West Virginia DoHS calls for summary judgment in foster care lawsuit

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WBOY) — The West Virginia Department of Human Services (DoHS) has filed a motion for summary judgment in the class action lawsuit it’s facing over the state’s treatment of foster care children.

The plaintiffs, counseled by the nonprofit A Better Childhood as well as Disability Rights of West Virginia , filed the lawsuit against the DoHS—then known as the DHHR—in 2019 arguing that the West Virginia foster care system is overloaded and understaffed.

In a statement released Wednesday alongside the motion for summary judgment, the DoHS said that given the undisputed facts, there is “no scenario” where the plaintiffs could win. The DoHS also cited improvements within the foster care system since the lawsuit was filed including:

• “DoHS’s spending on community-based mental health services for foster children nearly tripled over the last decade.”
• “The percent of foster children placed in residential treatment has decreased from 28 percent to 17 percent over the last decade.”
• “DoHS substantially decreased the vacancy rate for CPS and Youth Services (YS) positions over the last two years.”

In response, A Better Childhood Executive Director Marcia Lowry said in a statement that “the judge will, of course, decide but we do not think the brief is persuasive.”

Lowry said that the state “simply does not have and is not even trying to hire” the caseworkers necessary to offer children adequate protection and that the latest DoHS data shows that the department currently has 100 unfilled caseworker positions.

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