West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources [WVDHHR]
Reviews and Complaints

My son had just turned 2 at the time, and he's been diagnosed with at least 2 different spectrums of autism. He requires almost 24/7 care, is non verbal, and many other things that effect him. He managed to get outside by himself in the early morning hours (July 3) and ended up in the parking lot that's maybe 10 ft from our front door playing in a rain puddle. I was of course sleeping and was unaware until the police and a cps worker came to my door. The front door was left wide open. The police officer and cps worker ended up having my son for almost 2 hours and counted that as time my son was left unattended. The cps worker asked me to sign a " 7 day temporary safety plan" which obviously he didn't explain to me what that was so I was unaware that signing that gave me a open cps case basically and he never explained anything about removal, things I had to follow, or what came after the 7 days.

I had no contact with cps until I was notified by my son's father who's incarcerated that I had a court hearing (Aug 22). That day after court the cps worker notified me a warrant had been issued for my arrest for child neglect. ( Warrant issued on Aug 8) but I was not arrested during court. On Aug 29th the guardian aid lien and a cps worker came to my house along with the sheriffs department and the warrant was served, I was arrested. Since I was the only adult in the house the cps worker asked for a list of family members that she could call that would be able to pick up my son. She never once said anything about him being removed from my custody. After that day I went almost 5 months with absolutely no contact with my son. His paternal grandfather ended up with my son. I was told I was to have no contact until cps gave instructions. On Sept 19th I had my second hearing, I was not present for the hearing due to being sent to drug screen. The hearing was held without me and I eventually found out that the department asked for custody of my son that day and it was granted. So cps gave my son to his grandfather illegally. I never had a court hearing after removal or the chance to even speak for myself. Cps then ghosted me. I also have two older daughters from a different relationship who were included after the petition to court. I have yet to have any type of visitation with them since Aug 29, 2022. My son's grandfather had also previously been in contact with cps without my knowledge and pressed the issue of removal from the very beginning.

Nov 3, 2022 I found out that my son was no longer with his grandfather and that he had been placed with a foster. His grandfather was court ordered custody of my son and placed him with a foster without notifying cps, myself, no one. I eventually found out that the foster had my son since the end of September full time.

Cps stopped all visitations in January and I've not seen my son or daughters since.

-dates, signatures, events that did/did not happen are either incorrect, forged, or just plain out lies. The dates on my file are incorrect. Even the date in which my son got outside is incorrect throughout my entire file.

-the didn't even try to contact my family before removal, or once we found out he wasn't with a blood relative. They illegally placed him to begin with.

- my civil rights along with my children's civil rights are being violated. I went 5 months without seeing them, I had 4 visits with my son and they stopped visitations with all children in January 2023. I haven't had any contact with my son or daughters. I have not been informed of any of my son's doctors appointments, physical and speech therapies, surgeries, diagnosis, or anything with birth to three or early headstart. My daughter's I've been forced to not be involved with their schooling, therapy, or the normal teenage girl things that require a mother's love. My oldest struggles with anxiety, depression, and has had a eating disorder in the past and I've not been able to stay involved at all.

- court orders have been violated.

- they claimed my son was non verbal due to me being unable to properly care for him. My son is considered to be on a 9-12 old month level so I was blamed for him being so far behind. He was diagnosed with autism not long after removal as well as started with birth to three and therapy. I had already started the process to start hik with speech therapy and birth to three. I made all doctors appointments and I was very involved with him since I was the sole caregiver since he was born. His father was incarcerated when he was 7 months old and is still currently incarcerated.

-my court appointed attorney (John Rogers) is directly affiliated with the guardian aid lien, he worked with her directly for years. He has not represented me at all. He does not answer phone calls, emails, he has not gave me the correct guidance, my lawyer as well as the cps caseworker, no one involved notifies me of things I am required to be at like MDT meetings, court hearings, ect. I'm required to take parenting classes but cps has not provided me with anyone to teach this class not supervise any visitations if I were to have any. They with hold important information.

-the cps caseworker (Felicia Bacorn Morgantown WV) has on numerous occasions been unprofessional. Before I even met her I overheard her speaking of me in a way that was unprofessional, disrespectful, and in violation of they're code of ethics.

