This story was originally published by Mountain State Spotlight. Get stories like this delivered to your email inbox once a week; sign up for the free newsletter at mountainstatespotlight.org/newsletter
Foster kids who are trying to reform West Virginia’s long-troubled child welfare system won’t get their day in court after all.
A federal judge on Friday threw out the case, in which a group of foster children have been suing since 2019 to try to force changes to a system that by all accounts faces a wide and deep collection of problems.
U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that it did not present issues that could be resolved by a federal court.
“This court cannot take over the foster care system of West Virginia,” Goodwin wrote in a 19-page opinion.
The judge did not dispute the bleak state of that system. He wrote that it has “cycled through inaction, bureaucratic indifference, shocking neglect, and temporary fixes for years.”
“The blame squarely lies with West Virginia state government,” Goodwin wrote. “When elected officials fail, the ballot box is the remedy.”
The judge observed that his ruling may be “an unsatisfying result to years-long litigation,” and wrote, “I know there are children who deeply suffer in the custody of the state.”
But, he ruled, the Constitution “does not permit federal courts to step in and govern. It does not allow judges to develop public policy, write budgets, hire caseworkers, or administer state agencies.”
Goodwin issued his ruling barely a month after he delayed a trial in the case from early May until March. The case had already been repeatedly delayed, and was thrown out once before by a different judge, only to be reinstated by a federal appeals court panel.
Last month, Mountain State Spotlight published the results of a six-month investigation into longstanding problems in the system. That reporting found that, despite years of reform efforts, West Virginia’s most vulnerable kids are still left behind by a system that doesn’t provide them the mental health help that they need.
Mountain State Spotlight also found that, while West Virginia’s foster care system leans on grandparents and other family members to raise foster kids, it doesn’t provide the resources those families need. And the investigation found that the state continues to struggle to provide the system with adequate child welfare workers.
During his inaugural address, Gov. Patrick Morrisey promised that he was going to fix the foster care system. The governor has yet to announce his specific proposals, and so far most of the measures being considered in the ongoing legislative session have only picked around the edges of the problems.
Goodwin opined that, “In recent times, the public has turned to the courts for answers to intractable policy issues. It is not difficult to understand why. When government fails, when promises are made and usually broken, when reforms are always delayed or abandoned, people turn in desperation to the judiciary. But there are limits to what the courts can do.”
