The Saidi family of Nitro is well-versed in the foster care system in West Virginia. (Photo Provided)

MORGANTOWN — According to the West Virginia Department of Human Services, as of January 2026, nearly 6,000 children are currently in the foster care system in West Virginia.

These numbers account for both in-state and out-of-state children, including those living with disabilities.

West Virginia mother Emily Saidi lives in Nitro, just outside Charleston, where she cares for her 12 children, two of whom from the West Virginia foster care system are living with a disability.

“I have adopted nine children. Seven of those children have been from the West Virginia foster care system. Two of them are from Ukraine. I have one biological child, and I’m currently fostering two children from the West Virginia foster care system. So 12 kids. It’s a lot,” Saidi said.

Lack of services

In the past years, West Virginia has been slammed with lawsuits over its foster care system; some of the allegations include a substantial lack of specialized care homes for intellectually, psychologically or physically disabled children.

“We don’t have that many resources or placements for these children to go,” said Tabatha Conn, Director of the Matthew Pack Children’s Home. “When it comes to delayed court processes and lengthy improvement periods and all of the legalities of the foster care system, resources can be hard to find and maintain.”

Matthew Pack Children’s Home, formerly EYES, is one of the few shelter care homes that specializes in dealing with children with intellectual development disabilities while they’re in the foster care system. It was from this home that Shelby and Jacob, who are both autistic, were placed with Saidi.

“She is nonverbal, that’s all I knew about her. I’ve never dealt with a child with special needs,” Saidi said when speaking of Shelby. “She didn’t use sign language, she didn’t use a communication device. She just screamed all the time. We’ve had her for about a year. We’ve adopted her. We kind of get her and she gets us. It’s hard to explain unless you live it. But we just know the things that she likes.”

Saidi notes that Shelby’s autism is a result of not getting proper treatment and therapy much earlier, a fact with which Andrea Mitchell, Director of Children and Adult Services at West Virginia’s Department of Human Services, agrees.

“Child welfare professionals in West Virginia often report that a substantial and growing proportion of children in their care have complex behavioral, developmental or medical needs that would be classified as a disability,” Mitchell said. “These needs are often exacerbated by the trauma they have experienced before entering care.”

Need for stability

Conn explains that foster kids living with disabilities don’t navigate the system well especially without a good advocate as they are dealing with developmental disabilities and getting specialized care and therapy can be difficult.

“That can be really hard when you think about ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) therapy or even CSED (Children with Serious Emotional Disorders waiver program),” Conn said. “A lot of our kids can qualify for CSED, but when they’re in shelter care, they can’t receive it until they leave. So before they can go to a foster home, they have to find a provider that can meet that waiver or that specific need.”

According to Conn, foster kids with special needs could be on the waiting list for a few months before they find a provider, who may be tasked with a 40-child caseload. Saidi also recounts her struggles with how difficult it is to get therapy for both Shelby and Jacob, as they both need specialized care.

“We were fortunate that a new facility opened up near us, and I got on the waiting list before they even opened, and I still had to wait,” Saidi said. “So we have therapy four out of five days a week, we have just so many appointments, but I feel like they’re all important and they’re all necessary to help these children reach their full potential, which is what I want to see happen.”

Saidi’s hopes that both Shelby and Jacob would finally adapt after years of moving around and struggling with autism reiterates the fact that the government needs to do better, as this sect of foster kids struggles the most in the present system.

“There needs to be more resources in the state. If we want people to take children in, especially children with disabilities, then we need to provide them with the resources. So there needs to be enough therapists, enough counselors, enough doctors that accept the insurance and that are willing to see these children in a timely manner,” Saidi said. “If that was done, then these children would not need to be moved from place to place, from state to state, from shelter to shelter. They could find stability and permanency.”

While Conn acknowledges the government’s efforts in trying to improve the system, she reiterated that more still needs to be done.

“I feel like the efforts have been really strong recently. I feel like we’re finally getting some spotlight, especially in the most recent legislative sessions. I do think there’s more we can do, and a lot of that is putting minds together and hashing things out and figuring out what works,” Conn said.

Mitchell, on the other hand, suggests that specialized training and resources are one step to move forward and help foster kids living with disabilities navigate the system.