Photo courtesy of WV Legislative Photography Cynthia Persily, then the West Virginia Secretary for the Department of Human Services, talks to members of the West Virginia Legislature during an August 2023 interim session. The United States Department of Human Services, in an investigation of the state's Child Protective Service's program, found that 91 of 100 reviewed reports did not follow requirements for child neglect and abuse cases.

CHARLESTON – A federal audit of West Virginia’s child welfare system during former Gov. Jim Justice’s final year in office found that 91% of 100 reviewed reports did not follow requirements for child neglect and abuse cases.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector released a report Friday – issued on Sept. 26, 2025 – looking at the Child Protective Services program within West Virginia’s Department of Human Services.

The report focused on the state’s compliance with child abuse and neglect requirements under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act. The audit found that the state’s Bureau for Social Services failed to comply with intake, screening, assessment and investigation procedures in an estimated 91% of 100 screened-in family reports.

Specific deficiencies included failing to send notification letters, to complete initial assessments and interviews in a timely manner, and to ensure safety plans and risk assessments were performed correctly.

The Office of Inspector General reviewed screened-in family reports of child abuse and neglect data available through the state’s People’s Access to Help computer system for a period between Oct. 1, 2023, and Sept. 30, 2024, during the tenure of Justice and former Human Services Secretary Cynthia Persily.

Out of 23,759 screened-in reports, the office selected a random sample of 100 reports to determine whether BSS complied with requirements.

“BSS complied with requirements for the intake, screening, assessment, and investigation of reports of child abuse and neglect for nine of the 100 screened-in family reports in our sample but did not comply with all State requirements for the remaining 91 reports,” according to the report.

“On the basis of our sample results, we estimated that 21,621 of the 23,759 (91%) screened-in family reports for our audit period were not in compliance with one or more requirements related to the intake, screening, assessment, and investigation of child abuse and neglect,” the report continued.

Of the 100 audited cases: 74 reports did not include a required written notification letter; initial assessments were not completed within 30 days of receiving a referral in 61 reports; 41 reports included no required interviews with children or adults during the initial assessment; mandated reporters did not receive notification of whether a child abuse and neglect referral had been accepted for assessment or screened out in 41 reports; nine reports included no required safety plan; and eight reports did not include required impending safety threat risk assessments.

“…BSS officials stated these procedures were not always followed because child welfare workers, who were carrying higher caseload due to staffing shortages, prioritized conducting child interviews over administrative functions such as sending out notification letters to parents or caregivers,” the report’s authors stated. “BSS stated that it is difficult to retain staff and fill vacant positions, which contributed to the higher caseloads.”

The report made four recommendations, including making sure CPS workers are following all procedures, providing additional training to CPS supervisors, developing new systems to prevent incorrect safety assessments, developing new written policies for supervisors to monitor child welfare worker progress and identifying delays in initial assessments.

New Department of Human Services Secretary Alex Mayer, who succeeded Persily when Gov. Patrick Morrisey took office in January, was unavailable for comment Monday. But in a response letter dated Sept. 9, Human Services Deputy Commissioner for Policy and Programs Kendra Boley Rogers concurred with the report’s findings and agreed with the recommendations.

“CPS policy has been revised to include additional steps for supervisors to follow to ensure interviews and assessments are completed timely,” Rogers said. “Additionally, refresher training will be provided to intake assessment supervisors (see below) and initial assessment supervisors around ensuring child welfare staff perform all required procedures.”

In May, Morrisey announced six steps that his administration and DoHS were taking to improve communications with the public, transparency, training and investigations involving the foster care system and CPS.

“We know that it was difficult to hear many of the issues that could have been avoided had the state communicated differently, had the state eliminated some red tape, or had the right tools to better equip our CPS workers,” Morrisey said. “I think you all know that these issues have been going on for a very, very long time. Unfortunately, it’s the kids that suffer, and we can’t tolerate that … West Virginia cannot keep kicking the can down the road as was done in the past.”

Some of these steps included an overhaul of the state’s Child Welfare Dashboard on the DoHS website to make it easier to use and easier to interpret the data; new leadership training for CPS supervisors, as well as requiring CPS supervisors to conduct monthly reviews of all cases they are responsible for; the creation of a critical incident review team that would review all fatalities and near-fatalities involving children; creating a comprehensive practice model to review changes to CPS and foster care intake, investigation and services; and allowing caseworkers to gather more comprehensive information once CPS referrals are made.

The reporting period reviewed by OIG coincides with several controversies involving CPS, including the death in April 2024 of Kyneddi Miller, 14, of Boone County. Miller’s mother Julie Miller and grandparents Jerry and Donna Stone have been charged with child abuse resulting in death and are awaiting trial.

Persily and CPS were criticized for not releasing any public information regarding the death despite state code allowing that for child fatalities and near-fatalities as long as the identities of people reporting or making complaints of child abuse or neglect are not released. It was later revealed that Miller’s name appeared in two prior CPS cases involving her family in 2009 and 2017.

In a September press release, DoHS cited decreases in the number of CPS employees, from a rate of 12.1% at the beginning of January to 8.5% as of Sept. 1. That is also down from 27.3% in 2023 when CPS vacancies were at peak levels. According to the most recent dashboard numbers, there were 946 CPS workers with 81 vacant positions.

Since the beginning of 2025, there have been 10,323 CPS referrals received, with 5,341 referrals accepted and an acceptance rate of 51.7%, with 6.3% of referrals substantiated.