Amid a foster care crisis, West Virginia didn't pay private adoption agencies as promised

New incentive payments aimed at helping find permanent homes for West Virginia foster kids went unpaid for six months by the state agency charged with looking after those kids.

And as the delinquent payments mounted, adoption agencies contacted a lawmaker, fearing that if they raised the issue with the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, department officials would retaliate against them.

Delegate Jeffrey Pack, co-chairman of the Legislative Oversight Commission on Health and Human Resources Accountability, told commission members this week that DHHR owed payments to several of the state’s child placement agencies. Pack sent a letter to DHHR on their behalf last month.

“The agencies that were owed a great deal of money didn’t feel comfortable coming to DHHR, so they had to come to me,” Pack, R-Raleigh, said.

Read more: https://mountainstatespotlight.org/2021/06/11/amid-a-foster-care-crisis-wv-didnt-pay-private-adoption-agencies-as-promised/