10/02/2026
Thirty-six years is a long time. West Virginia court records show the Department of Human Services and its protective-services system appearing in child-welfare litigation as far back as 1989. That does not prove thirty-six uninterrupted years of the same failures, and we are not going to pretend that it does. What the public record does show is that, decades later, West Virginia is still examining major changes to its child-welfare system. The Department of Human Services and Legislature convened a Child Welfare Transformation Summit in 2023 to examine large-scale system transformation, and major reform proposals were still being introduced in 2026. West Virginians have every right to expect consistency, accountability and transparency from a system entrusted with decisions that can alter the course of a child's life and a family's future. Families should not get fundamentally different treatment because they live in a different county, were assigned to a different office or happened to encounter a different interpretation of policy. Complaints should have somewhere to go, somebody responsible for examining them and some way of determining what happened afterward. This is not an attack on every BSS employee. Frontline workers do difficult work under difficult circumstances, and individual employees should not become scapegoats for broader failures involving policy, supervision, administration, staffing and accountability. We have worked alongside this agency through our own programs. What we took away from that experience was not good, and it reinforced concerns that were already well documented and being raised by families, providers, lawmakers and the state itself. We encountered inconsistency and serious questions about accountability. When we could no longer be confident that safeguards surrounding one of our programs would be followed consistently, we ended that referral relationship. We are not going to turn our experience into accusations we cannot substantiate, but neither are we going to pretend it gave us confidence in the system. We have also heard directly from parents, relatives, providers and others who have dealt with child welfare. Their experiences are not all the same, and an allegation does not become a fact simply because someone makes it. We will not present one as such.
We have repeatedly heard another concern: "Please don't use my name."
Parents have told us they are afraid public criticism could affect an open case, reunification or how they are treated. Providers have expressed concerns of their own. We cannot say every fear is justified, and we will not claim retaliation occurred in a particular case without evidence establishing that it did. The fact that people interacting with a public child-welfare system are afraid to publicly criticize it is still something worth taking seriously. Parents should be able to report legitimate concerns without fearing consequences for their families. Providers should be able to report problems without wondering what speaking up will cost them. Employees should have a trustworthy internal process for raising concerns. The public should be able to determine who receives complaints, who investigates them, what happens afterward and whether the same standards are being applied throughout all 55 counties. Delegate Adam Burkhammer participated in the 2023 Child Welfare Transformation Summit and sponsored HB 4964 in 2026, a proposal for phased implementation of a community-based child-welfare system with evaluation and reporting requirements. Delegate Burkhammer, we hope you will read this petition and continue listening to the families, providers and organizations dealing with this system firsthand. This petition asks for stronger statewide accountability and consistency in West Virginia child welfare. Read it. Share it with people who have dealt with the system. Share it with providers, advocates and public officials. If you have firsthand experience, document it accurately and speak about it as openly as you safely can. Then decide for yourself whether you support what the petition is asking for. For people worried about having their names displayed publicly, Change.org says signers can turn off public display of their name and comment. Change.org also allows pseudonyms or initials, although the petition starter still receives certain signer information and its rules prohibit impersonation and duplicate signatures. We have stood with families and individuals going through this system, and we will continue doing so. Nobody dealing with it should believe they have to go through it alone.
The Petition: https://c.org/7yNWJYKX77
Thirty-six years is a long time. Children and families living through this system today should not have to wait another generation for meaningful improvement.
Join over 500,000,000 people creating real change in their communities.
