Morrisey announces foster care reforms, promises transparency as struggling system moves forward

Gov. Patrick Morrisey on Wednesday, May 28, 2025, announced a series of reforms that he said will end 'years of bureaucratic stonewalling' from within the state's troubled foster care agency and begin a 'new era of transparency.' (West Virginia Office of Gov. Patrick Morrisey video screenshot)
Following years of issues within the state's foster care system, Gov. Patrick Morrisey on Wednesday announced a series of reforms that he said will end 'years of bureaucratic stonewalling' from within the agency and begin a 'new era of transparency.'
The proposed changes are partially the result of a statewide listening tour, where Morrisey and other officials — including the new Department of Human Services Secretary Alex Mayer — heard from residents on challenges they've faced from the state agency in charge of child welfare.
At those listening sessions, West Virginians shared stories lamenting lack of communication from the state's Child protective Services workers and other issues that have occurred due to the system being inconsistent, short on staff and offering limited support for many traumatized children.
The reforms announced by Morrisey on Wednesday include:
Having DoHS fully comply with the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act and follow federal guidelines requiring the public disclosure of key information in child abuse or neglect cases resulting in fatalities or near fatalities
Overhauling the state's Child Welfare Dashboard to make it easier to interpret and more user friendly
Requiring supervisors to conduct monthly reviews with their child welfare cases and work with the governor's office to identify opportunities for improvement. The state will also launch a department-wide 'Leadership Education and Development' (LEAD) initiative to train DoHS supervisors.
Creating a Critical Incident Review Team that will conduct a 'deeper dive' into any critical incident that occurs
Introducing a Comprehensive Practice Model to provide a framework that can be standardized across the state
Allowing caseworkers to gather more comprehensive information on cases rather than relying solely on the referral process
There are currently more than 6,100 children in West Virginia's foster care system. That number has skyrocketed during the state's drug crisis. The state's high poverty rate has contributed to the number, as well.
The new reforms as well as the recent statewide listening sessions were initiated after several high-profile incidents of child abuse and mistreatment occured in West Virginia in recent years. Reporters investigating the incidents were often stonewalled by the state government, unable to get information about the events or the circumstances that led up to them.
'In previous years, the state stonewalled about the status of children in its care — and that changes now,' Morrisey said on Wednesday. 'We are rolling up our sleeves and getting to work. West Virginians deserve a child welfare system that is transparent, accountable and always puts the safety of children first.'
Morrisey appointed Mayer to oversee DoHS in January. The 37-year-old came to the Mountain State from South Dakota, where he worked for the state government on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the child welfare system.
Before getting involved in state government, Mayer was adopted. He spent time in the military before working at a residential facility serving people with severe mental illnesses.
In an interview with West Virginia Watch earlier this month, Mayer said he was focusing his first few months on learning where and how the state could increase specialized care for children who need additional services, increase consistency in the state agency's processes and recruiting foster families to help care for children already in the system.
This legislative session, lawmakers — who have struggled in recent years to get a handle on DoHS spending — allocated more than $300 million to foster care. The 2026 budget bill mandated that the agency spend some money on designated line items to prevent it from shifting money around to pay bills.
But Morrisey vetoed that idea, saying it was too restrictive for DoHS.
Morrisey — who made reigning in state spending a key tenet of his first legislative session as governor — also vetoed line item funding for programs that support foster children as well as babies born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.
Mayer said he doesn't believe that more funding will solve the issues clearly present in West Virginia's child welfare system. Instead, he said, the state will likely rely on partnerships with the faith-based community, businesses and others that provide services to help children and families.
On Wednesday, Mayer said he realized that change is long overdue for both the state's children and the adults who attempt to care for them.
'For far too long, we've asked families and frontline professionals to navigate a system that has not kept pace with the complexities our families and children face today. That must change,' Mayer said. 'We are listening — intentionally — and using that feedback to shape a more responsive, accountable and transparent system built on trust.'
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Dominion Post

a day ago

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DOGE terminates $9 million state digital equity grant

