New WV Foster Care Ombudsman to Focus on Safety and Prevention

A former child protective services worker now serves as West Virginia’s foster care ombudsman. The state continues to struggle finding placements for around 6,000 children in its foster care system, along with shortages of child welfare workers. Ombudsman Jessica Bryant says her role is to ensure kids remain safe and cared for… and provide help to navigate the system…

“”A child in foster care, a relative kinship or a provider, and something does not feel right, just know that the foster care ombudsman program is here to listen and help navigate. Prevention and safety are not competing goals. When families get the right help at the right time, children are safer, and fewer of them need to enter the foster care system.”