-from what I've been told by the foster mother who had my son, the last MDT meeting that was held ( I wasn't notified nor sent a link to join) they were filing a motion to terminate my rights but I've yet to be notified of this and I've reached out to my lawyer and got no response.

I have been trying to get something done about issues my son is having for months now. His medications are making his situation worse but the person/people in charge of them refuse to hear complaints. This issue started with him having issues of shaking, they brought him in and said they didn't see any shaking, then memory loss, confusion, and now seizures. His med management team have totally ignored all issues brought to them.

I need to have my son switched to a team where all of them care about his wellbeing. Patients who complain are ignored, their complaints are chocked up drug usage, (slanderous), them lying, or other nonsense. My son has had his issues and our complaints ignored more than once and every time I have complained to certain members of his treatment team, my complaints have been ignored to the point that my sons shaking turned into issues with his loss of memory, confusion, and now seizures. He has had issues with dry mouth, memory losses, deep confusion and now seizures.

May 15 maybe through 22 cps came into my sister's home and removed my grandson from their parents. There was never a investigation of any kind. I am the maternal grandmother yet cps placed him with the other grandparent in which is the one who called cps and they let her come in my sisters home with them without permission from my sister. I am not allowed any contact with my grandson. My daughter and the baby's daddy was forced by greenbrier county cps worker to sign there rights over so here is the problem the other grandmother tells this cps worker I am on drugs. Not one time in a year has anyone of the cps worker come talk to me and I have called time and time again and left message and still nothing. Now they let the other grandmother have the child and is gonna see about her adopting him. So where is it in the book of laws cps can just go on word and no proof at all of any accusations made about me and let the other grandmother who never want him denie me and my family any contact and let her have him and me not a chance at all. They have slander my name and they have never spoke to me or investigate the situation. Yet now he lives with drug addict aunt and her registered sex offender boyfriend and grandmother. They have failed there job he was safe with me and they took hearsay and not any proof and placed him in a home with a drug addict and reg sex offerend. Where is my justice and reason why I can't see my grandson.

I applied for snao benefits around the middle of october. My case worker, Kathleen L Lewis contacted me for my phone interview. I told her i had an interview with the huntington mall and they said i would have the job as long as my background came back ok but i hadnt started yet. She said i was approved byt needed to get an employment verification form filled out then return it. She sent me the form in the mail but the employer said he couldnt fill it out til I had actually started employment. I tried contacting my worker leaving detailed messages as to trying to figure out what i needed to do. Finally contacted charleston to see what to do. I was advised to write a letter stating about the employment. I did so then recieved a letter in mail yesterday my stamps were denied for not registerimg with workforce. I was never informed to. I have the letter that list of documentation needed there was nothing mentioned about workforce. Please contact me back on where to go from here please. Tried calling local office and always get voicemail.
Thankyou. Tera Napier
[protected]
Email: [protected]@gmail.com

My ex husband has been involved with CPS since 2009 when he got busted for drug trafficking. Until now he's had roughly 10-15 referrals to CPS regarding our 2 children from our marriage. His latest cases have been ongoing for about 2 years when it was discovered that he himself was taking my son's ADHD meds instead. My complaint is why after all this time and all these accusations is he still permitted custody of our children? Currently they're staying with Dad's girlfriend after being evicted. The children have no clean clothing or weather appropriate clothing. No hygiene products to get clean. No food alot of the time, absolutely minimal supervision, misses a ton of school, and he hasn't had a steady job ever! I strongly feel like something terrible is gonna happen to my kids while CPS laughs and jokes in the kitchen with Dad! Why hasn't something already been done? Before it's too late...

