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Delegates want to hear more from DHHR about support for thousands of W.Va. foster children

CHARLESTON, W.Va. —  House Democrats are asking for more information about the state’s financial support for the overloaded foster care system.

The request comes ahead of a 9 a.m. Monday budget hearing for the Department of Health and Human Resources. Separately, Senator Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, Delegate Amanda Estep-Burton, D-Kanawha, Delegate Lisa Zukoff, D-Marshall, and other Democratic legislators plan a 9:30 a.m. Monday press conference to discuss issues affecting children and families in the state.

Leaders are trying to identify an additional $14 million that could go toward increasing the per diem available for the kinship families who often take in children.

There is bipartisan support for the bill. House Majority Leader Amy Summers, R-Taylor, played a big role in shaping an array of bills affecting West Virginia’s child welfare system. And Delegate Jeff Pack, R-Raleigh, pushed for a per diem increase for kinship families.

But it’s the Democrats who have sent a formal letter asking for more information from DHHR.

The push is to make financial help for kinship families equal to what is paid to foster families. The question is whether that $14 million will be a priority in what otherwise is a flat budget year.

“It does come with a price tag, but it is an issue,” said Delegate Linda Longstreth, D-Marion.

“We’re sending them to foster homes and paying, I think $600 a month per child to foster homes, but not into a kinship home. So is it fair to give money to someone who is not related — or to help out maybe a grandmother or someone who is related who is willing to take them in as a family, at least help them out?”

Kinship families include anyone who might have previously known the child or her family as well as blood relatives. The pay increase (from roughly $20 to now $30 per day per child) for both foster families and kinship families in the bill is estimated to cost $14 million.

Jason Barrett

“We want to know how our daily rates per child to house foster children compare to surrounding states and whether increasing the daily rate could give more families the ability to take care of the children in the system who need it,” stated Delegate Jason Barrett, D-Berkeley, one of the lead Democrats on the Finance Committee.

West Virginia has an estimated 7,000 children in some form of foster care, although hundreds are not in a family home.

West Virginia needs to find a way to find homes for the 2,800 children who are in emergency shelters, group homes, transitional living or some other arrangement.

The Democrats noted that since 2013, the number of West Virginian children in the system has increased 67 percent, while the national trend has been 11 percent growth.

“Personally, I just want to know, what can we do here as a body to help streamline the process of getting these children into a home and someone who will love them,” Longstreth said.

“My constituents respond and say it’s too difficult to get through the system. That’s their biggest issue. Otherwise some would take them into their home and maybe even adopt them.”

The letter from House Democrats to DHHR asks several questions, including how much of Foster Care budget goes to operating costs, how much to other agency expenses and how much to foster/kinship families.

And they ask DHHR for its own estimate of how much money the agency would need if the House Bill 4092 would pass.

And they ask for an assessment of whether more families would gain the ability to become foster care families the daily rate per child is increased.

The Democrats asked for additional information from DHHR prior to a budget presentation that was originally scheduled for this past Thursday. Most of the presentation wound up being bumped to Monday morning.

Detailed response to some of the questions posed to DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch could take some time, Longstreth acknowledged.

“I’d say maybe in two more weeks. We’ll have to wait for some of the answers,” Longstreth said.



01 28 2020 Letter to Sec Crouch Re Foster Care Budget (Text)





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