2024
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• 7/3/24 - WCHS Eyewitness News
  Delegate suggests surplus could be used to build new Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital.
  
  Michael Folio, legal director for Disability Rights of West Virginia, worries that this potential allocation would be misguided. For years, he has called on the state to do something about the "warehousing" of patients in state facilities who could be better served in the community on waiver and community-based programs and save the taxpayers money.
  https://wchstv.com/newsletter-daily/delegate-suggests-surplus-could-be-used-to-build-new-mildred-mitchell-bateman-hospital
   

• 6/13/24 - NBC News
  A foster care system in crisis:  West Virginia faces a legal reckoning
  
  West Virginia faces a legal reckoning. A sweeping class-action lawsuit accusing the state of failing to protect its foster children appears set to go to trial in the fall. The federal suit could force dramatic changes in how the system is run. 
  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/foster-care-system-crisis-west-virginia-faces-legal-reckoning-rcna147227
   

• 4/3/24 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

W.Va. Grapples With IDD Waiver Program

In the final hours of the 2024 regular legislative session, lawmakers passed a budget that cut funding for IDD waivers. “They failed to do the required financial analysis to determine the impact of cutting the IDD waiver budget,” Folio said.

“We have hundreds of thousands of people in West Virginia that are going to be affected — can you imagine, can you imagine the good work that we did and now we could possibly hurt those folks?” Justice said.
https://wvpublic.org/w-va-grapples-with-idd-waiver-program/

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• 3/20/24 - People Magazine

Elderly Non-Verbal Patient Died After Reportedly Being Left in 134-Degree Whirlpool at Care Facility.

Four people were reportedly fired in connection with the Jan. 4 incident at Hopemont Hospital in Terra Alta, West Virginia

https://www.wowktv.com/news/west-virginia/advocates-families-want-to-see-more-funding-towards-idd-program-following-11-million-cut/

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• 3/18/24 - West Virginia Watch
  ‘His skin melted off’ — Elderly man in state care dies after being left in scalding water.
  
  Three contract nurses at a state-run hospital were fired after the patient’s death. The incident has raised more concerns about how the state health department vets staff who care for vulnerable individuals.
  https://westvirginiawatch.com/2024/03/18/his-skin-melted-off-elderly-man-in-state-care-dies-after-being-left-in-scalding-water/
   

• 3/14/24 - WOWK 13 News
  Advocates, families want to see more funding towards IDD program following $11 million cut.
  https://www.wowktv.com/news/west-virginia/advocates-families-want-to-see-more-funding-towards-idd-program-following-11-million-cut/
   

• 1/24/24 - Mountain State Spotlight
  People with disabilities are stuck at state hospitals. Lawmakers and patient advocates disagree on where they should go next.
  https://mountainstatespotlight.org/2024/01/24/idd-transitional-facilities-bill/
   

• 1/24/24 - West Virginia Watch
  House committee passes controversial plan to build facility for patients with disabilities.
  
  Citing “no real solutions,” House lawmakers are moving forward with a plan to build a new facility for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The proposal has been met with sharp criticism from those who advocate for and serve patients with disabilities; they say the bill will further trap individuals in institutions without proper support.
  https://westvirginiawatch.com/2024/01/24/house-narrowly-passes-controversial-plan-to-build-facility-for-patients-with-disabilities/

 

• 1/19/24 - West Virginia Watch
  Teachers need student discipline support. State lawmakers will try to address a complicated issue. 
  
  School discipline issues have spiked post pandemic, and West Virginia is one of several states that have already enacted stricter punishments for disruptive students. Lawmakers said they’ll be doing much more to address student discipline issues, mostly focusing on protecting teachers and bolstering their ability to remove disruptive students. There’s already legislation that expands last year’s discipline bill into elementary schools.
  
  Holly Sheldon, a senior advocate with Disability Rights West Virginia, said schools are already failing to follow students’ IEP and behavior intervention plans, resulting in students being unfairly disciplined. “Children with a disability require assessments and services and not discipline, classroom removal or expulsion.  Schools cannot discipline the disability out of a student,” she said.
  https://westvirginiawatch.com/2024/01/19/teachers-need-student-discipline-support-state-lawmakers-will-try-to-address-a-complicated-issue/
   

 

• 1/18/24 - West Virginia Watch
  What are we waiting for?  Legislators, our child welfare system needs immediate action.
  
  Do you remember the old Dutch tale about a boy who stuck his finger in a leaking dike to save his country from a great flood? It’s a story about courage and conviction in taking action to prevent the devastation of immediate danger.  We are at a similar juncture with the plight of West Virginia’s child welfare system — and ours is no tale.
  https://westvirginiawatch.com/2024/01/18/what-are-we-waiting-for-legislators-our-child-welfare-system-needs-immediate-action/
   

• 1/17/24 - West Virginia Watch
  Judge considers ‘proper sanctions’ against state health department over deleted foster care emails.
  
  ‘You guys really didn’t do that much to protect it,’ a federal judge told health department attorneys and leaders on Wednesday.
  https://westvirginiawatch.com/2024/01/17/judge-considers-proper-sanctions-against-state-health-department-over-deleted-foster-care-emails/
   

• 1/16/24 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

  Attorneys Seek Sanctions In Delayed Lawsuit Against DHHR.  Attorneys say they have new evidence that shows the now split West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) purposely deleted emails related to a class action lawsuit.
  
  Plaintiffs in the suit, A Better Childhood, a New York-based nonprofit, along with Shafer and Shafer and Disability Rights West Virginia, recently asked for sanctions in the case due to lack of evidence retention from the defendants.
  https://wvpublic.org/attorneys-seek-sanctions-in-delayed-lawsuit-against-dhhr/
   

• 1/10/24 - West Virginia Watch
  Isn’t it time for the West Virginia Legislature to face the truth about Sharpe Hospital?
   
  During the 2023 legislative session, the West Virginia Legislature enacted House Bill 2006 that split the Department of Health and Human Resources into three agencies amid criticism of mismanagement, nonfeasance and retaliation.  The bill required DHHR to create a “long-term sustainability plan for each state health facility” by Dec. 1, 2023.  
  
  The deadline has passed and DHHR has presented no formal plan to sustain the state’s seven health care facilities — one acute, four long-term care and two psychiatric facilities.
  https://westvirginiawatch.com/2024/01/10/isnt-it-time-for-the-west-virginia-legislature-to-face-the-truth-about-sharpe-hospital/?emci=7da18419-1eaf-ee11-bea1-0022482237da&emdi=c711fdc3-afaf-ee11-bea1-0022482237da&ceid=113465
   

• 1/9/24 - West Virginia Watch
  Older foster kids are turning up in mental hospitals because the state has nowhere to put them.  “I think [the state] failed him. And, they’ve failed me,” a mother said.
  https://westvirginiawatch.com/2024/01/09/older-foster-kids-are-turning-up-in-mental-hospitals-because-the-state-has-nowhere-to-put-them/
   

• 1/2/24 - West Virginia Watch
  State health department’s top attorney retires amid ties to deleted foster care email scandal. The department is facing sanctions over missing emails from former officials in an ongoing lawsuit about the treatment of foster kids.
  https://westvirginiawatch.com/2024/01/02/state-health-departments-top-attorney-retires-amid-ties-to-deleted-foster-care-email-scandal/