New Human Services secretary inherited a broken WV foster care system. He promises improvements.

Yahoo

20-05-2025

Alex Mayer, speaking to the West Virginia Senate Judiciary on March 10, 2025, was appointed by Gov. Patrick Morrisey to serve as secretary of the West Virginia Department of Human Services. (Will Price | West Virginia Legislative Photography)
On a Thursday evening in Parkersburg, a group of local residents gathered to discuss West Virginia foster care — a system that is struggling from top to bottom with thousands of kids in care.
A moderator asked foster and biological parents, child welfare workers, judges and others to describe their experience with the system.
Their responses: 'Challenging.' 'Overwhelming.' 'Traumatizing.' 'Broken.'
'Nobody would listen. Nobody would talk to me,' said Lisa Easter, who had more than 50 foster children in her home in 25 years.
Julie Jones stopped fostering after Child Protective Services went months without checking on a newborn baby in her care. She was mailed a blank birth certificate and worried if the state was aware of the child's whereabouts. 'I couldn't do it any longer,' she said.
In the corner of the room, new Department of Human Services Secretary Alex Mayer listened as people described a frustrating system riddled with inconsistencies, staffing shortages, an overwhelmed judicial system, limited support and children who have been victims of it all.
Mayer, who came from South Dakota, believes it can be fixed. It's going to take time, he says, but work is underway. He is focused on accountability, transparency and putting in processes that aren't in place for consistency. He wants more in-state programs that can help kids with behavioral health struggles.
'It's going to be incremental over time,' Mayer said. 'I think it's going to be a long road until we have everything addressed confidently … You'll be seeing here shortly some really positive steps.'
A federal judge recently said West Virginia's foster care system has suffered from 'shocking neglect' and 'bureaucratic indifference.'
There's a shortage of social workers, support services and safe homes for children in a state that is fastest to remove children from homes and terminate parental rights. Too many children have ended up living in hotel rooms, and the state spent $70 million last year sending foster kids to out-of-state group homes.
'The thing that was shocking to me was the number of kids in care,' Mayer said.
There are more than 6,100 children in West Virginia foster care, and the number has skyrocketed during the state's drug crisis. The state's high poverty rate has contributed to the number, too.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey appointed 37–year-old Mayer to oversee DoHS.
Mayer will have to grapple with pervasive foster care problems as the Trump administration proposes cuts to programs that serve families in poverty and help vulnerable kids. The state could see a decline in federal funding, impacting programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that are intertwined with child welfare. DoHS also oversees Medicaid, SNAP and more.
'Child welfare is a very intricate, complex system, and there's a lot of different players, which … obviously increases the level of complexity,' Mayer said. 'I've been really intentional and just trying to get out to learn the system.'
Residents of Wood County attend a child welfare community listening session at the Wood County Resilience Center in Parkersburg, W.Va., on May 15, 2025. The meeting was facilitated by the West Virginia Department of Human Services. (Amelia Ferrell Knisely | West Virginia Watch)
Mayer, who was adopted, spent time in the military before working at a residential facility that served people with severe mental illnesses He later worked in South Dakota's state government, dealing with SNAP and child welfare.
'Different steps in my life have led me down this path,' he said. 'Over time, I think I've just developed this passion for solving problems, which I think has inherently then created this desire to support families and kids … I just have a passion for helping.'
He has spent the last few months traveling the state meeting with his staff, touring residential facilities and trying to understand how the system works.
The federal government is continuing its oversight of West Virginia's foster care system after it was flagged for sending too many children with disabilities to group homes. The state still sends children with disabilities to group homes and treatment centers at a rate three times the national average.
Two-hundred and seventy children are in out-of-state facilities around the county — some miles away from their biological families — because the state doesn't have enough in-state beds that can serve children's complex needs. The state's CPS workers are required to visit kids once a month.
Mayer said he's examining where the state could increase specialized care, like being able to serve children with aggressive or sexualized behaviors who aren't able to be served in a traditional foster home.
'We don't have placements for these kids. Well, that's not an option anymore,' he said. 'And, if those placements aren't here … then we have to find a way to make that happen, because we want to keep kids as close as possible to their support network for a variety of reasons.'
There's a shortage of foster families, and Mayer hopes to bolster recruitment and support services.
He noted that a glaring shortage of after school and summer programs for teens, which could be useful in helping working parents take in teenagers in foster care. Teens ages 13 to 17 are the most common age group in state foster care.
There's also a need for creating agency processes that will breed consistently in decision making across the state, Mayer said. Child welfare cases involve a number of stakeholders — judges, attorneys, CPS workers and others — who all have an opinion and sometimes decision making about a child's future.
'I think our practice model is one of those pieces that needs some real work,' he said.
Earlier this year, Mayer pushed back on a Republican-sponsored bill, which ultimately failed, that would have mandated an outside audit of the foster care system. Mayer vowed changes to lawmakers without a study.
West Virginia's foster care system relies on federal and state funding, and there's some unpredictability in spending due to kids fluctuating in and out of care and the rising price of out-of-state facilities.
Lawmakers, who have struggled in recent years to get a handle on the agency's spending, allocated more than $300 million to foster care in their recently-passed budget. Their 2026 budget bill mandated that DoHS spend some money on designated line items to prevent the agency from shifting money around to pay bills. But Morrisey vetoed that idea, saying it was too restrictive for DoHS.
The Republican governor, who wants to reign in state spending, also vetoed line item funding for programs that support babies born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome and foster children.
Mayer said that right now, he doesn't think the department needs additional funding to tackle the crisis. It will likely rely on partnerships with the faith-based community, businesses and others that provide services to help children and families, he said.
'I think we just need to get more attention on what is it going to take?' he said. 'I don't know what that funding would be, or if it needs to be anything.'
The state's federal funding could change since Republicans in Washington have proposed cuts to SNAP and Medicaid — a program that provides health insurance to West Virginia foster children and half of all children in the state.
'We've been watching that really intently,' Mayer said regarding the potential federal changes.
This month, he has traveled around the state for additional foster care listening sessions in towns including Beckley, Burlington and Wheeling to hear from families, CPS workers and others. It's important, he said. The outside firm leading the sessions will compile a report detailing problems and potential solutions.
'I'm kind of excited to see, you know, what we're able to accomplish here,' he said.
A Better Childhood, a group representing children suing the state over its troubled foster care system, wants the lawsuit revived after a judge tossed the case in February.
In an email, a DoHS spokesperson said, 'We recognize that the only way to facilitate and bring about real change is to bring all of the key players together to openly and honestly discuss problems and develop real solutions.
'The first steps we are taking, through listening tours and meaningful conversations, are designed to build bridges among the necessary parties who must work together to find sustainable, long-term solutions for the children in our care.'
SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE