacation request in a timely fashion,” Pinson said. “Well, that’s just inappropriate, we can’t have that.”

The bill faced some pushback from lawmakers who were concerned for the children’s privacy and access to confidential records. Burkhammer said the second hurdle for the bill was an overwhelmed CPS staff.

“We were going to create a whole new system and require that the courts and require the placing agencies and require the CPS workers to log in and input information,” Burkhammer said. “And everybody said, ‘Hey, don’t give me one more thing that I’ve got to do. I’m already overwhelmed. We’re understaffed.’ That’s what we have created in this language in the bill that says to reduce redundancy. We’re talking about being able to pull information that they’re already inputting.”

Burkhammer said he wishes the legislature had been able to pass a pay raise for guardian ad litems, lawyers who represent children in court.

“Currently, we’ve only got about 159 guardian ad litems for over 6,000 kids right now, give or take in the foster care system, under the state’s control at this point,” Burkhammer said. “We’re severely overworking our guardian ad litem who are representing these children in the court cases. We’ve got to tackle that situation.”

Both delegates agree the key to fixing all the pervasive issues is communication.

“The problem is we’re just dealing with people, real people, real lives, real problems,” Pinson said. “I believe most anything in life can be solved if proper communication takes place. This bill points everybody involved to the importance of proper communication.”

Pinson said West Virginia’s system isn’t broken, it is just overwhelmed and this bill is an effort to ease that workload, not point any accusing fingers.

“It’s not that our CPS workers just simply don’t care,” Pinson said. “They do care. They care so much that they’re willing to try to make this their livelihood, their life. We have excellent CPS workers, we have excellent child placing agency workers through our foster agencies throughout West Virginia. But there’s just an overwhelming number of people who need the services. And everybody’s caseload is just maxed.”

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Marshall Health.

Foster Care Communication And An Iftar In Morgantown On This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, Tuesday marked the end of the holy month of Ramadan in the Islamic faith. Like millions across the world, Muslims in West Virginia fasted from sunup to sundown each day of the month. Their fast is traditionally broken with a meal called iftar. Chris Schulz takes us to an iftar in Morgantown.

On this West Virginia Morning, Tuesday marked the end of the holy month of Ramadan in the Islamic faith. Like millions across the world, Muslims in West Virginia fasted from sunup to sundown each day of the month. Their fast is traditionally broken with a meal called iftar. Chris Schulz takes us to an iftar in Morgantown.

Also, in this show, during the recent regular state legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill aimed at improving foster care communication and accountability. Emily Rice has more.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Chris Schulz produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Understanding The Basics Of Being A Foster Parent

From grandfamilies to kin networks and everything in between, families come in all shapes and sizes in West Virginia, and there is a growing need for foster parents.

From grandfamilies to kin networks and everything in between, families come in all shapes and sizes in West Virginia, and there is a growing need for one particular type.

In the latest installment of our series “Now What? A Series On Parenting,” Chris Schulz speaks with Terri Lynn Durnal, recruitment coordinator for Illinois, Indiana and West Virginia for the National Youth Advocate Program, about the unique experience of fostering children, and the need for foster parents in the state.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Schulz: What does it mean to foster? What does it mean to be a foster parent?

Durnal: We take what it means to be a foster parent very seriously in West Virginia. Really, what it means is to open your heart, your home, your arms to a kid in need, a kid who needs a temporary placement while their parents aren’t available. We’re always hoping to find more homes, find more parents who are willing to take these kids in. I often hear this statistic, “It takes just one person to change a life.” I think that’s the heart of what we do here. We need that one person or that one family to change the direction or course of a child’s life.

Schulz: What kind of person should consider fostering?

Durnal: I think anybody that has a heart to help children heal, that’s who should foster. Of course we’re going to take those safety measures to make sure we’re finding the right people to help foster, but we’re not looking for the perfect family and the biggest house. None of those silly things seem to matter. It’s that heart that you have to help children heal, watch them grow and want to make a change in their life. That’s what’s important and that’s what we look for when we have foster parents.

