During the recent regular session, legislators passed a bill aimed at improving foster care communication and accountability.
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.
According to the DHHR’s Child Welfare Dashboard, more than 430 children who are in the state’s foster care system are currently in out-of-state care, although living arrangements may change over the course of the time a child is in the system.
By: Katelyn Aluise
WVPB reporter Emily Rice spoke with WVU graduate Katelyn Aluise to discuss this story she reported for her WVU Reed College of Media capstone project.
Experts Express Need For Foster Families, Resources Amid DHHR Lawsuit
Her work consists of caring for children, teaching them new skills, observing them through group therapy and accommodating their unique needs.
“The hardest (part) is that we have had some troubled kids here that want to fight and have to be restrained,” Furrow said. “And it’s hard to watch a kid go through that. We have one kid here who’s nonverbal, and the most rewarding thing is getting him to say everyone’s names here.”
According to the specialists at the EYES Shelter, the children that come to them may have physical or behavioral disorders that would prevent them from readily going into shelters or group homes with able-bodied or neuro-typical children. Furrow said the care they would receive is less catered toward their needs.
“There is always a need for a child with autism or a child that is nonverbal, that they can’t just go anywhere else because everybody can’t offer them the resources that they need, like we can be able to make available for them,” she said.
The Exceptional Youth Emergency Shelter (EYES) is located inside of a house in Beckley, West Virginia. It is currently home to six disabled youths ages 13 and under who share almost everything from food, toys and even bedrooms in the short amount of time they are at the facility.
Katelyn Aluise/ WVU
Exceptional Foster Children Need Specialized Care, Which Is Limited In W.Va.
In West Virginia, there are more than 6,200 children in foster care, according to the state’s Child Welfare Dashboard
According to Whitney Wetzel, a spokesperson from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) the agency does not keep track of how many of these children have profound physical, behavioral or developmental disabilities. An estimated 17 to 20, or less than 1 percent of these children, have been placed in Medley homes, which are homes where caregivers are specifically trained to foster disabled youth.
Out of the eight emergency shelters available to foster children in the state, only one of them, the EYES, was designed to house and care for their exceptional needs.
The EYES, which is regularly over-capacity, has five beds.
Karlee Furrow is a behavioral support specialist at the Southern West Virginia Exceptional Youth Emergency Shelter where she takes care of the children in the home throughout the day. Furrow believes more resources like the EYES are necessary for the state, as the shelter is not large enough to accommodate the particular needs of all the disabled foster youth.
There are only three bedrooms total at the EYES, meaning that some children will have to share space. In the boys’ bedroom, there are three beds angled to fit inside the small bedroom.
Katelyn Aluise/WVU
Children with behavioral disorders who don’t make it into the shelter may go to a training facility, like the Potomac Center, where they can temporarily receive care that would allow them to more readily adapt to a neuro-typical foster or group home. The Potomac Center does not, however, specialize in caring for kids with physical or developmental disabilities.
The Potomac Center also offers the Birch Lane Group Home which is geared towards temporarily caring for teenagers, providing them with individualized success plans that prepare them for their future as adults.
While the turnover for children at the EYES is usually a couple of months, with the longest stay lasting for just two years, children in the Intensive Training program at the Potomac Center may be there anywhere between six to 12 months at any of their three facilities with a total of 24 beds.
Otherwise, children who don’t achieve permanency or find an accommodating foster home may be sent to out-of-state group homes, according to Mary Gibbs, program manager for Specialized Family Care, which trains Medley homes to care for children with profound disabilities.
EYES Supervisor La’AmyA Manley said these children may also need additional care before being considered for placement with a foster family because of trauma or behaviors that make it difficult for them to be in the home.
“Extreme physical and verbal aggression, in some cases, would make them not suitable for foster care … with other children,” she said. “And sometimes, we get kids that are on the spectrum that they just need the life skills before they can go into a foster home.”
Katy Yost, a case manager for the EYES, provides group and individual therapy for the children at the shelter. This may involve teaching coping mechanisms that deal with trauma, which she thinks could be important for all foster children. They also teach life skills like ways for a child who is non-verbal to communicate their needs.
Katy Yost is a case manager at the EYES, where she assists with finding placement for the children, as well as caring for them throughout the day and providing both individual and group therapy sessions. She performs many exercises with the children to help them learn to communicate and progress while at the shelter.
A poster displayed next to the kitchen in the EYES includes several pictures, symbols and basic words. The caretakers use these images to train children who are nonverbal to communicate their needs at the home.
Katelyn Aluise/WVU
Gibbs said in an email that typical foster care homes are not equipped to deal with the behavioral or medical issues these children may have, making out-of-state placement a likely alternative if there are no Medley homes available.
This may be because the Medley program that train foster families in their area closes without a social worker present or because Medley funds from that program are no longer available to cover medical expenses, among other reasons.
According to Gibbs, only about three children per year are adopted, or placed permanently, by a Medley home.
At the end of the day, she said it is simply more difficult to find homes for children with additional needs.