CPS became involved when my fiance was served with a search warrant in which the State Police found marijuana. My fiance was out on bail the next day. On April 16th, two Cps Workers were at my door and my fiance told them they needed a warrant before they came in our home, so they left. Two hours later, they were back and one of the Workers stated "Either let us in your home to interview your children or we will get a petition to take them into State's Custody." I felt like I was pressured to give my consent in order to keep my girls out of State Custody. The DHHR received the referral on April 10th and the conclusion on their Intake Report stated that the 0-72 hour code was met, but yet they didn't make contact until 6 days later. S49-4-301 states any retention of a child or order for retention of a child not complying with time limits and other requirements specified in this article shall be void by operation of law. Both the Workers walked around in the home and there were no present dangers which means immediate, significant and clearly observable family conditions that is actively occurring. The very next day (April 17th) Cps stated that they had a petition they were working on and the girls had to go to my parents home. The following Monday, I obtained the petition and as I read through it, I found several false allegations made by the Cps Workers. First, they stated that the caregiver's drug and/or alcohol use is pervasive and threatens child safety. The state of the parent's condition is more important than a use of a substance. It must be evident that the parent is unable to provide care to his children right now due to their level of intoxication. They put that because my fiance was jumping from thought to thought and acting nervous, that he was intoxicated. He is medically diagnosed with anxiety and PTSD. Secondly, they stated that the living arrangements seriously endanger a child's physical health. We have a safe and permanent place to live, anything that would cause harm is kept in child's safety containers or out of reach. Last one was that one or both caregivers lack parenting knowledge, skills, or motivation which affects child safety. My fiance and I are involved in their education and upbringing. My 2 girls participated in Gymnastics and Dance Class. My oldest was recently Student of the Month. We have employment that pays enough to provide including shelter, food, clothing and medical. CPS made those false allegations, knowing the reports would be used by a judge to make a decision in the case. If they wouldn't of put those statements in the Family Functioning Assessment, we would of been eligible for an In- Home Improvement Period. S49-4-602 states if at time of the petition was filed the court placed the children in the emergency custody of the DHHR, a preliminary hearing on emergency custody shall be initiated within 10 days. My children were taken on April 17th and the preliminary hearing wasn't conducted until May 2nd. Our case was severely mishandled and something needs to be done ASAP. My children suffered the lose of their Aunt last summer, now this? This is unnecessary trauma!

Have been trying for 2 weeks to determine my/my kids eligibility for assistance. The case worker at my county office has made changes but the info on my denial is still incorrect . I can't get thru to the state office customer service # and she hasn't returned my call. My current eligibility is due to expire in three days and I need to know ASAP if it will continue or not as I have surgeries scheduled for December that I need to either cancel or confirm. The information on my case is not correct and I can't get ahold of anyone to correct it or anyone who knows how to correct it they just keep sending it in wrong.

I have had nothing but issues with WV DHHR since I moved to WV. The office I am having issues with is the office in Weirton, WV case worker Michelle Robinson. I've had a case open since July of 2017 using SNAP and Medicaid. The start of July I was unemployed and then started my job in August. I turned in my change like we're supposed to and showed them pay stubs yet they kept telling me nothing was on file. After many phone calls i got out straightened out. Come January of 2018 I started a second job. I turned in my change, had my papers in on time yet my case worker turned off my food stamps saying they still needed it. Eventually they found it and told me it needed processed. My case worker never gave me any alert to let me know that I wouldn't get my food stamps on time. That's important for families that desperately need them like mine. My case worker barely returns my calls. This time when she called me back she talked to me like trash. Just because I am on government assistance does NOT mean I will accept being talked to that way. I refuse. As I asked her questions to better understand what happened she kept going well "I don't know you talked to Kim" which is the supervisor that I had to speak to. Who in their right mind treats someone like that? That's not okay! I am asking for someone else to take on my case immediately.

Hi I was asking ppl for help with fire wood and a lady Shawnee Coveren from Hedgesville WV asked if we had food stamps to give her for her help, since we do not get food stamps, I told her no, BUT just wanted to let you know not sure how many more ppl she has asked. Then she asked if we had anything of value or knew anyone who had food stamps, again I told her no, I believe you need to check this person out, I do not know if she receives benefits or not

Can a wv cps worker go before a wv county judge and get a gig order so the dhhr does not have to answer why they gave out confidential information out on other peoples paper work about our adoption(Former kids names, income info.) we were in in this case nor did we have anything to do with this case. The county judge had a hearing without letting us know that a hearing was was scheduled. And put a gag order on us