CHARLESTON, WV (LOOTPRESS) – A West Virginia judge has ordered state child protective services (CPS) placements in hotels and camps to be monitored following a 12-year-old boy’s suicide attempt in a Charleston-area hotel last week.
The decision by Circuit Court Judge Maryclaire Akers comes amid growing concerns over how the state houses children in its care. Cindy Largent-Hill, director of the West Virginia Supreme Court’s children’s services division, has been appointed as a monitor for a one-year improvement period. She will collect data and release public reportson children placed in unlicensed facilities after reports surfaced of kids attacking staff, harming themselves, and experiencing suicidal and homicidal thoughts while being housed in hotels and camps.
West Virginia’s Foster Care Crisis
West Virginia has the highest rate of children in foster care per capita, with more than 6,000 children in the system—a crisis largely fueled by the opioid epidemic. Like other states, West Virginia has struggled to find appropriate emergency placements, sometimes resorting to placing children in hotels, camps, offices, and even jails when foster homes aren’t available.
Akers highlighted the lack of communication in the system, saying the 12-year-old’s suicide attempt was not disclosed to the guardian ad litem or mentioned during a scheduled case review. She later discovered the oversight happened because a Child Protective Services worker was out sick, leading her to call for better procedures to prevent such failures.
“Those without power here are the children,” Akers said. “They have to live where they’re told. They have to go where they’re told. So it’s incumbent upon all of us to protect them.”
Federal Lawsuit Against Foster System Dismissed
On the same day as Akers’ order, U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin dismissed a 2019 class-action lawsuit that challenged West Virginia’s foster care system. The lawsuit alleged caseworker shortages, excessive institutionalization, and a lack of mental health services left children’s needs unmet.
Goodwin acknowledged the system’s failures but ruled that his court lacked jurisdiction and that elected officials, not the courts, are responsible for fixing the system. The lawsuit had been revived in 2022 after being initially dismissed in 2021.
State Officials Respond
West Virginia Department of Human Services Secretary Alex Mayer, who took office a month ago after overseeing child welfare in South Dakota, said he was already working with providers to improve the system before Akers’ ruling.
“I knew it was broken—because it’s broken across the country,” Mayer said, adding that he welcomed the monitor’s oversight.
“If we didn’t have to have children in hotels, we wouldn’t,” he said. “We want them in appropriate levels of care where they can receive treatment or be in a loving home while their families go through the court process.”
The state now faces mounting pressure to reform foster care placements and ensure the safety of vulnerable childrenin its system.