Out-Of-State Facilities Are Allegedly Unsafe For W.Va. Foster Children
One of the out-of-state facilities in which foster children have been placed, George Junior Republic (GJR), was the focus of a 10-page report that documented evidence of “practices that jeopardize the health, safety and well being of youth at the facility” over the course of six days in January and February of 2015.
The report involves claims that children were seen on camera being restrained, locked in their rooms, denied privacy and forced to sit in “time out” for hours on end among other grievances.
In a letter sent from the DHHR to GJR, the state determined that group therapy for these children was insufficient or completely non-existent in some cases. Several instances of special needs requests, including ADHD testing and shoe inserts for uneven leg growth were not met.
In September 2015, the DHHR sent a letter to GJR notifying them that they would be permanently terminating placements at the facility and developing alternative placements, as the state found that their practices were not suitable for rehabilitating and caring for children who have suffered trauma.
This is not the only time West Virginia has had to suspend or terminate placements at an out-of-state facility accused of abusing and/or neglecting foster children. Reporting by Mountain State Spotlighthighlights several facilities that have been the subjects of these reports, including some with assault allegations.
In 2019, a lawsuit was filed against the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Services alleging that it had violated the rights of every child admitted into state care, including that they had limited resources and failed to create permanency plans, leading children to have to stay in these “unsafe” out-of-state group homes.
The court found that there was enough evidence from the plaintiffs to support that the “DHHR maintains an inadequate array of placements to meet the needs of these foster care children,” and that the lack of placements and stability led to “an unreasonable risk of harm.” The court also found that there was sufficient evidence of “high caseloads and chronic understaffing.”
This lawsuit was granted class-action status in August, allowing it to proceed in court.
Steve Tuck, former CEO of the Children’s Home Society of West Virginia, said that children who were sent out of state and or moved around often found it difficult to adjust to West Virginia culture and staying with a foster family or their biological family.This could create additional stress for the child.
Tuck said out-of-state facilities offer care for larger groups of children with less individualized and or specialized care, and the time spent out-of-state could delay permanency even further.
“And then nobody can really check on (the kids), and there’s not much contact with their own families back here in West Virginia,” Tuck said.
Exceptional Foster Children Have More Difficulty Being Placed
Carna Metheney-White, director of permanency services at the Children’s Home Society of West Virginia, estimates that fewer than about 10 percent of the families who apply to foster children within the organization are willing to take in children with disabilities.
“A lot of our families, both parents work outside the home, and sometimes it’s difficult for them to be able to take the youth to their therapy, all the therapy appointments, their medical appointments, or if they’re having challenges in school, to be able to pick up the child from school, Metheney-White said”
By at least three years of age, families of foster care children in West Virginia may apply for an Intellectually or Developmentally Disabled (IDD) waiver to assist with any associated financial needs.
However, Lesley Cotrell, Director of the Center for Excellence in Disabilities at West Virginia University, said that these are known to have long wait times.
Amanda Sharp, a stay-at-home mother of four and foster care provider with CHS, considers herself an advocate for both foster care and children with special needs.
Two of her children, Willie, 10, and her late son, Mason, had extensive medical histories and disabilities that required additional physical and financial help, as well as regular training on Sharp’s part.
Amanda Sharp is a stay-at-home mother of four children, all of whom she adopted. She often needs to provide 24-hour care for her son, Willie, who has profound disabilities, that requires additional training and state funding. Although she recognizes that the work is hard, she wants to serve as a positive example to those who are considering adopting children with disabilities.
Amanda Sharp’s adopted son, Willie, has profound disabilities. Willie’s father, Justin Sharp, built him a sensory box for his room, which has several attachments that allow him to both play and calm himself down.
Katelyn Aluise/WVU
Still, Sharp considers herself an outlier as someone who is both willing and able to care for foster children with additional needs.
Amanda Sharp provides around-the-clock care for her son, Willie, who has profound disabilities. In her house, she keeps a wheelchair, a stair lift and several other accommodations for her son around the house to make them easily accessible. Next to her couch, in the living room, sits a large basket with medical supplies for caring for her son after his several surgeries he has recently undertaken.
Katelyn Aluise/WVU
White said while EYES has been a “godsend” in providing CHS with additional time to collect information about a child’s needs and find them a home with families like Sharp’s, the shelter is only meant to be a temporary solution.
“The children are only supposed to be here for like 30 to 90 days, but the children are often times harder to place because of whatever reason,” ,” she said. “And there’s a limit on specialized foster care homes…A child may have too many medical needs, and where we don’t have a doctor present, we might not be able to accept them.”
Manley said the EYES is raising money to move to a 10-bed shelter. So far, they have met $1.4 million of their $3 million goal.
A bulletin board inside the EYES portrays a computer-generated photo of the plans for the new facility, which would double the shelter’s resources when finished.
Katelyn Aluise/WVU
According to the DHHR’s Child Welfare Dashboard, more than 430 children who are in the state’s foster care system are currently in out-of-state care, although living arrangements may change over the course of the time a child is in the system. This means a child may be moved from a shelter, into kinship care, sent out of state and or returned throughout the time they are in the system.
