CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) – Following a suicide attempt earlier this month at a hotel of a 12-year-old boy who was under CPS custody, a Kanawha County Circuit Court judge held a hearing Friday with state officials to discuss safety concerns.
At the hearing, Judge Maryclaire Akers said this wasn’t about berating CPS workers, but she said there can’t be failures of this magnitude.
“Every year this problem gets bigger and bigger,” she said.
Judge Akers said the goal is to figure out a way statewide to stop foster kids from being placed in hotel rooms or 4-H camps and the problems that ensue.
“Everything I saw was troubling,” she said. “It caused me to say we all have to sit down and have a conversation.”
Alex Mayer, the new Secretary of the Department of Human Services, said he agreed it’s not ideal for foster kids to be placed in hotels.
The average length of a foster child’s stay in a hotel room is under four days.
“The children we were taking into custody a decade ago are completely different than the kids we’re taking into custody today,” Mayer told the judge. “We have a lot more substance-exposed infants and adolescents.”
They say they started placing kids in hotels in 2022, so kids wouldn’t have to continue staying at CPS offices.
“If we didn’t have to have children in hotels — we don’t want children in hotels,” Mayer said. “We want them in appropriate levels of care where they can either start getting treatment they need or be in a loving home.”
Mayer agreed to the judge’s request to appoint a DOHS monitor, Cindy Largent-Hill, for an improvement period.
“From what I can tell, this is really the only way right now,” she said.
That monitor will be providing the court with a written report including suggestions on how to improve.
When asked by Akers how much money is spent in the state on hotel placements for foster kids, an official said they didn’t have the answer but would provide it to the judge later.
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