Tens of millions of dollars in federal funds have been approved to help feed West Virginia students over the summer.
Tens of millions of dollars in federal funds have been approved to help feed West Virginia students over the summer.
The West Virginia Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program has received close to $100 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS).
The money will provide a payment of close to $400 per child to access healthy food and meals through the summer months. Those who receive free or reduced-price meals, along with younger children in households participating in SNAP and attending certain child care institutions, qualify for the payment.
In their announcement, the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) advised that students who have experienced a change in status should contact their school before July 31 to complete a free/reduced-price meal application.
At the end of 2021, the WVDE found that nearly 78 percent of students enrolled in public schools qualified as “needy.”
The funds were made available in part by the American Rescue Plan, and are up from a 2021 approval of more than $97 million.
The WVDE said households can expect to receive the one-time benefit in August. An exact date will be announced at a later time.
Visit wvpebt.org for general updates and information.
Two programs in West Virginia will receive close to $2 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Two programs in West Virginia will receive close to $2 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The money will go to support drug treatment and healthcare access.
About half the money, $1 million, will help combat the drug epidemic through Healthways in Weirton and its Rural Communities Opioid Response (RCORP) implementation.
RCORP is a multi-year initiative by the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of HHS. It aims to reduce the morbidity and mortality of substance use disorder in rural communities at the highest risk.
In a joint press release with Sen. Joe Manchin, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito highlighted the need for community resources to combat the state’s opioid epidemic.
“The opioid epidemic has touched each of us one way or another, but investing in community-based solutions can help pull individuals from the grip of addiction and set them on the path toward recovery,” Capito said.
Just under $1 million will go to the West Virginia Primary Care Association, the largest organized primary care network in the state. The funding will support local health systems through their Health Center Controlled Network.
“West Virginia’s health clinics and centers are the backbone of our healthcare system, and I am pleased HHS is investing in these two programs as they continue to provide essential healthcare services,” Manchin said.
West Virginia University (WVU) is launching a new training program focused on the community health impacts of air pollution.
West Virginia University (WVU) is launching a new training program focused on the community health impacts of air pollution.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded WVU $1.7 million for a toxicology training program which will bridge the disciplines of toxicology and systems-based medicine.
“One of my big concerns with modern science is that students don’t fully appreciate how our body systems work,” said Timothy Nurkiewicz, director of the WVU Inhalation Facility, in a press release.
He said students will study the various systems of the body and determine how inhalation of specific toxicants impacts their function and health.
According to the university’s press release, toxicologists who have that blend of expertise can be especially important to public health in Appalachia, where chronic conditions and exposure to airborne toxicants often overlap.
Over a five year period, 40 doctoral students will collect air samples in the local environment and analyze them in WVU’s Inhalation Facility to assess their toxicity.
At least three West Virginia colleges have set up emergency assistance programs to help students financially during the coronavirus pandemic.
West Virginia University, West Virginia State University and Concord University say they’re trying to help students who’ve taken financial hits to continue their education.
West Virginia State University students must have been in good standing with the school and can apply for funds on the college’s website. Eligible students could receive up to $500, according to WVSU.
WVU said it’s working to identify students who would need help from its fund, including the more than 4,000 students employed by the school, but not covered under federal aid programs. A spokesperson from the university said in an email to WVPB that details of the amount students could be eligible for is still being worked out.
Concord said it’s offering students up to $250 through its Gap Fund. Students who need assistance must complete an online application on Concord’s website. Dr. Sarah Beasley, vice president for student affairs at Concord said funds are limited, but they are trying to help as many students as possible.
A bill for foster care reform in the West Virginia Legislature was amended further Wednesday night, before it was sent to the full Senate for consideration.
The Senate Finance Committee voted 10-7 along party lines to pass an amended House Bill 4092, providing at least $4.9 million to the state Department of Health and Human Resources for foster care.
The money in the bill is meant to help the DHHR implement a tiered system of direct payments to certified foster parents and kinship caregivers. In that tiered system, higher payments would go to families caring for foster children with severe emotional, behavioral or intellectual needs, and older children who the DHHR says are harder to place than younger children.
