Foster Care System

In April of last year, seven West Virginia counties (Mercer, Jefferson, Roane, Greenbrier, Mineral, Ohio and Summers) divided up $75 million in state funding to either replace, renovate or relocate outdated school buildings.

DHHR Cabinet secretary Bill Crouch says the public information website will be a living, changing dashboard, monitoring Child Protective Services statewide to show how the state is keeping children safe

Gov. Jim Justice has approved the promised 15 percent raises for direct service employees with the Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR).

On this West Virginia Morning, state disability agency leaders say the state is putting challenged teenagers at risk when they are discharged from the foster care system. And from Inside Appalachia, Roxy Todd talks to the writer and director of the documentary "Angels on Horseback".

West Virginia’s sweeping foster care bill, HB 4344, died in the Legislature, but there is a plan to deliver on the raises promised to front line case workers.

A bill bringing major reforms to our foster care and social services system passed the West Virginia House of Delegates 99-1. Some key issues addressed in the bill will affect thousands of our most challenged children.

West Virginia’s foster care system has struggled to provide care for more than 7,000 children in the state. One of the biggest causes has been staffing shortages.

On this West Virginia Morning, kids in foster care are already facing a tough road, but a new investigation reveals that some are sent to out-of-state facilities, some of which have been flagged by the state's own Department of Health and Human Resources as problematic.

Foster children are at a significantly higher risk of developing mental and physical health problems than those who haven't been in the system — challenges West Virginia kids are already more likely to confront compared with their peers elsewhere.

When major problems — including abuse and neglect — come to light, the state doesn’t always immediately move kids to safety. West Virginia officials tasked with foster kids’ care won’t answer questions about how they vet out-of-state facilities or how often they check on the kids living there.