By Matthew Young, RealWV, www.therealwv.com
“One thing that was discussed was the need for a fund to help either build facilities, or to make improvements to prevent them from shutting down, so that children in West Virginia have places to go here, instead of having to be sent out of state or kept in hotel rooms.”
That’s what Sen. Joey Garcia, D-Marion, told RealWV on Monday, during the second day of December’s interim legislative meetings. The discussion Garcia referenced occurred during the previous day’s meeting of the Joint Standing Committee on the Judiciary. Led by Sen. Vince Deeds, R-Greenbrier and Del. Adam Burkhammer, R-Lewis, the discussion focused on West Virginia’s foster care population, who Deeds referred to as, “The most vulnerable people that we have in the state.”
According to Deeds, lawmakers have some 20 bills pertaining to child welfare ready for introduction when the legislature’s Regular Session begins next month. One such bill, as alluded to by Garcia, would see all children currently in the custody of West Virginia’s foster care system returned to housing within the state.
“We spend a fortune on those kids out of state,” Deeds said. “We actually have a bill that invests in the thought process […] about bringing those kids home and developing a facility – and you have to have the healthcare providers.”
“You gotta have the doctors to be able to treat those kids here,” Deeds continued. “We do have that, and I believe we can flesh that out to where we have some effective legislation this upcoming session.”
Of the more than 6,000 children currently within the custody of the West Virginia foster care system, the Department of Human Services reports that approximately 550 are housed out of state. The amount of foster children housed in hotels is difficult to track in real-time, as the number fluctuates rapidly.
Though Garcia is encouraged by the collaborative effort put forth by Deeds and Burkhammer, and is generally supportive of establishing a method by which foster children can be returned to, and housed in West Virginia, he told RealWV that certain questions must first be answered.
“Where is the money coming from, and how much money are we talking about?” Garcia rhetorically asked. “Yesterday, Sen. Deeds and Del. Burkhammer said that they had not spoken to the governor about this yet, and I think it’s imperative that the governor (W.Va. Gov. Patrick Morrisey) be a part of any process.”
“Ultimately, he (Morrisey) is going to present a budget in January, and he also has the power to try to veto funds,” Garcia said. “Last year he vetoed an increase in Guardian ad Litem payments that would go to court appointed attorneys, and that’s still a need.”
“The other thing he vetoed was CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) funds,” Garcia added. “Those funds were also cut to some degree. Those are all things that are part-and-parcel, along with transparency.”
For their part, both Deeds and Burkhammer acknowledge that establishing a fund to ensure West Virginia has a sufficient number of in-state housing facilities – or any of their other upcoming 19 foster care-related proposals – will require a substantial financial investment from the state.
As for the cooperation of the governor’s office, Burkhammer noted, “This is the first public mention of that facility-fund.”
“We’re going to have to begin those conversations of what this investment is,” Burkhammer added. “But I really believe, when we put pen to paper – and we say we’re spending X amount of dollars out of state, and we can invest Y amount of dollars here – that it’s going to make sense for everybody.”
The 2026 Legislative Regular Session gets under way on Wednesday, Jan. 14.
