CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Marshall University and the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources are surveying foster parents and others about the current system.
The survey comes as more than 6,800 children remain in state custody as well as in light of a series of reported problems, including hundreds of runaways in 2018 and a lawsuit alleging issues such as moves outside of the state, overextended caseworkers and lack of mental health services.
“Definitely the numbers are still high, and we still have a need for more foster families and kinship families,” Marissa Sanders, a member of the West Virginia Foster, Adoptive and Kinship Network, said of the current situation. “We’re stressing the system right now.”
Former foster families and families raising children not formally enrolled in the kinship program will be allowed to take the survey. Sanders said they want to understand how to improve the system in place.
“We tend to see families foster for a fairly short amount of time,” she said. “People stop fostering for a lot of reasons. They may adopt and feel that their family is full or complete, they may have a life change, or just decide it’s time to stop. Many stop because they get frustrated with the system.
Sanders noted it is easier to retain families than conduct outreach efforts.
“If we can make changes to the system and make sure families have the support that they need, I think we will begin to see more families stick around which helps reduce the number of families we have to recruit,” she said. “The other piece of that is satisfied families who feel like they are supported and their voices are heard often will go out and recruit other families to get involved in foster care.”
The survey is confidential and available at www.wvfosterparents.org. The final day of the survey is Nov. 18.