Dear West Virginia Department of Human Services / CPS Division:
I’ve been seeing those yellow signs along the roadways looking for foster families in West Virginia. Would you like to know why you have a problem finding them?
It’s because families who are trying to help children in foster care are being lied to, becoming frustrated by the disorganization and incurring great debt by your broken system.
We’re all aware that your department is understaffed, overworked and underpaid. This circular excuse, this deflection away from accountability, that we hear ad nauseam is no longer acceptable. Children are lost in the system, children are dying and families trying to HELP them find themselves navigating a carnival-like house of smoke & mirrors.
You are creating a financial deficit for families trying to care for children who have been removed from their homes by not paying them consistently, if at all. Phone calls go unreturned, case workers change each month, the buck gets passed along week after week after week— in some cases, for nearly a year.
Paperwork doesn’t get recorded, fingerprints and background checks are not being completed for every family taking in vulnerable children. ID’s? Who seeks identification when children arrive in the middle of the night due to an emergency situation? No one I corresponded with.
If you don’t have the resources to take care of West Virginia’s children, why don’t you lay aside the pride and call for a state-of-emergency from Governor Justice to receive additional help? Isn’t that a better option than losing children in the system?! Isn’t that a better option than serving to bankrupt foster families who are not being compensated for food, travel and school needs for the vulnerable children in their care?
Would you like to know why many of us, including WV lawmakers are calling for a full-scale independent investigation, including public hearings with regard to the CPS Division?
It’s because social workers are reportedly giving cash to foster children, and to parents recovering from drug addiction as well. Because social workers are developing relationships with foster children to communicate legitimate meeting times and discuss concerns, at the exclusion of the foster parents. No one is on the same page. The left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing. There is no hierarchy, no clear chain-of-command, no clear plan and no understanding of how to report problems and ask questions.
It’s because there’s a lack of transparency, lack of consistency with cases, lack of reporting and creating a plan for positive outcomes for the children and families in this system. It’s because there is an absence of communication between your department, the foster family and the biological family, where the children hope to return to someday.
Why would anyone in their right mind volunteer to be a foster family in West Virginia? We have some of the most generous, salt-of-the-earth people in this state, very capable of helping children in need— but entering the WV DoHS system to help them is like hitching your horse to a broken wagon.
These are highlights of just some of the problems as shared with me by families who are verified to be in the system but wish to remain anonymous.
We need public hearings and a full-scale investigation to identify ALL the problems within your overwhelmed department before they can even begin to be addressed appropriately.
Please ask Governor Justice to declare a state-of-emergency to provide extra resources-- to allow for an investigation to identify and address what’s broken and counter-productive and more importantly, to prevent more children from becoming lost and abandoned within a broken system.
Sincerely,
Amy Thornton and many hurting families across West Virginia
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