Before it reached the Senate, House Bill 4092 didn’t address how payments should differ according to the needs and age of a child. Instead, it simply increased the minimum level of direct payments to foster families from $600 a month to $900 a month, per child. The legislation also provided child-placing agencies with a minimum $75 daily per child, to help the agencies provide more services to foster families.
The DHHR estimated the financial implications of the House version would have cost the state $16.9 million total. As both chambers of the Legislature finalize a budget for 2021, the House still includes that $16.9 line item in its budget request. The Senate does not.
Both chambers’ budgets include another $14.9 million improvement package the DHHR requested earlier this year for social services. According to DHHR Deputy Secretary Jeremiah Samples, the department could implement a tiered payment system, as described in the Senate Finance version of the bill, using this money.
“A tiered model does allow us to build greater capacity than a flat increase,” Samples told senators Wednesday evening.
The DHHR currently is piloting a tiered system in a few West Virginia counties, where child placement agencies and families are paid according to three tiers. The highest tier is reserved for children with the most medical or behavioral needs.
If the DHHR were able to implement the tiered program statewide, Samples said, more families might house older children and kids with greater needs, who the state otherwise sends to expensive out-of-state institutions and group homes. Samples said of the roughly 7,000 children in foster care now, just under 500 have had to leave West Virginia.
“One of the biggest money-losers is … having to send our children out of state, pay[ing] a high price tag,” Sen. Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, said in committee Wednesday. He suggested that the state would be able to use the money saved to implement the pay raises the House of Delegates called for with the monthly payment increases.
“We can do the same thing with less money,” Takubo said.
Democrats who ultimately voted against passing the Senate Finance version of the bill Wednesday said they wanted to reinstate the monthly payment increases, described in the original House bill.
Sen. William Ihlenfeld, D-Ohio, referred to testimony the committee heard earlier during its Wednesday meeting from Julia Kessler with the West Virginia Children’s Home Society.
“Our foster families do the hardest job in the system that we have,” Kessler said Wednesday night. “They take care of kids with the most difficult problems. We ask them to put their own personal lives aside … they really have the most stressful job of taking care of kids and learning how to deal with the behaviors and the trauma that they come into the home with.”
“We have trouble finding families who want to get involved in the foster care system,” Ihlenfeld said. “I don’t think the flexibility we’ve given to the DHHR in the past has worked. I think it’s time that we need to legislate a little bit. … I think sometimes we have to enforce our will upon agencies to make sure that problems get fixed.”
An amendment from Ihlenfeld to bring back the $900 monthly minimum to foster families failed along party lines.
The original House bill included 27 rights for children in the foster care system.
The Senate Finance bill downsized that to 21 rights, most notably excluding rights to receive confidential correspondence from biological parents and other family, to have social contacts outside the foster care system, to have storage space for private use, and to be free from unreasonable searches of personal belongings.
Senators agreed Wednesday to reinstate a right allowing foster children to maintain contact with former caregivers and other important adults, which had been removed from the House bill by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.
There were 26 rights for foster parents and kinship caregivers in the original House Bill. Now there are 16. Senators on the Judiciary Committee said Tuesday night that was to mitigate any “cause of actions” those rights created for foster parents to sue the state for damages.
Regarding other legislative efforts dealing with foster care issues, the Senate agreed unanimously to pass House Bill 4415 for runaway and missing foster care children on Wednesday. House Bill 4094, elaborating on the responsibilities of a foster care ombudsman created last year, is slated to pass the Senate on Thursday.
An alternative solution to West Virginia’s substance use epidemic and foster care crisis already is “off the ground and running,” according to the Boone County Circuit Court Judge William Thompson.
Thompson’s court was the first to pilot a family treatment court program in September, after the West Virginia Legislature passed a bill earlier in 2019, allowing this.
Family treatment courts connect families who are dealing with addiction and are involved in the child welfare system to treatment and other resources. The goal is to reunite separated children and create a safe home environment.
