West Virginia governor implements policy changes in embattled foster care system

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey vowed Wednesday that his administration will improve transparency and policies within the state’s embattled foster care system.

Morrisey, a Republican, announced the changes after eight listening sessions statewide to identify areas of improvement and a review of critical cases. Morrisey said he heard attendees at one such session in Martinsburg discuss “a broken system.”

“It was difficult to hear many of the issues could have been avoided had the state communicated differently, had the state eliminated some red tape or had the right tools to better equip” Child Protective Services workers, Morrisey said at a news conference at the state Capitol. “You all know that these issues have been going on for a very, very long time. And unfortunately it’s the kids that suffer. And we can’t tolerate that.

“West Virginia cannot keep kicking the can down the road as was done in the past. That’s not the model of this administration.”

Largely overwhelmed by the opioid epidemic in a state with the most overdose deaths per capita, West Virginia has the highest rate of children in foster care — currently more than 6,000 in a state of about 1.8 million.

Morrisey, who took office in January after serving three terms as the state’s attorney general, put some of the blame on the administration of his predecessor, two-term Republican Gov. Jim Justice, for often withholding foster care information from the public, including stonewalling Freedom of Information Act requests.

After an internal review of six fatalities or near fatalities between 2021 and 2024, Morrisey said the Department of Human Services will implement a new policy mandating that certain information, including the results of investigations, be disclosed in serious child welfare cases.

“You’re not going to have to chase people down the hall” in obtaining case information, Morrisey said.

Among the changes, Morrisey said child welfare supervisors will now be required to conduct monthly reviews of their cases, and a new intake process will be implemented for the foster care system, allowing caseworkers to contact individuals involved rather than simply relying on a case referral. He also said improvements have been made to a child welfare dashboard to allow for easier access to data.

“What I can promise you today is we want to be honest, we want to be transparent and we will be accountable for what happens,” Morrisey said.

West Virginia has been dogged by serious child welfare issues for decades.

In 2014, a Lawsuits against the former Miracle Meadows school’s co-founder and its operating entities that alleged widespread sexual, physical and mental abuse were settled for tens of millions of dollars.

The discovery of the emaciated body of a 14-year-old girl in her home in 2023 prompted a state investigation into whether law enforcement and child protective services could have intervened to prevent her death. The girl’s mother and two grandparents were indicted on murder charges last September.

In March a couple received the maximum sentences of decades in prison for abusing their adopted children, which included heavy labor, locking them in bedrooms, forcing some to sleep on concrete floors and making them stand for hours with their hands on their heads.

And a judge in February ordered that a monitor be put in place to oversee state child protective services placements in hotels and camps on Friday after a 12-year-old boy in state care attempted suicide in a hotel room. The action came the same day that a federal judge dismissed a yearslong sweeping class action lawsuit against West Virginia’s welfare system on behalf of foster children.