CHARLESTON, W.Va. –An 18-year-old foster youth is using her experience in the system to push for change.
Katana Curry partnered with Cabell County Delegate Evan Worrell to introduce legislation making changes to the Foster Care Bill of Rights.
House Bill 4749 aims to ensure that a child who is 13 or older is informed by their guardian ad litem or legal counsel of any hearing relevant to their case and is asked whether they would like to attend.
Curry, who just turned 18, said on MetroNews Midday Wednesday that she was born and raised in Mingo County and was removed from her home at 16 following a situation involving her mother and stepfather. She said she was placed in foster care and moved between eight or nine shelters before eventually coming to Turning Point Daymark in Charleston.
She credited Turning Point with inspiring the bill.
Curry said foster children at Turning Point had the opportunity to tour the Capitol in summer 2025 and conduct a mock trial in the House chambers.
She said they were tasked with creating a bill for the mock trial, and she drafted an early version of the current legislation.
“I thought that this bill could actually be extraordinarily beneficial, so after the afterparty of everything, I went up to Delegate Worrell and told him about it and showed him it and couple months later here we are,” she said.
Worrell, who attended the mock trial in the House chambers, said the bill belongs to Curry, he’s just simply the sponsor.
He added that he is grateful to have met Curry and learn about her experience.
“I’m so grateful that she shared her story and brought that forward so that we can make sure that any child 13 years or older receive that timely notice, is told about what happened and the outcomes of any of their hearings,” Worrell also said on MetroNews Midday Wednesday.
Worrell said the bill was introduced on January 21 and was immediately referred to the House Judiciary Committee, which voted to pass it the same day.
Curry said she hopes the bill, if passed, will ensure that foster children finally have a voice.
She said she wished she had been given the opportunity to know what was happening in her case.
“I do, I really wish, because I spent years being lost and battling mental health issues because I didn’t know what was going on and I blamed myself,” Curry said.
She also said she hopes the bill will help parents who have children in the foster care system and are facing legal proceedings.
“I’m sure there’s a lot of parents out there that don’t know what’s happening with their kids as well and they want their kids to know what’s going on but they can’t talk to them,” Curry said.
Worrell said hearing about the bill opened his eyes to the importance of ensuring foster children have a voice. He said that in cases like this, lawmakers often hear from providers, family members, foster parents and adoptive parents rather than those directly affected by the foster care system.
Worrell pledged that, moving forward, he will ensure foster children have a voice, especially on legislation that affects them as lawmakers and state officials work to improve the system.
“We cannot fix the foster child crisis, in a day, next week, next year, we are taking incremental steps to try and improve that process but it has become very apparent that we need to ensure, and I plan to work and make sure that happens in the future that you know people like Katana Curry are at the table and that we hear them,” he said.
Curry said she hopes to one day hold public office and continue working to create change.
“This has been my dream for years already,” she said. “I’m already an artist but being a politician and being able to help change not only foster care but so many other issues that are going on, would really be amazing to me.”
The full House unanimously passed the bill Tuesday, sending it to the Senate for consideration.