According to a presentation on Thursday from West Virginia’s Division of Probation Services, the program is a collaboration between Child Protective Services, local substance use treatment providers and the county circuit courts. It’s meant to last nine months with a 90-day aftercare program.
There are two other types of “problem-solving” courts active in West Virginia, those being adult and juvenile drug courts. Unlike drug court, adults who enter family treatment court are not involved in the criminal justice system. They’re facing civil child abuse and neglect petitions.
Family treatment courts also involve more constant interaction between participants and the judge than normal drug courts. The program involves weekly meetings, treatment, frequent drug testing, individual and group counseling, and supervised visits with children until reunification.
Credit Emily Allen / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Boone County Circuit Court Judge Will Thompson was involved in bringing the first family treatment courts to West Virginia.
Thompson said Thursday there are 16 adults in his family treatment court now, with 28 children involved. Since getting a head start in September, Thompson says only one participant has left so far.
“Of those 16 adults and 28 children, I’m pretty confident 12 to15 of those participants would already have disappeared, not participated, not done what they need to in order to reunify the family,” Thompson said.
Thompson was advocate for family treatment courts during the last session, when the Legislature considered House Bill 3057. That summer, Boone County’s court system received $597,192 from the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention for its family treatment court. According to a press release, that money is supposed to last three years and fund a few full-time positions.
The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals also received $339,599 from the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources’ Office of Drug Control Policy to set up family treatment court in a few other counties. Right now, the Supreme Court has approved programs in Ohio, Nicholas, Randolph and Roane counties, the latter of which Supreme Court Justices checked out last month.
West Virginia Director of Probation Services Stephanie Bond says 25 adults are actively participating in the program in all of the active courts.
As the program expands in Boone County, Thompson said he’s concerned that they won’t have the resources to take on everyone with a need.
“What are we going to do when we get to 25 or 30 [people]?” he asked. “We can only do so much. And we don’t want to dilute. We don’t want to add 60 people to the Boone County Family Treatment Court program if we can’t provide the services.”
As the program grows all over the state, Thompson told lawmakers they should aspire to have one available in each county, but he warned it might be a lot for circuit judges to take on, considering their other dockets. Already, Thompson told the delegates he handles about 30 to 50 child abuse and neglect cases a week.
Following the presentation, lawmakers questioned whether the level of inpatient and outpatient facilities available have the capacity to handle treating more individuals.
Thompson said he’s able to use some of the connections he has formed with inpatient and outpatient treatment centers through other drug courts to support treatment needs in family treatment court. Other counties might not have those relationships.
He called on legislators to consider supporting the local community-based Southwestern Regional Day Report Center, one of several centers around the state that provide sentencing alternatives for adults that have committed a crime but qualify to avoid incarceration.
In Boone County and the surrounding area, the regional Day Report Center also serves as a licensed behavioral health center. This center and others depend partially on local money, allocated by county commissions.
“I’m sure I’m not the first person that’s told the Legislature that coal’s not going great like it used to, and the tax revenues for the counties are not going great,” Thompson said. “Any help the Legislature can give on that, those counties would surely appreciate it.”
Adult, Juvenile Drug Court Updates
According to information from the Division of Probation Services on Thursday, there were 182 adult drug court graduates in 2019. West Virginia courts received 642 referrals, 413 of which were admitted and 216 of which were denied. The division reported there were 909 people involved, total.
The same information states there were 265 juvenile drug court referrals in 2019. The program admitted 214 participants and denied 18. There reportedly were 94 graduates.
In her presentation to the Prevention and Treatment Committee, Bond said these numbers might be somewhat lower than accurate.
Demographic information from Bond related to West Virginia’s adult drug court program in 2019 shows 94.6% of participants were white.
“I realize that’s probably proportionate to what the state is,” Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, asked Bond. “But it’s not proportionate to what our jails and prisons are. So, is there any — have you looked into that?”
“We’ve tried to look into that for the last couple of years,” Bond said. “We haven’t really figured that out.”