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The Hill

3 days ago

• The Hill

Whole Hog Politics: Land of Lincoln? Not so much for Red America

On the menu: Reconciliation bill still sinking with voters; New York mayoral muddle; DNC's chairman agonistes; Crowded field could save Cassidy; Don't sweat it Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here Today is West Virginia Day, the holiday celebrating the 35th state's admission to the union on June 20, 1863. We West Virginians are more eager to celebrate the formation of our own state than are the sons and daughters of most of the other 49. Some of this is genuine pride. I don't know a place more beautiful or a people more kind. Some of it is stubbornness. When your state is treated as a punchline by the rest of the country, you tend to stand up a little straighter so everyone can see that chip on your shoulder. But another piece of it is in the dubious nature of the state's creation. As our great patron, Abraham Lincoln, allowed, 'It is said the admission of West Virginia is secession, and tolerated only because it is our secession. Well, if we can call it by that name, there is still difference enough between secession against the Constitution, and secession in favor of the Constitution.' There's the rub. West Virginia was in 'favor of' the Constitution, but the Constitution couldn't be said to be exactly in favor of West Virginia. Ripping the 55 western counties of Virginia away from the mother state was, as the scholars would say, 'legal but not constitutional.' The Constitution forbids any state to be divided by the federal government against the wishes of its residents, and the residents of the eastern 99 counties surely would not have favored separation. But because Virginia was in rebellion and part of the Confederacy, the breakaway counties could petition Congress to be recognized as the legitimate government of Virginia and then undertake the process of statehood for the new entity. Under that convenient legal fiction, West Virginia had the legal standing to apply as both the separator and separatee. But the West Virginians were certainly seceding in favor of the spirit of the Constitution and the aims of the Declaration of Independence: Indivisible union and the liberty of its people, even those held as slaves at that moment. The celebration of West Virginia Day is, therefore, a fundamentally defiant act. Which makes this year's West Virginia Day celebration a little more complicated. For the first time since the establishment of the Juneteenth federal holiday on June 19, 2021, that holiday and West Virginia Day fall on a Thursday and a Friday, giving state and local workers in West Virginia a four-day weekend. That was until Gov. Patrick Morrissey last week canceled the state's observance of Juneteenth. He cited 'continued fiscal challenges,' but also nixed 'any formal activities' in observance of the holiday, suggesting that there was more at work than just belt tightening. Juneteenth is the celebration of another of Lincoln's lawyerly innovations during the Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation, also issued in 1863, freed the slaves in the places where Lincoln had the legal power but not the practical authority to do so. Lincoln couldn't proclaim slavery abolished in the states that hadn't left the Union. That would require congressional action. But he could, as commander in chief, make a wartime declaration about the slaves in enemy territory. That technicality was enough to let Lincoln define the conflict with Confederacy once and for all as a war to abolish slavery. From the proclamation in January to West Virginia statehood in June to his address at the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pa., in November, the year 1863 was the when Lincoln defined the purpose of the war: 'That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.' 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It seems like it's getting more coverage than ever in the media, and being a bit of an expert in that field yourself, I was curious if you believed that that extra attention is warranted. Do you think it's becoming more common now? Do you think it's ever justified? Other than general polarization, what about politics is breaking people apart to the extent of going no contact? Do you think there are any decent solutions? Or do you think the entire topic is blown out of proportion? I know this is a lot of questions, but like I said, the topic fascinated me.' — Justin Bliley Washington Court House, Ohio Mr. Bliley, There's probably no way to quantify whether political estrangement is getting worse. It's an inherently subjective question since it relates to the feelings people have about each other. But I can't imagine that political estrangement is worse now than it was 50 years ago, when a generational clash over Vietnam, the draft, Watergate, civil rights, women's liberation, abortion and everything else had just taken place against the backdrop of economic contraction and crushing inflation. The baby boomers, then mostly in their 20s, had just completed one of the most successful youth movements in American history. It was the end of an old consensus about how people in our country lived, loved, worshiped, worked and served. Now those same baby boomers, mostly in their 70s, are fighting like hell against the next revolution, and for the moment seem to be winning. I hope that in another 50 years, people look back on the 2010s and 2020s as a similarly transitional period in which a new, useful and durable consensus got hammered out. That way that happens is that some fights are won and lost while others simply fade away, obviated by technology or just run out of steam. 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Chris Stirewalt is political editor for The Hill and NewsNation, the host of The Hill Sunday on NewsNation and The CW, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of books on politics and the media. Meera Sehgal contributed to this report.

The Hill

4 days ago

• The Hill

Is Juneteenth a paid holiday?

(NewsNation) — For more than 150 years, Juneteenth has held deep significance in many Black communities as a symbol of liberation and resilience. While it is now recognized as a federal holiday, only some states have followed suit in making it a paid state holiday. According to a 2024 Congressional Research Service report, at least 30 states and the District of Columbia have designated Juneteenth as a permanent paid and/or legal holiday through legislation or executive action. Those states include: Those states with no official provision for Juneteenth include Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Wyoming. New Mexico is not included in this list. While the state personnel board approved adding Juneteenth to the list of 2022 paid state holidays, Juneteenth is not recognized as a legal state holiday, according to the report. West Virginia also does not recognize Juneteenth as a paid holiday, as confirmed by Gov. Patrick Morrisey on Thursday, NewsNation affiliate WOWK reported. While some states have acknowledged Juneteenth in symbolic ways or through commemorative events, others have chosen to mark the end of slavery differently, or in some cases, still observe Confederate-related holidays. For example, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued a proclamation recognizing the holiday in 2020, but not since. Florida does recognize the day slavery ended in the state, according to the Tallahassee Democrat. The event is marked as Emancipation Day and celebrated in May, though it isn't a paid holiday. Additionally, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas commemorate some Confederate holidays throughout the year, according to a separate Axios analysis. Mississippi and Alabama each celebrate three Confederate holidays as paid days off for state employees, including Robert E. Lee Day, Confederate Memorial Day and Jefferson Davis' Birthday, according to Axios. Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, found out they had been freed — after the end of the Civil War and two years after President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. Since it was designated a federal holiday in 2021, Juneteenth has gained more widespread recognition beyond the Black community. Many people get the day off work or school, and there are a plethora of street festivals, fairs, concerts and other events. Over the decades, Juneteenth has also been called Freedom Day, Emancipation Day, Black Fourth of July and Second Independence Day among others. The Associated Press contributed to this report.