Submitted by Mike Stuart
Thursday, October 19, 2023
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Mike Stuart, State Senator (R- 7th District) and candidate for West Virginia Attorney General, today called for a full review by an independent party of Child Protective Services and full disclosure and transparency by the Agency and the Department of Health and Human Resources regarding the Sissonville case in which two children were found earlier this month locked in a barn.
“Call it a review or an investigation, it’s time that the people of West Virginia get a clear understanding of the operations of CPS so that we can restore confidence in the agency,” said State Senator and candidate for Attorney General Mike Stuart. “We need to understand whether the challenges of CPS are mere manpower and funding issues or whether we have larger systemic issues. Adding more resources and more employees to a broken system will only result in a broken system that is bigger.”
On October 2nd, Kanawha County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a home on Cheyenne Lane in Sissonville Monday evening after 911 received a call regarding the welfare of the children. Deputies found two juvenile children, a boy age 14 and girl age 16, locked inside a 20 x 14 foot room in a shed. Investigators said the children had no way to exit the building no running water, no bathroom, and had been obviously deprived of adequate hygienic care and food. According to multiple reports, CPS had been notified multiple times about the situation.
“The Agency and the state need to release all information in its control related to the Sissonville incident. We can protect the children and their identities while providing essential information for total transparency on the matter,” said Stuart. “This is important information. It needs to be released to the public as soon as possible.”
Stuart continued, “We have the highest removal rate in the nation for children, a removal rate that is 87% higher than the next closest state. Even when I was the United States Attorney, despite a serious drug and opioid crisis, I received three times as many emails and messages from concerned citizens about our CPS system. There is a crisis of confidence in our CPS system today. We have a responsibility to fix it but, to really fix it, we need a thorough and complete review of its operations by an independent third party knowledgeable in child welfare, families and the foster system nationwide.”
“I want to be clear on this matter. I have immense respect for our CPS workers. They work each day under incredibly challenging circumstances with immense pressure. I also know that there are certain trends at the Agency that are headed in the right direction. There are genuine efforts ongoing to address clear deficiencies and challenges of the Agency in terms of manpower but I have grave concerns that there are serious systemic problems with the Agency beyond the situation found at Sissonville,” continued Stuart.
During the 2023 Regular Legislative Session, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 273 and House Bill 3261, both addressing issues with CPS. Following passage of two new statutes and the implementation of multiple initiatives, the state’s CPS worker vacancy rate has decreased 14 percent since January, according to West Virginia Department of Health and Human Services Bureau for Social Services Commissioner Jeffrey Pack. The CPS vacancy rate was 33 percent in January. Now, that rate is 19 percent.
“I commend the efforts of Commissioner Pack but I have many concerns- inconsistent standards from county to county, removal standards and the high rate of removal in West Virginia, timeliness and standards for reunification of families, and the timeliness, transparency and standards for investigating and reviewing issues related to the welfare of children and the agency itself,” Stuart concluded. “This involves our children. There needs to be a sense of urgency in fixing the problems with CPS.”
“As the next Attorney General of West Virginia, as a State Senator, and as a former United States Attorney, I am deeply committed to our children and families,” said Stuart. “We need to do everything we can to ensure the system works well for our children. They are truly our highest priority.”
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