Gov. Morrisey introduces new foster care transparency and reform initiatives
bluefield – More transparency about child neglect and death cases in what's been called a broken foster care system were among the remedial steps that West Virginia's governor announced Wednesday.
Standing behind a lectern bearing the sign Transparency In Foster Care, Gov. Patrick Morrisey spoke in Charleston about changes coming to the state's child welfare system. Hearing from residents who have dealt with the system helped to create the reforms.
'Last week, I had a chance to attend a listening session held by the Department of Human Services in Martinsburg about the child welfare system in West Virginia,' Morrisey said. 'In the overall listening tour we had eight meetings across the state which was organized by our terrific Human Services Secretary Alex Mayer, who unfortunately can't be here today because he's doing great things for the state.'
The state Department of Human Services has been working to identify ways to improve the child welfare system, according to the governor.
'We launched this listening tour because we know the most valuable input we can have is from folks on the ground. Parents, guardians, grandparents, judges, lawyers, social workers and more gathered at these eight stops around the state to provide feedback based upon their lived and shared experiences,' Morrisey said.
People attending these public sessions described a system with many problems.
'When I attended the session in Martinsburg, I heard some of the attendees talk about a broken system, that they were disjointed, siloed, frustrated, a lot of words that we don't want to stand for any program in the state let alone something that affects so many of our kids,' Morrisey said. 'Frankly, it's tough to sit and listen to all those negative experiences about what many of the folks went through. I know that I shared some of that when I worked down the hall as the attorney general. We didn't have some of the tools that we needed to ultimately bring the kind of change to the system that's required. That's changing now.'
Hearing about many child welfare issues that could have been avoided with better communications was difficult, he said. Eliminating bureaucratic red tape and giving Child Protective Service workers the right tools would have helped, too.
'I think you know all of these issues have been going on for a very, very long time and. unfortunately, it's the kids who suffer and we can't tolerate that,' Morrisey said. 'West Virginia cannot, I repeat, West Virginia cannot keep kicking the can down the road as was done in the past. That's not the model of this administration. In my administration, we're making urgently needed changes to take the first steps to address issues within the child welfare system.'
Morrisey said when he first took office, he received a letter from a local news outlet about one of their Freedom of Information Act requests that 'essentially had been stonewalled and ignored by the previous administration.'
'The information had to do with the fatalities and near-fatalities of children in West Virginia's child welfare system,' the governor said. 'There was no excuse, I repeat, there was no excuse to keep this information shielded from the public. No excuse. We're going to be different. We're going to be up front with the people of West Virginia and we're going to be as transparent as the law possibly allows. So today, we're releasing the response to that FOIA and all that the law allows.'
The child welfare reforms announced Wednesday included:
• Fully complying with the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) and federal guidelines requiring public disclosure of key information in child abuse or neglect cases resulting in fatalities or near fatalities.
• Overhauling the Child Welfare Dashboard to make it simpler to use and easier to interpret the data.
• Requiring supervisors to conduct monthly reviews with their child welfare cases and work with our state office team to identify opportunities for improvement and launching a department-wide 'Leadership Education and Development' (LEAD) initiative to better prepare our supervisors.
• Creating a Critical Incident Review Team to conduct a deeper dive into every critical incident.
• Introducing a Comprehensive Practice Model to provide a foundational framework that can be standardized across the state.
• Allowing caseworkers to gather more comprehensive information on cases rather than relying solely on the referral.
'For far too long, we've asked families and frontline professionals to navigate a system that has not kept pace with the complexities our families and children face today. That must change,' Secretary Mayer said later. 'We are listening—intentionally—and using that feedback to shape a more responsive, accountable and transparent system built on trust. '
Contact Greg Jordan at
gjordan@bdtonline.com
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