By Steven Allen Adams, Parkersburg News and Sentinel
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Delegates concerned about the state’s burgeoning foster care system breathed a sigh of relief Thursday after a bill stuck in its third committee for 22 days was on its way to first reading today.
The House Finance Committee recommended House Bill 4092 for passage Wednesday night. It was the only bill on the agenda, which gave the public barely one and half hour’s notice. The bill was moved out in just five minutes.
The bill had sat in the House Finance Committee since Jan. 22. It was first introduced Jan. 10 and made it through the House Health and Human Resources Committees Jan. 17 and the House Judiciary Committee Jan. 22.
HB 4092 would create the foster children’s bill of rights and the foster parents and kinship bill of rights. Violation of any of these rights would be investigated by the foster care ombudsman.
Payment rates are updated in the bill, with child placement agencies being paid a rate of $75 per day per child, with foster parents receiving at least 40 percent of the rate, or a minimum of $30 per day. For kinship parents, a floor of $900 per month per child is set. …
Read more: https://www.newsandsentinel.com/news/local-news/2020/02/west-virginia-foster-care-bill-on-the-move/
