HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 35

(By Delegates Pack, Rohrbach, Pushkin, Walker, Barach, Barnhart, Bates, Dean, Fleischauer, Forsht, Griffith, Jeffries, D., Jennings, Longanacre, Mallow, Miller, Pack, L., Reed, Rowan, Summers, Tully, and Ward, G.)

[Originating in the Committee on Health and Human Resources, March 9, 2021 ]

Requesting the Department of Health and Human Resources to continuously evaluate the child welfare system.

Whereas, The implementation of a continuous improvement program with performance measures and outcomes for the child welfare system and for all children with serious emotional disorders served by the department will assist the department to continue to evaluate and identity areas in need of improvement.

Whereas, Significant amounts of state resources are devoted to the child welfare system and to services for children with serious emotional disorders; and

Whereas, These families and children are the most vulnerable families and children that are served by the Department of Health and Human Resources; and

Whereas, In order to maintain effective child welfare systems and programs, the Department of Health and Human Resources should continuously evaluate: caseworker workforce in the Bureau for Children and Families; child abuse and neglect reporting, screening, and intake process; services provided to families to prevent children being removed for their homes; availability and stability of foster or kinship care placements; permanency for children served by the child welfare system; and services provided to children, including children aging out of foster care; therefore, be it

Resolved by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That, the Department of Health and Human Resource should continuously evaluate the availability and quality of services provided to children in the child welfare system; and, be it

Further Resolved, the Department of Health and Human Resources should establish a continuous evaluation and improvement system that measures outcomes for children and families in the child welfare system and outcomes for children with serious emotional disorders served by the department across the bureaus of the department and other state agencies serving children, in collaboration with existing divisions or units within the department that measure and evaluate performance (e.g., the Bureau for Children and Families’ Division of Planning and Quality Improvement);  and, be it

Further Resolved, it is recommended that the Department of Health and Human Resources contract with a third party independent expert to evaluate the workload for caseworkers of the Bureau for Children and Families to assess the impact of recent steps taken by the department and the legislature to expand the number of caseworkers available to serve children in the child welfare system and determine whether additional actions should be taken; and, be it

Further Resolved, the Department of Health and Human Resources report to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability on the progress of establishing performance and outcome measures by December 1, 2021; and, be it

Further Resolved, That the Department of Health and Human Resources report to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability the findings of the workload study by July 1, 2022; and, be it

Further Resolved, That the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability report to the Regular Session of the Legislature, 2022, on its findings, conclusions and recommendations, together with drafts of any legislation necessary to effectuate its recommendations.