West Virginia Watch reporter wins a Dan Rather Medal for her foster care reporting
Amelia Ferrell Knisely joined West Virginia Watch when the outlet launched in July 2023, and has been covering West Virginia's foster care system since 2019. (Amelia Ferrell Knisely | Courtesy photo)
West Virginia Watch reporter Amelia Ferrell Knisely has placed second in the Dan Rather Medals for News and Guts competition.
Knisely won for her reporting for West Virginia Watch, which 'fought for transparency in West Virginia's overwhelmed foster care system.'
For six months, Knisely requested from the West Virginia Department of Human Services documents that show how much the state spent on housing foster children in hotels in 2023. Instead of financial documents, the department sent Knisely a mostly redacted report on children staying in hotels, motels, offices and hospitals between January and October 2023. With that report, she wrote her award-winning article, 'WV agency won't release docs showing where money was spent putting foster kids in hotels.'
'The level of neglect exposed by this reporting is reprehensible,' one of the judges wrote. 'The amount of work it took to get the information, public information, to shed light on this was incredible.' And in the email informing Knisely of her win, John Bridges, a lecturer in journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, where the awards are housed, wrote: 'Indeed, your work was just the kind of dogged reporting that Dan Rather had in mind when he created these awards with the University of Texas.'
Knisely original records request was denied, former Gov. Jim Justice's office did not respond to her emails and a then DoHS spokesperson denied her interview request with state child welfare leaders.
'Despite their intimidation, insults and ongoing resistance to answering my questions, I persist and have a great newsroom behind me.' Knisely told the Dan Rather Medals for News and Guts. 'I'm still covering foster care and will continue to do so. These children deserve it.'
Knisely joined West Virginia Watch when the outlet launched in July 2023. She has been covering West Virginia's foster care system since 2019. Over the years, she's spoken with foster children abused in out-of-state facilities, child protective services workers who can't keep up with caseloads, biological parents who want answers and foster parents who feel lost in a complex system. She's written about state leaders' attempts — or lack thereof — to fix the problems, and spotlighted organizations helping vulnerable children. Read her foster care reporting for West Virginia Watch here.
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