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King Bureaucracy likes to play by its own rules. We all know that in West Virginia. But a recently filed lawsuit suggests it might also be ignoring a nearly decade-old law -- to the detriment of Mountain State youth.
Back in 2015, Senate Bill 393 was introduced on behalf of Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, and UNANIMOUSLY passed by the House and Senate. It required the Division of Juvenile Services, the former Department of Health and Human Resources and the Department of Education to track and record outcomes of truancy diversion programs operated and funded by the West Virginia Supreme Court, among other things. The idea was to try to do better for these kids.
According to a lawsuit filed by the West Virginia State Conference of the NAACP against the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security, the state Department of Human Services, and the state Department of Education, none of it has happened.
"In 2015, troubled by the problems plaguing a juvenile legal system that confined youth at a higher rate than any other state in the country, West Virginia's state legislature overwhelmingly passed, and the governor signed into law, Senate Bill 393," attorneys for the NAACP wrote. "This statute prioritized community-based services and alternatives to detention for youth who become involved with the juvenile legal system. Ultimately, the legislature intended to improve youth outcomes such as rates of recidivism and truancy."
But, as the lawsuit points out, data had to be collected and analyzed, and not a single agency took even that first step.
"These agencies' failure to abide by their duties deprives West Virginia policymakers and policy advocates of data that would help them advocate for and enact maximally effective policies to improve the lives of West Virginia's youth and their communities."
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle decided this law was a necessity for West Virginia. If the lawsuit's allegations are accurate, agencies took it upon themselves to decide it wasn't -- to disregard the law.
Should that be determined to have been the case, today's agency leaders must immediately get to work -- not just to reverse nine years of failure to obey the law, but to find out all we can about how best to support some of our most vulnerable young people.