By james art 
This story was originally published by Mountain State Spotlight. Get stories like the one delivered to your mailbox once a week; Sign up for the free newsletter of MountainstateSpotlight.org/newsletter
Charleson – foster children who are trying to reform the problem system of well -being of Western Virginia will have to wait longer for their day in court.
On Wednesday, US District Judge Joseph R. Gudwin postponed the process for more than 5 years until May 6. The process was scheduled for the beginning of March.
The delay came when Mountain State Spotlight publishes the results of a six -month investigation into long -standing problems in the Western Virginia foster care system.
The reporting found that despite the years of reform efforts, the most vulnerable children of Western Virginia are still abandoned by a system that does not provide them with the help for the mental health they need.
Although cuts new programs for sending fewer children to group homes and treatment centers, by 2022, Western Virginia still placed half of children with any type of disability in these types of facilities, percentage three times the average for The country, the first- first, first open analysis of its-ITS-IT-KIND data. After the federal government began investigating the treatment of Western Virginia of foster children with disabilities, the state began to check a much lower percentage of children for these conditions.
Mountain State Spotlight also found that while Western Virginia foster care is bent on grandparents and other family members to raise foster children, it does not provide the resources they need for families. And the investigation found that the state continues to struggle to provide the system with adequate workers for the well -being of the children.
Since September 2019, a group of foster children have been suing the condition above the conditions of the system. This case has been delayed many times, as the state has sought to throw it away and was back and back to the federal court and moved to another judge.
Gudwin delayed the trial after a private lawyer representing government officials said he could not attend a pre-trial meeting scheduled for February, as he should be out of the country for his mother’s 70th birthday. Foster attorneys said they could not agree to various alternative dates for this meeting. “Although the plaintiffs want to be flexible and adaptable, the lack of diligence of the defendants in dealing with this conflict of planning has made it logistically impossible to do so,” they wrote in their opposition to change.
The judge said “the failure to find a friendly decision is discouraging.”
Late last year, the US Department of Justice has expanded its attention to the Western Virginia foster care system as the state failed to show the necessary improvements.