CHARLESTON, W.Va.— Three draft bills, regarding the foster care system in West Virginia, were proposed in front of lawmakers Monday, and they will now be taken into consideration ahead of the 2025 legislative session.
West Virginia’s rate of 6,000 kids in the welfare system leads the nation, with leading factors being substance use, poverty, family instability, and parental education. If the bills are passed, all three of them would help make the foster care system better for the children.
One of those draft bills, has to deal with the vouchers that foster care parents are supposed to receive when they have a child that is placed with them.
Delegate Jonathan Pinson, R-Mason, said that these vouchers should come with the child.
“Theoretically there is supposed to be a $375 voucher that comes with that child, and that’s to help that child get settled in your house,” Pinson said.
He also said that the state needs to do a better job at making sure the kids who are in the state’s custody get to keep the items that are bought with the voucher, if the kid is moved from house to house.
“So, as we think about what needs to be addressed, well we need to make sure that children have an adequate wardrobe,” Pinson said. “We can set forth requirements that children who are in state custody, that as these items are being purchased with state money, voucher money, they are being inventoried and being kept with the child.”
And if the bill is passed, Pinson said that it will give foster parents more options when it comes to purchasing the necessary items that the kids need.
“Then also we see that this would set a range for allowance and options to receive it,” Pinson said. “Right now, most vouchers are giving to the store Gabe’s, and if you’ve been to a Gabe’s, there’s not a lot of them in West Virginia, but if you’ve been to one you probably realized that there’s not car seats available, very rarely we find beds and cribs and these things, so limit of supplies there.”
Delegate Adam Burkhammer, R-Lewis, proposed a draft bill that would allow foster parents to obtain the foster child’s medical information easier because it’s important for the parents to know for the child’s safety.
“The sharing of medical information, when children are coming into care or being transferred from house to house in care or any of that movement within, is allowing that medical information flow a little more freely,” Burkhammer said. “We need to know if kids are taking medication, what that medication is, how often, what doctor they’ve been seeing.”
And the last draft bill, Child Welfare Transparency, was proposed by Senator Vince Deeds, R-Greenbrier, and this one would help set up reporting abuse and neglect procedures, that are more effective.
“What it ultimately would do, would set up abuse and neglect reporting procedures, which allow additional formats, right now there’s only phone in,” Deeds said. “This would include emails, fax, fillable forms.”
The bills will go before lawmakers in February 2025.