West Virginia officials ordered to report as child case workers to address staffing shortage
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A judge in West Virginia has ordered the new chief of a state agency and several of his subordinates to be assigned as Child Protective Services workers to alleviate a critical staffing shortage.
In an unusual step, Circuit Judge Timothy Sweeney ordered the officials to appear at a Feb. 20 hearing in his courtroom in the Ritchie County community of Harrisville to receive case assignments or risk being held in contempt.
The order named Alex J. Mayer, whose appointment as secretary of the state Department of Human Services was announced Monday, the same day Sweeney made his ruling. There were also four others including the department’s general counsel, Chanin Krivonyak.
The five were appointed as case workers within Child Protective Services and other positions to address staff shortages in a five-country district.
There was no immediate response to an email seeking comment from the Department of Human Services on Wednesday.
Child welfare workforce problems have plagued the state for years. Currently there is a 17% vacancy rate for CPS workers, or 82 open positions, according to the department.
Sweeney wrote that CPS understaffing “is an immediate and critical threat to at-risk children.”
An ongoing federal lawsuit accuses the state of failing to protect children and fix its overwhelmed foster care system.
About 6,100 children are under the care of the state, according to the department, and one-third of the in-state placements are children living with relatives acting as certified foster parents.
The judge’s order was first reported by The Parkersburg News and Sentinel.
“I think the bus stops with me,” Sweeney told the newspaper.