While the majority of children who are in the foster care system are not currently in an out-of-state facility, this does not necessarily mean they have never been placed in one.
An organization that helps foster children navigate the legal system in 10 West Virginia counties needs volunteers.
Western Regional Court Appointed Special Advocates or, CASA helps children in Boone, Cabell, Calhoun, Jackson, Kanawha, Lincoln, Mason, Putnam, Roane and Wayne counties find someone to serve as the child’s voice throughout court proceedings.
Program Director, Kim Runyon Wilds said no that special experience is required and the organization provides training.
“We do not have enough advocates for every child, unfortunately,” Wilds said. “That’s why we are trying to get the word out about this program. We have almost 900 children that are waiting for one of our volunteers to be assigned to them just in our 10 county service area.”
Volunteers must be at least 21 years old and be able to pass a background check, including a child protective services check.
“After they get all of the background check stuff done, they’ve completed every chapter of training, then we swear them in with an oath of confidentiality with a circuit court judge,” Wilds said. “So once all of that is done, they’re ready to actually be an advocate for children who have experienced trauma.”
Wilds said each case is different. Some children who are involved in court because of abuse and neglect are assigned a Child Protective Service (CPS) social worker, and a guardian ad litem who is the attorney for the child.
Wilds said while CPS workers and guardians ad litem have large caseloads, CASA volunteers have one or two cases on average. The organization serves about 450 children each year.
“They have the ability, and frankly, the time to be able to do regular home visits, check in with the family and review records,” Wilds said. “Get a complete story of the family’s history, what’s going on, why is the family in court, and then they can then develop a relationship with the child. See what the child wants to happen in the case and see what the child’s best interests are, which will be the opinion of the advocate.”
According to Wilds, children with CASA volunteers spend less time in foster care on average and they’re half as likely to re-enter the foster care system.
“Long term outcomes for children who have been appointed a CASA volunteer are good, (they are) less likely to enter right back into foster care, less likely to drop out of school,” Wilds said. “Having the CASA volunteer, or even a consistent, caring and protective adult in a child’s life is enough to change their story. They’re changing a child’s story by helping a child advocating for a child just being a protective adult in a child’s life.”
Wilds said CASA’s ultimate goal is the reunification of the family, if at all possible.
“We want to get to know them and the environment they’re currently in along with where they came from, but our primary goal is reunification,” Wilds said. “If it can be safely achieved, we want the kids back with their parents, if that can happen.”
Interested individuals can contact CASA via their Facebook page, by calling 304-523-9587, ext. 307, or by emailing Wilds directly at kwilds@TEAMWV.org.
The majority of West Virginia’s children in foster care are actually teenagers. Many of them are placed in group homes instead of foster care.
There are currently 6,298 children in West Virginia state care and 31.79 percent of those children are between the ages of 13 and 17 years old.That means slightly more than 2000 of them are teens.
The National Youth Advocate Program (NYAP) aims to change the lives of children, youth and families and the systems, structures and practices that affect them.
Terrilynn Durnal is a licensing specialist for the program and licenses foster homes for children ages zero through 18 for West Virginia, among other states.
“Currently, the West Virginia foster care system, I believe, has about 6,000 children in foster care,” Durnal said. “And currently, over 500 of those children are living in group homes and shelters. So our ultimate goal is to get those children out of group homes and shelters and get them into a foster home family-type setting.”
According to West Virginia’s Child Welfare Dashboard, there are currently 502 West Virginia children in state-group residential care and 275 in out-of-state group residential care.
Family reunification is a complex process and is considered by experts to be the best solution for children in care, as soon as the family has changed the dysfunctional patterns that prevent child safety and well-being.
At NYAP, biological family members are able to access resources that may lead to reunification. Services offered include assistance to enter rehabilitation from drug use and parenting courses.
“We want to offer them parenting classes, and offer them supervised visits, so that we can teach them really, how to care for their child, and how to appropriately discipline their child and how to show them, you know, love and affection that some people don’t know how to do that just naturally, or they weren’t shown that as a child,” Durnal said. “So they struggled to show that to their own children. So we want to fix whatever barriers have taken place that have allowed this family situation to get where it is.”
However, reunification is not always a viable option for families and according to Durnal, oftentimes older children will take on the role of parent to their younger sibling only to be separated in the process of finding placement.
“Those little kids may go into foster care, and you see that older child, because there’s no place for them to go, you know, head to a group home or your shelter, and we want to get them back together, we want to see them in a home together, we want to see them with their siblings, because that’s where children thrive,” Durnal said.
To learn more about becoming a foster parent visit NYAP.org or call 1-877-692-7226.
“You have to be able to provide a loving stable home environment,” Durnal said. “And we really are hoping to find people who are interested in taking sibling groups and homes for teenagers.”
Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.
West Virginia mining officials say that a 28-year-old equipment operator for a coal mining company has died.
The Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training says the incident occurred about 3 p.m. Tuesday on property owned by Blackhawk Mining in Boone County.
Officials say Zachary Grant Harris of Foster, West Virginia, died while accessing a manhole at a clarifying pond.
