Finance Committee guts foster care bill
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CHARLESTON - For its final meeting before the end of the 2022 legislative session, the West Virginia Senate Finance Committee recommended House Bill 4344 for passage Thursday morning, sending the bill to the full state Senate for consideration, but not before making substantial changes.
Among the provisions eliminated was an increase in pay for direct service workers by 15% and requires the Division of Personnel to increase the salary ranges for those job classifications by 20%. According to a fiscal note, a 15% raise would cost more than $9 million for the next fiscal year. The bill also created a critical positions fund.
The Finance Committee voted against the Health Committee’s version of the bill Thursday morning, instead taking up a new strike-and-insert amendment that would remove nearly everything in the current versionexpect for sections dealing with court proceedings and the foster care ombudsman responsibilities.
According to DHHR, the department has 1,265 direct service employees with 273 vacancies, equaling a 30% vacancy rate statewide. According to the Governor’s Office and DHHR officials, they have the authority already to increase salaries for direct service workers and intend to do so.
“Rather than growing the base budget, if there are a number of positions that are available, our letter clarifies that the agencies have the authority to make those decisions,” said Berkeley Bentley, general counsel to Gov. Jim Justice. “If they have (a) large number of vacancies in their department, they can collapse some of those to provide additional funds for raises where needed.”
“Clearly, salary is one component that will be necessary to stabilize our workforce,” said Jeffrey Pack, commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Resources’ Bureau of Social Services, during testimony Wednesday. “I certainly prefer the pay raises. Whether they are part of the bill or not is immaterial to me as long as it occurs.”
Senate Minority Leader Stephen Baldwin, D-Greenbrier, offered an amendment to put back in a provision requiring the immediate investigation of any reporting by a medical professional of abuse or neglect of children. The amendment was adopted.
The provision is in response to a 2020 incident in Greenbrier County where a medical professional reported what they believed to be abuse of a child they were treating, but the abuse and neglect hotline never sent the report to law enforcement. Four months later, the child in question and four other siblings were murdered by their mother, who set the house on fire and shot herself.
“If that call had gotten through a couple of months earlier, would that have changed the situation? Maybe, maybe not, but it has ripped our community apart, and we can’t allow the status quo to continue,” Baldwin said.
Pack, however, said he was concerned about putting the amendment back into the bill. He said it could create more work and pressure on field staff who conduct the child abuse and neglect investigations. Pack said more than 1,400 investigations are conducted annually.
According to statistics from DHHR, the foster care program in West Virginia grew from 4,114 cases in 2012 to 6,574 cases as of February -- a nearly 60% increase over a 10-year period.