Morrisey adds child welfare reform initiatives to growing list of legislative priorities

By Autumn Shelton, RealWV

CHARLESTON, WV – Since December, Governor Patrick Morrisey has made several announcements about his priorities for the upcoming legislative session. Among those priorities are teacher and certain state personnel pay raises, creating a revolving fund to bring foster care children back to West Virginia, and reducing personal income taxes. Now, Morrisey has stated that he has a plan for child welfare reform. 

During a Tuesday press conference, Morrisey announced his child welfare reform plan, which includes a focus on early intervention, family stability, and student success. 

Although Morrisey admitted that there is not one single method to improve child welfare in the state, he said progress is being made. 

“If we’re serious about fixing the system overall, once again, we’ve got to work on the fundamentals,” Morrisey said. “There’s usually not an easy solution to every problem and, you know, I tend to want to make sure that we’re working on the basics all the time, because too often, you know, in politics generally people want to thump their chest and say everything’s great and we have the silver bullet. Life’s a little bit more complicated, right?” 

According to Morrisey, one West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) initiative, Star Academies, has the potential to help improve student success, and he wants to expand the program. 

“There have been four pilot programs for Star Academies that have been operating,” Morrisey explained. “I think there’s three that have been in counties over a one year period, and we have some good feedback from that. And, one, I believe in Logan County, that’s been operating for a three year period.” 

Information from the WVDE states that Star Academies are “schools within schools,” and are designed to help middle school aged children who have fallen behind in academics get back on track as well as grade-level learning. Pilot programs have been established at West Side Middle School in Kanawha County, Philippi Middle School in Barbour County, Martinsburg North Middle School in Berkeley County and Logan Middle School in Logan County. 

The following WVDE video briefly explains Star Academies: 

“These Star Academies, they are inside existing schools,” Morrisey noted. “There’s a small number of classrooms that are transformed into immersive learning environments where these students can receive core academic instruction and they can be paired with hands-on career connected project based learning.” 

Star Academies also help students with behavior and attendance, Morrisey said. 

“We know that from my conversations with Mississippi, Louisiana, and learning about this program, states like Mississippi, Louisiana and South Carolina, in part, through these academies, have seen absenteeism drop by as much as 89%,” Morrisey stated, adding that up to 95% of the students in the academies remain on track for graduation. 

Morrisey stated that he would like to add up to 12 new Star Academies throughout West Virginia by using unspent reserves from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.

Morrisey also noted that his child welfare goals for the upcoming session includes a plan to create stronger partnerships with faith-based organizations. 

“We know that there are a lot of churches and communities that are very active in addressing people that fall through the cracks in the child welfare system,” Morrisey said. “We know churches play a fundamental role in doing good things to help our kids’ family.” 

Therefore, Morrisey said that he would like to see the state develop stronger relationships with these faith-based organizations in an attempt to help provide early intervention and relationship based support. 

Lastly, Morrisey stated that better education regarding chronic school absenteeism is needed and that early school-based interventions as well as problem-solving truancy courts shall be considered in order to reduce CPS involvement and improve attendance rates. 

“At its core, this is about changing the trajectory for kids before the system ever has to step in,” Morrisey said. “When education, community support, and child welfare are pulling in the same direction, we give families a real chance to succeed and ensure that foster care is a last resort, not a default response.”