RANDOLPH COUNTY, W.Va. – Despite missing its initial rollout deadline, a new communications platform has launched in Randolph County to streamline communication between all parties involved in a child welfare case so that the care of the child can be better prioritized. Some potential users of the new system are skeptical about how effective the tool will be once fully implemented, though.
After initially being planned for a July 1 release, the Communications and Operations Mobile Engagement Tool (COMET) rollout had to be delayed to Sept. 1 but was completed once the project secured federal funding.
“There's so much information flowing back and forth from the legal process in the courts into the actual process through Child Protective Services, now with an outside foster family or kinship family involved, and that miscommunication, or lack of communication, ultimately led to, I think, low quality care for the child,” West Virginia Delegate Adam Burkhammer, R-Lewis, said.
As a foster parent himself, Burkhammer said he found it’s important to make communication easier between all parties involved in a child’s case, be it foster parents, biological or kinship parents, social service workers or the state judicial and executive branches.
The biggest challenge a child welfare case presents is the complexity of it, according to Burkhammer. Many parties are involved, and this leads to what he calls a “buffet of communication” for just one case, where several different parties are getting multiple different texts, calls and emails with the same information.
This makes it harder for those involved in the case to actually focus on the wellbeing of the child. The idea behind this communication tool is to cut down on the influx of messages and make communication easier so that the child’s protection and comfort can be put first.
“It's a more effective and efficient use of time for everyone involved, which I think all of that brings better care for the child at the end of the day,” Burkhammer said.
Additionally, according to a 2024 annual report from the state foster care ombudsman, one of the main complaints received across Kanawha, Marion and Harrison counties was about the lack of communication within the foster care system.
According to the report, 146 out of the total 711 complaint cases that the ombudsman investigated focused on lack of communication.
COMET works as a communication portal where the different parties can log their information into one place. That info is available to everyone involved, making the process much easier and efficient for them, according to Burkhammer.
For example, Child Protective Services workers would be able to put their reports into the system that they use, and then COMET would be able to pull that report out and add it to their own in real time.
That has been phase one of the system, according to Burkhammer. Phase two will be about involving the court systems in a similar way.
“The court has their own system,” Burkhammer said. “So all of that information that the court is already putting in will be able to interface together and be pulled into this communication system.”
Additionally, Aetna, a managed health care company, will partner with the system in its third phase, and provide all the child’s important health information.
“Basically, we're going to pull all the necessary information out from already existing technology systems, and we're going to bring it in here to one spot,” Burkhammer said.
This system comes as a result of legislation passed in 2024, House Bill 4975, requiring “the Bureau of Social Services to implement a child welfare information technology system; providing access to the system; setting forth the requirements of the system.”
The Department of Human Services plans to bring phases two and three to the rest of the state by July of 2026 as they continue the rollout process.
Burkhammer said that while it is a bit too early in the process to determine how effective the tool is, he thinks the biggest challenge will be getting people to use the new technology available to them.
“We are creatures of habit, and so when, when it's something new, I think we're going to traditionally go back to our old means and methods of phone calls and text messages and not rely on this,” Burkhammer said. “I think it's just going to be a learning curve for all parties and all users involved to realize that this new tool exists and it can be a great resource for folks.”
While the new tool would only be mandatory to be made available and only mandatory to use by state employees and not individuals, some have expressed concern that the new tool could overcomplicate the different communication methods, instead of streamline them.
Teresa McCourt, program director of the Elkins Necco Foster Care location, has not been given access to the system yet but has expressed concern that a third system on top of the already government-mandated systems that foster care workers are required to use would actually make the system more complex because, according to her, the current systems are not being used adequately enough.
The current systems foster care workers use are a manual process and, because of this, information could go missing or incomplete if somebody doesn’t do their job or doesn’t do it quickly enough, she said.
“I like the concept of, you know, we have one place that everybody can access, and the information is there for anybody to go in and receive, and I think that is the intent of the PATH portal with the electronic record keeping at the state level, but it's not used the right way,” McCourt said.
“I would be great with a new system if it replaced the old system that's fractured and broken. But what I would hesitate on is if we're going to keep the old system and then add this one on top of it, then we still have a faulty system that we're working in, and it's wasting manpower and time and energy.”
Similarly, Abby Miller, the site manager of the Children’s Home Society of West Virginia Morgantown location, also expressed support for the idea, but worries that workers would not check the system or stay up to date with communication through it.
“Ideally, the concept of it seems great. I hope that it will be a helpful tool, because communication really is lacking between everybody,” she said. “My only concern will be that I feel like I don't know what more of the difference will be with workers checking that than they are with checking their email. I feel like that's where we send a lot of information about our patients to these emails, and they just don't get back to us.”