CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Waiting on a fiscal note from the state Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR), Delegate Jordan Hill (R-Nicholas) is confident that a bill regarding foster care families per diem moves along.
Included in House Bill 4092, which includes the Foster Care Bill of Rights, is a call of a $16 million increase.
“This money would increase the rate that would go to the child-placing agency from $55 to $75 a day,” Hill said on Tuesday’s MetroNews ‘Talkline.’ “It’s going to the foster parents from $22 to $30 and then gets the kinship also on the same level as the foster parents at $30.”
Kinship families include anyone who previously might have known the child or blood relatives such as grandparents, aunts and uncles.
Democrats in the House have questions about where the money is coming from. They sent a formal letter to the DHHR recently asking for more information.
Hill, the chair of Health and Human Resources, believes supporting kinship families is important. West Virginia ranks second in the United States in the percentage of grandparents responsible for their grandchildren.
“When you have grandparents stepping in, a lot of times they are retired with fixed income. There are obviously expenses for taking care of children. I believe this is why that is necessary to support them, to ensure proper care of our kids,” he said.
Delegate and chair of Health and Human Services and member of finance @DelegateHill joins @HoppyKercheval at the Capitol to talk about foster care changes. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIRZCB pic.twitter.com/6pPPAh2oDv
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) February 4, 2020
Delegate Lisa Zukoff, D-Marshall, Senator Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, and Delegate Amanda Estep-Burton, D-Kanawha, led a press conference on Monday to urge lawmakers to focus on child welfare in the state and move things along.
Hill said the press conference took him by surprise because they had worked well together.
“They were criticizing us for the pace at which this is moving,” he said. “They know full well there is a price tag to it, there is a process. In the Finance committee, we have to listen to budget presentations in the first part of the session to prepare for bills like this that have a fiscal impact.”
He also mentioned another provision inside House Bill 4092 includes the requests foster families have to put into the DHHR to take a foster child on vacation. Inside this Bill of Rights, it puts into place language that the DHHR has three days to respond to that request otherwise it is automatically granted.
House Bill 4092 will remain sitting in House Finance until fiscal notes are released by the DHHR. The bill already made it out of House Health and Human Resources and House Judiciary.
Hill said he is not worried about the fact that the bill is in its third committee, which for most bills means it would die.