After alarms went up about whether a key committee would consider a broad-ranging bill to support vulnerable children, senators took up a version that changed significantly.
An altered bill that came before the Senate Finance Committee this afternoon proposed removing 15 percent pay raises meant to recruit and retain child protective services workers. And the latest version removed a dashboard meant to help sort out information about foster children in West Virginia.
Members of the committee started discussion of the changed bill but wound up laying it over until Thursday morning, when focus on the bill will resume with anticipated witnesses about how aspects of the bill might work.
CPS pay raises
Jeffrey Pack, the commissioner for the state’s Bureau for Children and Families, said the pay raises for CPS workers is a key component of stabilizing the workforce. But he said “there are other avenues for achieving the raises,” referring to the possibility of using anticipated surplus dollars at the end of the fiscal year rather than legislation right now.
“Haven’t I heard you for months say you need help with recruitment, retention and pay raises?” asked Senator Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier. “This would be a good way to help get there.”
“Yes,” Pack agreed, reflecting flexibility about how that could occur.
Bill Crouch, cabinet secretary for the Department of Health and Human Resources, also testified before the committee and alluded to multiple ways the raises might be achieved.
“I would love to have the salary increases. We need it for CPS workers to keep the retention and recruitment efforts up. But I understand the budget. We are working on other ways to try to get that money,” Crouch said.
Baldwin offered an amendment to create a critical needs fund for staffing. “I offer this because it allows us the opportunity to be responsive to the recruitment and retention issues without having to appropriate additional dollars at this time,” he said.
He told Crouch, “I’m offering sort of a go-between to say, all right, the 15 percent isn’t there because that’s going to affect the budget so let’s set up instead a critical needs staffing fund that you oversee as secretary. Legislature could appropriate funds. Perhaps you could use funds that are not being utilized currently due to those vacancies that you have to provide raises for your employees if that’s a critical need or to make new hires if that’s a critical need.”
Crouch responded, “I would support that in terms of having another avenue” to improve retention. “I would support that. Makes a lot of sense.”
A few hours after the meeting ended, DHHR issued a statement from Crouch saying he is committed to salary increases for direct services employees like child protective services and adult protective services workers.
The statement specified that DHHR is working with Senate Finance Chairman Eric Tarr and members of the committee about several alternatives for funding that would not increase the existing state budget.
The statement alluded to the possibility of using existing vacancies to finance salary increases for existing direct services employees. “We want to make sure we have enough staff to assure manageable caseloads,” Crouch stated, “but if we can make this work, we will monitor the recruitment and retention of these positions going forward, and add additional positions later as needed.”
Dashboard
Pack was also asked about the data dashboard. He expressed desire for some flexibility to assess what data would be helpful and what might be efficient. And he also wanted to assess what information could intrude on people’s privacy in small communities. Generally, he said, “I like the idea of a dashboard.”
Maroney asked more specifically about Pack’s concerns on what data the dashboard would show. The specifics were laid out in greater detail during a Senate Health meeting last week. “I was just curious if you thought, after the bill left Senate Health, if you thought it was terrible or just bad,” Maroney asked.
“I didn’t think it was improved upon,” Pack said.
Maroney replied, “The fact that you, representing the department, like a data dashboard that came from the House better because it requires no data to be collected than one that actually requires data to be collected surprises me and makes me think that we’re in trouble in improving our foster care situation.”
Pack responded that there is need for a data dashboard but noted that he questioned some of the specific information to be displayed. But he suggested more time to assess how that would best work.
Child abuse hotline
Baldwin also pressed on why a requirement to follow up on any call from a medical professional to a child abuse hotline was removed from the bill.
Baldwin has been particularly concerned about a tragedy that occurred in a community he represents. A Greenbrier County woman in 2020 killed five young boys, set the family’s house on fire and then killed herself. Weeks before that, a dental hygienist made a referral to a child welfare hotline, but her concern apparently went no farther.
“We can’t not let anything change after that happened. Status quo isn’t good enough,” Baldwin said.
Pack said a change has already been made to ensure all screened-out referrals receive a second review by a supervisor.
But he said a recent count indicated the number of medical referrals would be about 1,400 additional investigations a year. “We’re already underwater, almost, on our staffing and struggling to get our investigations done on time. I think that would be an additional burden. Fourteen hundred additional investigations a year is a lot,” he said.
Baldwin offered an amendment to restore the requirement that calls from medical professionals be screened in and checked out.
Senator Dave Sypolt, R-Preston, spoke in favor of the amendment. “I think it’s the right thing to do.” The majority of the committee voted in favor of accepting the requirement.
Original bill
As originally conceived, House Bill 4344 was meant to require pay raises to encourage recruitment and retention for employees that include adult protective services and child protective services workers. The raises are 15 percent per employee in addition to the average 5 percent pay raises for state employees being pushed by Gov. Jim Justice.
The bill originally made changes to the state policies governing foster care, including requiring child placement services provide services to kinship families and requiring the agency to use updated computer systems and clarifying some of the roles of the foster care ombudsman.
The bill also would have established databases and dashboards meant to make it easier to provide a range of useful information to assess and improve support for at-risk children.
“I believe this might be one of the most important bills we consider all year,” Delegate Jonathan Pinson, R-Mason, said last month when the bill passed the House.