AG’s office wants to pause WV foster kids’ lawsuit against state, seeks U.S. Supreme Court review

The West Virginia Attorney General’s office is seeking to pause a sweeping lawsuit brought by foster children against the state while attorneys ask the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the ongoing suit. 

Attorneys with the state want the nation’s highest court to determine if federal courts have the power to force systemic change in the troubled foster care system.

The West Virginia Attorney General’s office has entered a motion for stay in the federal court and asked for a pause on court proceedings. If granted, it would delay a potential trial for foster children and their attorneys, who first filed the suit in 2019.

Their class-action lawsuit sought to address pervasive issues, including a shortage of Child Protective Services workers and safe homes for children in and out of state. Children were left to linger in the system for years with no plans for permanent homes or ending up in abusive group homes, the lawsuit said. 

There are currently 5,890 children in West Virginia foster care. A four-month-old baby in foster care died last month in Mingo County, prompting renewed concerns about the vetting of child homes and high CPS caseloads. 

In June, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a decision made last year by the U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin dismissing the lawsuit meant to improve West Virginia’s long-troubled foster care system. 

When Goodwin dismissed the suit in 2025, he didn’t refute the lawsuit’s allegations against the state but said, “This court cannot take over the foster care system of West Virginia.” Goodwin wrote, “The blame squarely lies with the West Virginia state government.”

The appeals court ruled in June that Goodwin erred in ruling that federal courts did not have power to grant relief for systemic issues in foster care. 

Now, the Attorney General’s office wants the U.S. Supreme Court to determine the role of courts in imposing systemic reform of the foster care system because it would amount “to complete federal control of the state foster care system,” according to their filing on June 26. The attorneys also have questions about the class-action certification, which was granted to the children suing the state in 2023.

The state attorneys also noted that state officials and staff would “need to devote substantial time, attention, and financial resources to the litigation rather than the important day-to-day management and operations of the child welfare system” should the stay in the case not be granted. 

The U.S. The Supreme Court has discretion to choose which cases they will hear. The Justices typically hear fewer than 2% of cases appealed to it. 

The lawsuit was originally filed against previous Gov. Jim Justice and former foster care officials; it has continued under Gov. Patrick Morrisey and his administration. 

Attorneys for the children, led by legal nonprofit A Better Childhood, are seeking to improve the state’s foster care system through court-mandated changes. They want a judge to require a monitor to oversee improvements like fewer caseloads for CPS workers and improved screening process for homes where children are placed. 

Their lawsuit against the state was previously thrown out in 2021 then revived by an appeals court in 2022.