Kids in Care: Child welfare reforms should focus on family economic stability

This is the fifth legislative session I’ve spent advocating for changes to West Virginia’s child welfare system. For at least that long, this system has rarely been discussed without someone using the word “crisis.” Indeed, we have the highest number of children in foster care in the US, given our population size. West Virginia also investigates more families and removes more children per capita than any other state by huge margins.

While I don’t disagree that there is a crisis, I would say it is a crisis of our own making — created by problematic laws and policies, funding cuts, and lack of accountability. So what is being done to address this crisis?

So far, major policy interventions have been aimed at recruiting and retaining more CPS workers, outsourcing tasks, and recruiting foster families. Very little has been done to address one of the major factors contributing to children entering foster care: economic instability of families. In fact, this issue has been exacerbated by laws passed in recent years.

West Virginia families face high poverty rates, low wages, unstable employment, food insecurity, and lack of access to affordable childcare and affordable housing, all contributing to increased family stress and reduced family well-being.

These types of economic factors also contribute significantly to West Virginia’s extremely high rate of children entering the foster care system. Children living in poverty are much more likely to be reported to CPS and are overrepresented in foster care. We know that the parents of over 60% of children in foster care in this state have extremely low income.

Other states are introducing legislation that, if enacted, will likely reduce their rates of foster care entry and keep more families safely together. With fewer children in foster care, the workforce can be stabilized, and resources put into supporting families rather than policing them. Keeping children with their families whenever possible also reduces trauma, mental health needs, and other challenges often faced by families involved in child welfare.

In New York, lawmakers are considering a bill to create a Child and Family Well-Being Fund that would provide flexible funding directly to local organizations to “bolster community assets and create opportunities to fund new programs.” Organizations would be deemed eligible for these funds by local advisory boards whose members have experience in the child welfare system. The funds would go directly to the local organizations rather than being funneled through the state child welfare agency.

If West Virginia gave flexible funding to local organizations, many families that experience hardships would be able to meet immediate needs that otherwise can lead to children entering foster care, such as:

Providing children with necessary specialized therapies that are not covered by insurance

Lost income due to lack of childcare or caring for a sick child

Repairing a leaking roof or hiring a pest exterminator

Securing reliable transportation to and from work or school

These funds could also meet immediate needs of families caring for children who are or were in DHHR custody when monthly stipends from DHHR are delayed as they have been this week. Many of these families, particularly grandparents, are now facing overdraft fees, late payments and food insecurity.

Another bill in New York would increase access to the state child tax credit. West Virginia could enact a child tax credit of $1,000 for every child in the state for a total cost of around $350 million. This would provide more funds for all families than any of the income tax cut proposals currently under discussion at the capitol. Research has shown that the increased federal child tax credit during the COVID-19 pandemic lifted millions of families out of poverty and reduced child welfare involvement.

Montana legislators are also considering a series of child welfare reform bills, including requiring a warrant in many cases prior to removing children from their families, reducing the time to post-removal hearings, penalizing people who make false or malicious child abuse reports, and clarifying the definition of child abuse. Other states have prohibited workers from removing children solely due to parental substance use. Instead, they must show that the child has experienced or is at risk of experiencing abuse or neglect.

Research is very clear that enhancing economic stability of families reduces child abuse referrals and foster care entry rates. Instead of addressing this need, we have seen proposals at the capitol this year to:

Cut income taxes to disproportionately benefit the wealthy

Use federal CARES act funds for tourism and economic development instead of helping families

Cut the time workers can receive benefits when unemployed through no fault of their own

Reduce access to public assistance

This year’s bills related to child welfare include:

Mandating a child welfare communication portal

Adding the managed care organization to the multidisciplinary team

Reallocating CPS workers

Increasing the adoption tax credit

Notably absent are any bills aimed at preventing child abuse, increasing system accountability, or increasing services to keep families safely together. When will West Virginia step up to support families and address the real causes of its “child welfare crisis”?