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OPINIONS
Talia Markham: At-risk children need to be focus of legislative agenda
As the West Virginia Legislature begins its work, I would like to call attention to some issues that must be addressed.
Every day children in this state are being abused and neglected. Regrettably, we are not providing the resources necessary to ensure that our Child Protective Services workers do their job effectively. These workers are underpaid, understaffed, and as the recent Lincoln County murder case illustrates, they are often expected to work in extreme and dangerous conditions. We are quick to criticize them when we feel they've not done their job, but we are not quick to remedy the problems at hand.
Vacancies in these positions exist all over the state. We must employ more CPS workers. We must raise the salaries of CPS workers so that they do not leave their employment at the first opportunity. We must pay them a salary commensurate with their responsibilities and educational attainment (the law requires that they have a college degree and a social worker's license). Perhaps we could change the degree requirements to make applicants who hold degrees in related matters (education, criminaljustice, for example) eligible to fill these positions.
A second gross inequity in how the child welfare system is administered is the fact that kinship (relative) foster care is totally uncompensated. This is not right. Does it make any sense that we would ask a family of five to foster parent nieces or nephews who have been removed from their parents' home and offer them no financial assistance in doing so, but we would place those same children with total strangers and give them remuneration to assist in the care of these children? Talk about unfair. Children will have a better opportunity to thrive if placed with familiar and safe relatives, and we may be able to expand our desperately needed foster family base.
Not every county in West Virginia is covered by a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) program, made up of unpaid volunteers, and these programs are proven winners in assisting children in achieving a safe and permanent home. We need to encourage and fund these programs. CASA, with its use of volunteers, helps to decrease the workload of CPS workers.
It is time the governor and legislators of our state put at-risk children at the top of the list, and I call upon the Health and Human Services committees of both the House and Senate to place these items on their immediate agenda. I also ask the public to help hold them accountable to the children in our state who have no voice.
Talia Markham is the reigning Miss West Virginia.
