CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WBOY) — After being established by House Bill 4975 in the 2024 West Virginia Legislature, a new app called “Comet is being rolled out in the Mountain State with the goal of facilitating better communication in the foster care system.
The bill describes that the app will pull information from the state’s existing child welfare systems, facilitate communication and provide health records, among other capacities.
Delegate Adam Burkhammer (R-Lewis), a proponent of “Comet” in the West Virginia Legislature, spoke with 12 News and explained that there are a lot of parties involved in a foster care case, including child protective services, the judicial branch, lawyers, service providers, foster families and biological families.
With that many parties, Burkhammer explained that things can be lost in the shuffle and provided two examples of how Comet can help the system. One of which is that without proper communication, important parties can miss key dates, such as for multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings, where a lot of decisions about the child are made and all parties are supposed to be involved.
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Another example Burkhammer gave was Comet’s ability to provide information at a moment’s notice, such as in situations when a foster parent might have a new child with health conditions, and they need to track down important information in a timely manner.
Burkhammer said that based on his own experience as a foster parent, a unified communication platform is a “no-brainer.”
“I think we spend a lot of time trying to communicate with folks, trying to figure out what’s going on in the case. Where we’re at, are there things that we should be doing? When’s the court case? When’s the MDT? And so we spend a lot of time leaving messages, waiting on call back,” Burkhammer said. “One party talks to another party and not to a third party and so I think it’s just going to cut down on that living in a world of unknown to where we can streamline that communication process.”
The Department of Human Services’ recent report on its Statewide Child Welfare Listening Tour echoes Burkhammer’s sentiments on communication. The report summarizes the comments of 350 participants from across 44 counties. One part of the report reads:
“How is the problem described by people? Information that should flow between agencies, workers, families, and the public at times does not. Critical case information isn’t always shared promptly or consistently among CPS workers, service providers, and courts, leading to delays and miscoordination. Families and caregivers struggle to get answers about their own cases. These breakdowns in communication mean people are left in the dark; leading to frustration, rumors, and mistrust.”
Comet is currently only out in Randolph County, but should have a full statewide rollout in a couple of months, according to Burkhammer. The total cost of the project over the next five years is expected to be $5.4 million, provided by a mix of state and federal funds.
Delegate Burkhammer said he’s excited to see how Comet helps the state’s foster care system, which he described as “struggling along.”
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