MORGANTOWN – The Department of Health and Human Resources unveiled its new child welfare dashboard on Wednesday, and some local legislators and candidates are pleased with the progress.
The dashboard link can be found at the top of the DHHR website, dhhr.wv.gov.
It offers a variety of facts and figures. There are 6,654 children in foster care. DHHR has 66% of its Child Protective Services worker positions filled (317 positions) and 34% (160 positions) unfilled.
Monongalia County has 183 children in foster care placements: 91 in therapeutic foster care; 43 in certified kinship/relative homes; 30 others also in kinship/relative placements; nine in group homes with eight of those placed out of state.
All told, there are 6,272 children placed in state, 382 out of state.
There are some places where only partial data can be found. For instance, a bar chart shows that the 13-17 age group has the most in foster care among the six age groups listed, at 29.11%. That age group has by far the most out-of-state placements, at 62.3%. But the chart doesn’t give numbers so you’d have to do some math to find out how many children that is.
DHHR said the dashboard will be updated monthly, in the middle of each month.
DHHR Secretary Bill Crouch said, “Child welfare continues to be a top priority for Gov. Justice and DHHR, and the implementation of this dashboard is one way we’re working to use data to improve outcomes for children. We plan to make changes periodically based on feedback to continually improve the information.”
Many legislators have desired such a dashboard in order track how the foster care and child welfare system is working and make policy changes. HB 4344 was introduced during the 2022 regular session and in part required DHHR to create one. But the Senate stripped out that provision and the bill died. An effort by Senate Democrats to have a dashboard bill considered during the April special session failed.
The Dominion Post contacted local legislators and candidates t get their thoughts on DHHR unveiling the dashboard.
Sen. Mike Caputo, D-Marion, was a co-sponsor of the bill that was killed during the special session. He said, “The presence of a dashboard is the first step in helping us solve the foster care crisis. We can’t make any good decisions without data. Previously, any data was provided by the Department through questioning by legislative committees. Now we can track trends and see in real time where the problems are. I look forward to moving forward with data-backed solutions to our ongoing crisis as soon as possible.”
Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, said, “I’m excited to see that the dashboard is live. The more transparency, the better. But the dashboard highlights the scale of the problem. West Virginia still has more than 6,600 foster children, and the dashboard lists hundreds of vacant Child Protective Service and Social Service jobs. Pay raises are needed so that DHHR can staff up and provide the services that foster children require.”
Former Sen. Mike Oliverio won the GOP primary for the open 13th District Senate seat and will face Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer, D-Monongalia, in November.
Fleischauer was on the road for meetings and unable to reply.
Oliverio said, “There is no question that West Virginia’s foster care system faces significant challenges, and having a tool that can show lawmakers and the public a visual representation of data like this is invaluable. I firmly believe that we have a moral obligation to ensure that the foster children that our state is responsible for are cared for properly.
“I am hopeful the dashboard will lead to further transparency in showing just how our state is handling this responsibility,” he said.
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