Some of our foster families have been foster children themselves. A lot of our staff members are foster parents as well. So when I say that we work as a family, it’s because we understand what it is to be a foster kid. And we understand the challenges that come with being a foster parent. That’s really what we’re looking for when we’re looking for people to foster.

Schulz: What all goes into preparing to bring a child or children into your home?

Durnal: We train our families with the state Department of Human Services who trains our families through a training program called Pride, I believe. Then we do the home study portion of that. We kind of all work together at the same time to get this movin’ and groovin,’ so we can get our homes licensed quickly.

They’re doing that pre-service training and learning all the things that they need to learn to become a successful foster parent with us and then we’re in the background, we’re writing their home study, we’re coming out doing the home visits, and things like that to get their license secured with the state. There’s no cost to being a foster parent, so there’s no worries about that. We cover all the costs that you would need for those classes and your CPR and things like that.

Schulz: Can you tell me a little bit about the need for more foster parents and guardians?

Durnal: We currently have over 6,000 children in foster care in West Virginia, and right now we have 1,682 children who are in therapeutic foster homes in West Virginia. That means these other children are in all sorts of different placements. Some of them are good, solid placements for them. They’re with kinship placements, that means they can be with grandparents or other family members.

Then some of them are in emergency shelters or residential group homes. And really, that’s the kids we want to target. We want to be able to find those kids home. These kids should be in family type settings. I’m looking at the numbers here, and it looks like we have almost 500 children that are in residential group cares. Finding them foster home placements is their best chance for success. Every child deserves that family-like setting and that’s our goal.

These kids are only in residential care because we don’t have enough homes for them. These are some older kids, they’re sibling groups, and they’re our harder-to-place kids. So that’s what, when we’re out in the community, and we’re looking for foster parents, and we’re speaking at churches and we’re speaking at events, those are the homes that we’re looking for the families that can take in these hard-to-place children.

Schulz: How do you all help families prepare for that change? Especially if they’re coming in with the expectation of having a very young child?

Durnal: I think there’s a lot of myths about foster care. I think people just in general will think they want a baby, or babies are going to be easier because they’re not mouthy teenagers. But I’ll tell you, I have two little kids of my own. And I took in an 18-year-old teenager, and by far my 18 year old is 10 times easier. I mean, she can take a bath by herself. There’s no doubt, there’s no diapers. It’s so fun having a teenager in your home and I have to say we have some good teens that come into care. I got to watch my teenager, prepare and get her license. I got to help her, find college classes, help find her first job, get her first apartment, get her first car on her own, and see her make these changes in her life that have led her to be a successful adult. And it’s so rewarding. It’s so rewarding.

There’s another myth I think people have about birth order. A lot of people who are thinking about foster care probably have some younger kiddos and they think, “I just want to keep my family’s birth order,” and “My oldest kid should stay my oldest kid.” I have to say, my 18 year old came into our lives and my little ones, they look at her very much as their, that’s their sister, that’s their older sister. They have built the best bond over the last few years that anybody could ever ask for. So I would just tell people, it’s not scary, it doesn’t have to be scary.

This is probably the most important thing to remember, these children and these teenagers are not into care because of something they’ve done. They didn’t get in trouble and get put in foster care. That’s not what happened. They’re in foster care because of something that’s happened in their home life, their family life. These kids want to be loved. They want to be normal teenage kids, they want to do sports at school. We as a society, I think we should feel obligated to give them that, to give them that normal childhood.

The Growing Need For Foster Families On This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, in the latest installment of our occasional series “Now What? A Series On Parenting,” Chris Schulz speaks with Terri Lynn Durnal of the National Youth Advocate Program about the unique experience of fostering children – and the need for foster parents in the state.

On this West Virginia Morning, from grandfamilies to kin networks and everything in between, families come in all shapes and sizes in West Virginia, and there is a growing need for one particular type.

In the latest installment of our occasional series “Now What? A Series On Parenting,” Chris Schulz speaks with Terri Lynn Durnal of the National Youth Advocate Program about the unique experience of fostering children – and the need for foster parents in the state.

Also, in this show, in the final hours of the 2024 regular state legislative session, lawmakers passed a budget that cut funding for IDD waivers. Emily Rice has more.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University.

Chris Schulz produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning