FILE - West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice speaks at an election night watch party at the governor's mansion in Charleston, W.Va., Tuesday, May 14, 2024. Justice is calling state lawmakers back to the Capitol to consider an $80 million allocation to the state's colleges and universities to help students pay for school, among other proposals. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson, File)

CHARLESTON – Gov. Jim Justice said Friday he was confident that steps being taken by West Virginia agencies to ensure child abuse and neglect referrals don’t fall through the cracks would be fruitful and said the state needs to look at providing more contact between homeschool families and education officials.

Speaking Friday afternoon during his weekly virtual administrative briefing from his offices in the State Capitol Building, Justice also said more grant monies would be made available to high school graduates in financial need for attending college in the fall.

Officials with the Governor’s Office, the Department of Human Services, the Department of Education, and the West Virginia State Police briefed reporters Thursday on an internal investigation into the state’s handling of past encounters with Kyneddi Miller, 14, of Boone County. Miller was found dead in April by deputies in what they called a “skeletal state.” Miller’s mother and grandparents have been charged with child abuse causing death.

Child Protective Services had prior contact with Miller’s family in 2009 and 2017 according to media reports and state officials, though those visits were unrelated to Miller. Last year, two troopers made a welfare check on Miller after family members reported having not seen Miller in a while. According to documents and audio, one of the troopers said they were making a CPS referral and drove directly to the regional DoHS office.

According to the internal investigation, the two troopers did drive to the regional CPS office, but only to make informal contact with CPS workers after Miller had told them she was concerned about COVID-19 and being around people. While the troopers could name the CPS workers, the CPS workers could not recall the meeting.

Miller was also not in public school beginning in the Spring of 2020 when schools went to virtual learning due to the COVID pandemic. She was pulled out of the public school system in 2021. Her family had not filed Miller’s eighth grade assessment with Boone County Schools required every three years for homeschool students. Boone County Schools never followed up.

State officials are now requiring all child abuse and neglect referrals – either by citizens or mandatory reporters, such as law enforcement, first responders, and educators – be made through the state hotline at 1-800-352-6531 even for in-person visits to regional DoHS offices. The department is working on educating its employees and mandatory reporters.

Justice said the steps would not guarantee that another child fatality might not occur in the future but believes state officials will be in a better position to screen for potential problems.

“We discovered things in areas that we can make better, and that is exactly what we have done,” Justice said. “There is nothing failproof … I’d love to say to you nothing will ever happen again in the State of West Virginia or any state, but I can’t tell you that. All I can do is tell you that we will try with all in us every single day to make things better and better. I am confident that the things we have changed will make things better. But at the same time, something like this is beyond comprehension.”

Justice and state education officials will also work with the Legislature to improve policies and procedures to ensure county schools are following up with homeschool families on their required assessments. Justice said he wasn’t sure if new laws were needed to constrain what homeschool families had to do. But if new legislation is needed, it could end up on a special session agenda in the near future.

“The homeschooling issue, we probably need to find a way to tighten it,” Justice said. “That’s an area I’m sure we can make things a little better. Any and every idea I’m open to … I do believe that the actual following up on our homeschool kids is more of an issue than specific homeschool laws. But I think this is still somewhat in its infancy. We have to do more work with the Legislature.”

In other news, Justice signed Senate Bill 1007 Friday afternoon, providing $83 million in funding for incoming college students and higher education institutions. The bill provides $51 million for grant programs due to FAFSA delays and $32 million to cover PEIA 80/20 employer/employee match costs.

Justice declared a state of emergency at the end of April – later extended by the Legislature during a May special session – in order to provide the Higher Education Policy Commission the flexibility to award PROMISE Scholarships and the need-based higher education grant. Earlier Friday, the HEPC voted to increase the new-based grant award maximum award from $3,400 to $6,800.

“You had kids held up who didn’t know what to do,” Justice said. “This is good stuff.”