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Foster care funding is a moral obligation

By Staff | Dec 23, 2022

State Senator Charles Trump has, commendably, brought public attention to the shortage of foster care workers and resources. But despite the sincere concerns of Senator Trump, I doubt that his fellow Republican legislators will take any meaningful steps to cure the problem she has noted. The staff and resource shortages addressed by Senator Trump are not new, and are not confined to the Eastern Panhandle.

There are four counties, in addition to Morgan County, which have no child protective workers assigned to them. In the other 51 counties, 67 percent of the positions for workers who deal directly with foster children and families are vacant, and have been for a long time. A major reason for the vacancies, is that the pay for the jobs is not commensurate with the difficulty and stress of those jobs. The first report of the Foster Care Ombudsman Program — a report mandated by the Legislature — found, “Child Protective Services (CPS) processes and decisions appear regularly impaired by lack of accurate, up-to-date knowledge regarding the enormous body of required law, policy and procedure. Equally important, policy and procedure, properly followed, requires so many individual steps and tasks, that it is unlikely even a well-informed, highly motivated worker could consistently follow them.”

That report was issued in March 2021. The CPS worker law and policy is set by the Legislature. Then there is the day-to-day stress of being responsible for the wellbeing of vulnerable children, who are without a safe, stable home because of abuse or a myriad of other reasons. On top of this, there is a shortage of resources to provide help for those children, which Senator Trump also referenced.

The pay for CPS workers must be raised, and additional resources provided. During the 2022 legislative session, the Commissioner of DHHR told a West Virginia Senate Committee that he would not request more money for CPS workers, because that might result in a budget increase. If one believes what the governor and the Republican leaders of the Legislature say, West Virginia has a budget surplus of over one billion dollars. Yet, the plans put forth by Republicans during the last election for this surplus boil down to two alternatives: large tax cuts for large businesses and tax cuts which primarily benefit upper income earners. That’s it.

It is possible that the Republican-controlled legislature will do something like it has done with teachers — authorize a five percent pay increase. That small pay increase, akin to a bad tip, will do nothing to attract CPS workers, as it has done nothing to help with the teacher shortage. Nor will a proposed one-time signing bonus accomplish a longterm increase in CPS workers. After all, with either of these measures in place, the salaries will still not match the amount of job requirements and stress CPS workers face on a daily basis.

The state has a moral obligation to assure the safety and welfare of children it has placed in its foster care system. Sadly, there are too few members of the new legislature who recognize that moral obligation, much less any obligation to act to protect those children.

Garry Geffert, of Martinsburg