CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The drug crisis means West Virginia is in desperate need of foster families. The state Department of Health and Human Resources says the number of children taken into state custody has risen by nearly 50 percent in the last three years - almost all because one or both parents are addicted to drugs.
Crystal Smith and her husband are foster parents in Ravenswood. She said over the last decade, they've taken in 30 children. She described being a foster parent as an emotional rollercoaster.
"Your heart breaks, but you have to do it,” Smith said. “Those kids - in that moment, when their world is completely ripped apart - they need somebody to be strong for them. They need to feel safe, they need to feel love, they need to feel like they're worth something."
According to DHHR, the state now leads the nation in the rate of children removed from their homes. The department said there is a "drastic shortage" of foster families. Placements are arranged through agencies like Mission West Virginia.
Smith said she and her husband didn't set out to foster so many children, but they adopted the motto "there's always room for one more." She said in one case, they took in a child from a mother who had other children.
"Every time she had a child, we took that child in, so the kids could be raised as a sibling group,” she said. “And if I can help out just one more, or our family can help one more child, then we're doing what we're supposed to be doing."
Smith said they've adopted five of the foster kids. And they’ve made a lot of changes in their lives - like buying a 12-passenger van. She said at Christmas, the living room "looks like ‘Toys 'R' Us exploded."
She also said a lot of people have assumed foster children are bound to cause trouble. But in her experience, that isn't true.
"Probably 98 percent of them are not in foster care for something that they've done,” she said. “They're in a situation that they did not ask for, because of bad choices that their parents have made."
Around 90 percent of the children the Smiths have fostered were separated from their birth families as the result of substance abuse. Child welfare statistics for children in the foster care system in the state is available here.
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The lack of quality child care for infants and toddlers costs Colorado nearly $3 billion each year in lost earnings, productivity and revenue but an initiative in Mesa County shows what is possible when local governments, businesses and civic groups team up.
Keller Anne Ruble, client success manager for the software firm BridgeCare, said officials saw huge demand for child care in the town of Clifton, but no providers. So they built a new facility that provides child care and also trains new caregivers.
"So that they can meet the needs of working families and invest in their early care workforce pipeline," Ruble explained. "And because of that investment, they now have 270 seats at this child care center, and they've completely eliminated their child care desert."
Budgetary constraints imposed by Colorado's Taxpayer Bill of Rights make it much harder for the state to invest tax revenues in initiatives such as the one in Clifton. The state also recently froze enrollment in the Colorado Child Care Assistance Program. Over the past 15 years, Colorado's economic growth has dropped from fifth in the nation to 41st, according to the 2025 Colorado University Leeds School of Business report.
Half of Colorado parents said they have quit jobs, worked fewer hours and taken unpaid time off. In 2023, more than 10,000 moms left the workforce, all because of a lack of child care.
Ruble emphasized when the cost of child care is too high, many parents just cannot afford to go to work.
"Families across the country are spending up to 60% of their income on child care," Ruble pointed out. "That's equivalent to a second mortgage or a second rent payment."
Children younger than age 3 are experiencing one of the most crucial periods of brain development and Ruble stressed investing in quality care is important for their long-term health.
"When young children have high-quality, enriching early experiences with trusted caregivers, it sets them on a strong foundation for growing, flourishing into thriving adults that contribute to our workforce and our society," Ruble asserted.
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The number of Kentucky children enrolled in preschool increased in 2024, along with state spending per child, according to new data from the National Institute for Early Education Research.
The commonwealth spent around $6,500 per child during the last academic year, an increase of more than $800 from the prior year.
Steve Barnett, founder and senior director of the institute and the study's co-author, said it is unrealistic to think states could replace cuts to Head Start funding amid the Trump administration's proposed freezes of federal grant funding.
"And particularly replace it overnight if the program is suddenly defunded," Barnett emphasized. "States are going to have to step up and figure out what to do if that happens."
He added if Head Start funding is eliminated, access to public preschool will decline in several states by more than 10 percentage points, and in some, by 20.
Kentucky lawmakers have taken recent steps to expand preschool access, including passing House Bill 695, which established the Adaptive Kindergarten Readiness Pilot Project. The measure aims to provide no-cost, online education for 3- and 4-year-olds who may not be attending state-funded preschool programs.
Allison Friedman-Krauss, associate research professor at the institute, said states spent more than $13 billion on preschool last year, including $257 million in federal pandemic relief funding, in part to attract more qualified teachers.
"We also see in our data that many states are reporting teacher shortages in early childhood, that they've had to increase their waivers in order to get teachers in classrooms," Friedman-Krauss reported.
Research shows toddlers who attend preschool are more prepared for elementary school and less likely to be identified as having special needs, or be held back, than children who do not.
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Medicaid is in the crosshairs, as Republicans in Congress are expected to lay out proposals in May to cut $1.5 trillion from the federal budget, prompting strong opposition from educators.
Around 15 million Californians rely on Medicaid, known here as Medi-Cal, for their health care. However, as Mayra Alvarez, president of the Children's Partnership, noted, the cuts would also deal a devastating blow to schools.
"Medicaid is the third-largest source of funding for K-through-12 public schools to help children have access to routine health screenings, preventive services and physical speech and occupational therapies," she said.
The Trump administration is looking for savings to fund the president's other priorities, including extending his 2017 tax cuts, which primarily benefit the wealthy and corporations. School districts are uneasy because they are legally required to provide accommodations for students with disabilities, regardless of how much the federal government is willing to reimburse.
Sacramento County schools superintendent David Gordon said districts would have to make big cuts across all programs.
"Without those funds, there would be a huge bill," he said, "and school districts would be forced to basically play financial roulette to figure out what do we cut?"
Gordon said his district uses Medi-Cal funds to place mental-health clinicians at each school site, so students with psychological needs get early diagnosis and treatment.
Shana Hazan, a trustee for the San Diego Unified School District, said people don't realize the critical role districts play in providing health-care services.
"Students rely on Medi Cal for things like audiology, mental-health support, nursing and wellness, occupational and physical therapy, home hospital care," she said. "These are really essential for many students with the highest needs."
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