Mountain State Times

The West Virginia Department of Human Services (DoHS) has filed a motion for summary judgment in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. The motion pertains to the case Jonathan R., et al. v. Jim Justice, et al., which challenges the operation of the state's child welfare system.

Over the past five years, DoHS has provided 3.2 million pages of documents and made numerous employees available for examination by plaintiffs’ counsel as required by federal litigation rules. The motion, filed on July 9, 2024, requests that the court decide the case based on undisputed facts presented in these documents and testimonies, arguing that a trial would be unnecessary and costly to taxpayers.

The filing details several actions taken by DoHS over recent years to improve its child welfare program. These include efforts to recruit and retain Child Protective Services (CPS) caseworkers, enhance case planning, expand community-based mental health services, recruit foster families, improve CPS training, assess foster children's health needs, monitor service provision, and reduce reliance on residential treatment facilities.

Significant improvements highlighted in the motion include:

- A near tripling of spending on community-based mental health services for foster children over the last decade.

- A reduction in the percentage of foster children placed in residential treatment from 28% to 17%.

- A substantial decrease in vacancy rates for CPS and Youth Services positions over two years.

- A decrease in turnover rates among CPS and Youth Services workers from 34.1% to 22.3%.

Federal data further supports these improvements:

- West Virginia has one of the lowest rates of maltreatment among children in foster care nationwide.

- The state boasts the highest rate of placement stability and kinship care placements across all states.

“While there is still room for improvement, DoHS has devoted substantial resources to making those improvements with support from the West Virginia Legislature and courts,” said Cynthia Persily, Ph.D., Secretary of DoHS. “In every State child welfare program there are always individual cases where improvements can be made; however, statistics show that West Virginia’s system-wide performance is commendable.”

DoHS acknowledges that its successes rely heavily on foster families, dedicated CPS caseworkers, and mental health professionals. In collaboration with Aetna Better Health of West Virginia, Mission West Virginia, and ten foster care agencies, DoHS launched a statewide campaign earlier this year aimed at recruiting foster parents to address placement shortages. Since its launch in March 2024, nearly 400 families have expressed interest in participating.

Individuals interested in becoming foster parents can find more information at wefosterwv.org.