On Monday, West Virginia lawmakers once again pressed the weak legislation known as Raylee's Law into the public arena, citing the passage of a similar bill by Nebraska's Legislature.  They often don't disclose the fact that West Virginia's rate of substantiated victims of maltreatment are three times that of Nebraska and almost double the national rate.  West Virginia's foster care system is under far greater strain than Nebraska, but those details don't make it into their plea for this misguided legislation. 

In the most recent WV Legislative session, amendments to Raylee's Law came down to the wire and passed the House in the final minutes of the regular session.  Delegate Adam Burkhammer (R-Lewis) was responsible for adding the successful amendment to focus the bill on its weakest element-- the failure of Child Protective Services (CPS) to investigate and act on cases in a timely manner.  

His amendment, 3-14 #1 stated: 

" (a) In addition to any other requirements for mandated reporting, a county superintendent shall report directly to the Department of Human Services’ Centralized Intake the suspected abuse or neglect of a child who is currently enrolled in a public school, by the child’s custodial parent, guardian, or caregiver, when there is imminent danger to the physical well-being of the child, and the child’s custodial parent, guardian, or caregiver is transferring or withdrawing the child from school. Such report made by the county superintendent may not be screened out by Centralized Intake, and Child Protective Services shall investigate the report within 24 hours of receiving the report.

(b) Each county school board shall adopt a policy requiring any school teacher or other school personnel who makes a report of suspected child abuse or neglect to notify the county superintendent of the child’s school district within 24 hours of that report being made to the Department of Human Services.” (emphasis added) 


This was a winning amendment as it passed the House with 69 yeas - 26 nays with 4 absent.  The final version of HB 5537 (originally a benign bill to update the Education codes; Raylee's Law language was attached in the final days of the Legislative Session) passed with flying colors with 94 yeas to 1 nay (Delegate Sheedy R-Marshall ) but the session expired before the bill could be presented back to the Senate for approval or rejection. 

Beacon News West Virginia reached out to Delegate Shawn Fluharty to ask, "Would you be agreeable to amending the language in Raylee's Law to include something similar to Delegate Burkammer's amendment to hold CPS accountable?"  

He responded in the negative, saying, "No. It doesn't change the fundamental principle of Raylee's Law which is to stop child abusers from removing children from public schools while a CPS report has been made by a mandatory reporter." 

He went on to say that the current proposed law has large bipartisan support, "so much so, the Senate overruled the Senate President to make sure it was passed over to the House. His amendment just doubles down on an already broken process. The proposed law has been amended several times with bipartisan agreement."  - Delegate Shawn Fluharty

One may reasonably ask why the Delegate from Ohio County and possibly his supporters, such as Delegate Joe Ellington (R-Mercer), Sen. Amy Grady (R-Mason), Sen. Joey Garcia (D-Marion), and Sen. Ryan Weld (R-Brooke) do not wish to raise the standard of care provided by CPS in this bill.  Especially in light of the fact that West Virginia's Child Protective Services failed a federal audit last year, showing that they failed to comply with intake, screening, assessment, and investigation requirements 91% of the time. Read the report: HHS Office of Inspector General Audit of WV