LAST SUMMER, the state Department of Health and Human Resources released its Child Welfare Dashboard. The interactive dashboard makes the information
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LAST SUMMER, the state Department of Health and Human Resources released its Child Welfare Dashboard. The interactive dashboard makes the information surrounding foster care and child welfare in West Virginia more readily accessible to the public.
The dashboard, updated monthly, allows users to choose, filter, and sort information by district, age group, gender, type of placement, and more. Visitors to the dashboard are encouraged to click through its different pages and graphics, exploring in- and out-of-state foster placements as well as workforce data.
Numbers available as this magazine was going to print illustrate the range of data included in the dashboard:
- 6,151 West Virginia children are currently in foster care.
- The highest placement situations are formal kinship/relative homes, at about 2,300; therapeutic foster care, more than 1,600; and informal kinship/relative placements, about 1,075.
- 656 children are in group residential care.
- 30% of the children in care are between the ages of 13 and 17.
- Kanawha County has 635 children in foster care.
- 575 of the 792 child welfare employment positions across the state are currently filled—that’s 73%—with 217 positions vacant.
- The state with the highest number of out-of-state placements is Virginia, where 98 West Virginia children are living.
To view the dashboard, search “Child Welfare Dashboard” at dhhr.wv.gov. To learn more about foster care in the state and how you can get involved, visit missionwv.org.
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