CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Foster parents in West Virginia say they need to be heard.
That is one of the key takeaways out of a recent survey of foster parents from the state Department of Health and Human Resources, Marshall University and the West Virginia Foster, Adoptive and Kinship Parent Network.
“In West Virginia, our foster, adoptive and kinship parents are desperate to have a voice,” said Marissa Sanders, the network’s director.
Earlier this week, she presented the preliminary findings of an online survey of foster parents, conducted between Oct. 18 and Nov. 18, to lawmakers at the State Capitol.
A final report will be released in 2020.
In all, more than 1,000 people participated.
Of those who responded, in one of the more glaring survey revelations, more than half reported never having interviews conducted — with themselves or the children they were fostering — from an appointed guardian ad litem as mandated.
A guardian ad litem is a court appointee, an attorney, charged with protecting the interests of the children in cases of abuse or neglect.
Sixty percent of the participants reported inconsistency in information shared along with other communication issues.
Participants in the survey which included 39 questions were able to remain anonymous.
More than 91 percent said peer support was important while about 30 percent indicated they did not have access to such support.
“Some recurring things that came up in many of the comments and in some of the answers to the other questions were better communication, peer support, advocacy and having a voice as things that are important to foster parents,” Sanders told lawmakers.
The majority of the respondents who had stopped fostering said they did so because of “frustration with the system.”
“This indicates that there are things that we can do to improve foster parent retention and subsequently increase recruitment by reducing frustration,” Sanders said.
Her organization represents hundreds of parents providing care to children in West Virginia who, for many reasons, cannot stay with their birth families.
More than 6,800 children in West Virginia are currently in state custody.
DHHR has struggled to retain Child Protective Services workers.
A pending lawsuit has alleged DHHR has not moved fast enough to address the issues within the overloaded foster care system.
The results of the survey could lead to legislation during the 2020 Regular Legislative Session that begins on Jan. 8.
However, Sanders said the survey, the first of its kind, showed it won’t take a lot of new funding, large policy changes or several new programs to address the biggest problem areas identified.
“They simply require us all to honor and value foster, adoptive and kinship parents for the invaluable contributions they make to caring for our most vulnerable children by valuing their input and giving them a voice,” she said.