In the wake of a Mountain State Spotlight investigation that found West Virginia is failing to connect foster kids with services that can help them succeed as adults, a state delegate is proposing a partial solution to the problem.
Del. Lori Dittman, R-Braxton, wants to require the West Virginia Department of Education to create a comprehensive resource guide for foster youth to give them consistent, accurate information about their options. Her proposal would also train school counselors about the services that are available to help these kids pay for college, life skills classes and rent and make sure all eligible students have access to this information.
“Right away I thought, ‘well, this can be fixed, and it can be fixed easily,’” Dittman said of her thoughts after reading the Mountain State Spotlight story.
Mountain State Spotlight’s investigation, published in December, found the state had sent back nearly $7 million in federal money since 2010 meant to help these kids. One reason the money wasn’t spent is that many foster kids were not aware of the services or the financial assistance available to them.
The money is part of the federal Chafee program, which provides annual grants to states. These funds can pay for a variety of services to help foster children transition out of care and live independently, including paying for budgeting classes, offering mentoring services or subsidizing rent. Former foster kids can use another pot of money from the program to help pay for college or other post-secondary training.
But data shows that during many years, West Virginia failed to use all the money and returned it unspent. At the same time, West Virginia kids were getting these services at much lower rates than kids nationwide. In 2023, only eight kids between the ages of 18 and 23 were able to benefit.
REad more
West Virginia got federal money to help foster kids succeed as adults. The state sent millions of dollars back.
The state has failed to spend nearly $7 million to help kids pay rent, go to college and access other services to help them succeed.
When asked in December whether he would commit to finding ways to use all of the Chafee funds for their intended purpose, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey hedged.
“If there are dollars available to help people, we’re going to use those dollars,” he said, but then pivoted to fiscal responsibility. “We try to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollars.”
Dittman teaches middle school, and said even at that age, she sees foster kids who have kind of given up on their futures.
“They’re really just focused on surviving right now,” she said, adding that it would be helpful for them to know there’s support for these later years.
The state Department of Education estimates her bill will cost about $250,000 — costs associated with providing a one-day training for approximately 1,300 school counselors and hiring substitutes to fill in for the day. But Dittman questioned whether that cost is accurate, and noted there may be ways to more efficiently provide the training component of the legislation.
She said the legislation intentionally delegates this to the Department of Education, rather than the Department of Human Services which runs the state’s foster care system.
“DoHS is already overburdened by many things, and they’re putting out fires, I think, a lot, and just really dealing with emergency situations,” she said.
Dittman said it seemed to her a good idea to put the responsibility in the hands of people dealing with students every day, who are at the stage of life where they are ready to make those decisions.
The bill is currently before the House Education Committee. Lawmakers discussed it on Tuesday, and under the Legislature’s new three-day process, have advanced it to markup and discussion.