CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Several bills affecting child welfare in West Virginia have been progressing through the state Legislature, receiving praise.
One establishes a bill of rights for foster children and foster families. Another hones the responsibilities and powers of the newly-established
And another cuts the waiting period for the adjudication of adoption cases while allowing more flexibility for where hearings may be.
Marissa Sanders, representing the West Virginia Foster, Adoptive & Kinship Parents Network, said she is particularly optimistic about the bill enumerating rights for foster families.
She spoke outside the House Health and Human Resources Committee last week after delegates amended and passed out the bill. It will also be reviewed by the Judiciary Committee before being considered by the full House of Delegates.
“Giving foster parents rights, giving foster children rights is a huge step in the right direction,” Sanders said.
“Certainly we never want to take rights away from birth parents, but we do want to make sure that in this process people have a legally protected right to express concerns, to advocate for people in their home, to travel when they need to with minimal extra bureaucracy.”
That bill also contemplates raising the per diem for foster care families but delegates, along with the Department of Health and Human Resources, are reviewing what the overall cost might be.
And it spells out more clearly what guardians ad litem, the people who officially speak on behalf of children, are required to do prior to the adjudication of the process.
That aspect is meant to provide more assurance to foster families that guardians ad litem are truly speaking with children and hearing them out.
“That’s one of the things we heard most loudly was that foster parents were getting out of foster parenting because of problems in the legal system that they were encountering, said Delegate Jeffrey Pack, the vice chairman of the Health committee.
Pack said the bundle of child welfare bills is recognition of a great need in West Virginia, where there are now 7,000 children in foster care. Yet another bill, still to be considered, is aimed at increasing compensation for child protective services workers and reducing constant turnover.
Pack, R-Raleigh, said conversations with people in his community helped him realize the urgent desire for improvements to the foster care system.
“I expected to hear people being concerned about jobs and the economy and healthcare – and the one thing that comes up over and over is foster care,” he said. “So I started to dive into the problem and realized the depth and breadth. This is our best attempt at taking a big swing at clearing that up.”
Lawmakers worked over the course of the summer and fall, during interim meetings, on the legislation.
“If we could do this, it would likely be the best thing I could hope to achieve in the Legislature,” Pack said during an interview in the House chamber.
“The issue is so prevalent and hasn’t been addressed in years and years and years. This, to my knowledge, is the biggest improvement to foster care in recent memory.”
Delegate Andrew Robinson, D-Kanawha, also said the bills will help West Virginia’s foster care system that has grown along with the state’s ongoing drug addiction crisis. Robinson has been reviewing the bills as a member both of the Health committee and Judiciary.
“I think we’ve found it’s a dire crisis in the state, and we have to focus on it,” Robinson said Friday in the Capitol corridors. “We’re taking it bill by bill. Hopefully our focus over the last year on this legislation is going to result in moving forward to get some of our foster and kinship families and the children taken care of in a better way.”
The foster care ombudsman position was created last year during consideration of a broad bill that also set up managed care for the healthcare needs of foster children. The position is meant to consider conflicts in the foster care system and determine ways of dealing with them.
The bill dealing with the ombudsman this year further defines the role, giving greater specificity to its powers. When the House Judiciary Committee reviewed the bill on Friday morning, ombudsman Pamela Woodman-Kaehler said her role is already busy.
She told delegates that she has examined similar roles in other states. She envisions associate or assistant ombudsmen who could help her fill the role.
“This is far more than any one person, however motivated could do,” she said.
Delegate Barbara Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, asked if she has received assurance that staff may be hired to handle complaints.
Although Woodman-Kaehler acknowledged that she is the only employee so far, “I have been assured that we will work very hard to make sure this is adequately staffed.”
She said calls are coming in already and are likely to increase with the rollout of managed care for the health care of foster children.
“I can tell you I am already receiving complaints in my office and as we all know I have not yet quite gone public.”