Governor Patrick Morrisey has promised to lift the veil on West Virginia’s child welfare system. As our Brad McElhinny reported, “The governor said the changes follow a series of listening sessions held across the state with key stakeholders and a thorough review of past child fatalities and near fatalities within the child welfare system.”
Morrisey said that in previous years, the state stonewalled about the status of children in its care, “and that changes now.”
Morrisey’s new policy requires public disclosure by the Department of Human Services (DoHS) of critical information in abuse and neglect cases. That means honoring Freedom of Information requests, which the agency has previously routinely denied.
Historically, the agency has hidden behind state law WV Code 49-5-101 that states such records concerning a child or juvenile “are confidential and may not be release or disclosed to anyone, including any federal or state agency.” But the agency has an overly broad interpretation of the statute. The requests for information centered on the agency’s response, not the identity or disposition of the children’s cases.
Two recent cases of abuse and neglect captured the attention of the public and the media.
In 2023, authorities discovered two adoptive children living in a shed in Sissonville. They had been forced into heavy labor, deprived of adequate food, water and clothing. “The condition of the shed was just devastating,” an investigating officer said. The adoptive parents were later convicted and sentenced to decades in prison.
Last year, 14-year-old Kyneddi Miller was found dead in the bathroom of her Boone County home. She was emaciated and in a skeletal state. Her mother and grandparents are awaiting trial on criminal charges.
In each case, DoHS refused to disclose any substantive information about the cases, including whether its Child Protective Services (CPS) workers were aware of the abuse. In a statement relating to Kyneddi’s case, the agency said, “Confidential reporting of child abuse and neglect is a keystone to the efficacy of our system and the work we do to prevent abuse and neglect.”
That is true, but only to a point. The media reporting on these cases are not interested in revealing personal information about the children; what they do want to find out and share with the public and policy makers is whether CPS is doing, or even able to do, its job as intended. That is impossible to know without greater transparency.
West Virginia Child Protective Service workers have one of the most difficult state government jobs. According to the mission statement on the Department of Human Services website, they provide services to families “when children are abused or neglected by their parents, guardians or custodians responsible for the care of the children.”
That means these workers go into dysfunctional and dangerous situations. In the worst cases, the CPS workers have to physically remove children from a home. It is a stressful job and there is a chronic shortage of CPS workers. Policy makers cannot adequately address the problem if they don’t have the information. Morrisey is pledging to change all that, and child advocates are optimistic.
“I was really encouraged,” said Shiloh Woodard, executive director of the West Virginia Child Advocacy Network, told McElhinny. “I think this is exactly the right time and exactly the right move for the state to be making.”
Governor Morrisey deserves credit for diving into this difficult and emotional issue. Hopefully, the follow through by the administration will bring badly needed transparency to the agency and lead to the needed improvements in protections for at risk children.