State denies record requests in high-profile death of Boone County girl

A state agency declined to share records showing if Child Protective Services knew about the girl who was found earlier this month “in a skeletal state” on the bathroom floor of her Boone County home.

Family members of the deceased girl told WCHS that they had contacted CPS about 14-year-old Kyneddi Miller prior to her April 17 death. Her mother was charged with child neglect causing death.

West Virginia Watch and other media outlets requested documentation through the Freedom of Information Act, including CPS referrals and travel records, that could have shown if the state was aware of the girl or checked on her prior to her death.

An attorney for the Department of Human Services did not return any documents for the case in the FOIA response sent May 3.

“ … There is no specific exemption to the confidentiality of records or information regarding children for members of the media and your status as such affords you no special privilege or access to information,” said DoHS General Counsel Loren Allen. “As a member of the public, we encourage you to access the Bureau for Social Services ‘Critical Incident Report’ for 2024 when it is published.”

The annual reports referred to by Allen include the number of children who died due to abuse and/or neglect. It provides some information on child deaths.  

Grappling with an overwhelmed child welfare system, CPS workers have investigated only about half of child abuse and/or neglect referrals in the state-mandated timeframe. The lag in investigations could leave some kids in dangerous situations. 

Simultaneously, the Department of Human Services, which oversees CPS, has faced allegations of hiding behind state child privacy laws when asked about its shortcomings.

For Del. Amy Summers, co-chair of a committee focused on Health and Human Resource Accountability, the DoHS reports are published far too long after critical incidents occur. 

“I am so frustrated at the inability to get access to information or to people,” said Summers, R-Taylor. “There are no checks and balances to the system.”

Gov. Jim Justice previously said that CPS wasn’t aware of the child prior to her death. 

Before the governor’s revelation, DoHS leadership had said child privacy laws should shield case information in an effort to protect the integrity and confidentiality of the system.

“We would like to know if CPS was called over this horrific situation in Boone County, and if they responded,” said House Health Committee Minority Chair Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha. “That’s something we desire to know — if this system is doing what it’s supposed to be doing and protecting vulnerable kids.”

He continued, “We can never get any information … We are unable to find out what went wrong in yet another horrific story. There’s zero transparency and zero accountability. It’s frustrating and disgusting.”

A spokesperson for Justice did not respond to an email inquiry for this story.

Kelli Caseman is executive director of Think Kids West Virginia, a child advocacy nonprofit organization.

“We should know when and where CPS was involved in this,” she said. “We will never create a better system if we just allow CPS to hide behind their interpretation of the law.”

Other states share more information on CPS cases, child deaths 

West Virginia Watch did not seek any personal information about the child and continues to seek CPS travel records in the case to verify workers responded to neighbors’ alleged calls. 

“[DoHS] also recognizes and respects its statutory duty to balance the people’s right to information with the individual rights and freedoms of the specific people we serve and the overall integrity of the system we are tasked with administering on behalf of those individuals,” Allen wrote. “ … The confidentiality protocols, mandated by both state and federal law expressly supersede the public’s general right to information.”

Other states share more information regarding CPS cases and child deaths. Arizona’s state law mandates the release of information, including actions taken by its child services workers, after the death or near death as a result of abuse, abandonment or neglect.

“More money and more [CPS workers] are not going to fix the system. It’s an accountability problem,” Caseman said. “If the state law needs to be changed, then we should change it.”

DoHS previously released records in a Kanawha County case that showed CPS was aware of children who were found in October living in a shed without access to running water or a toilet. An attorney for the department said no records existed that could show CPS traveled to the home to check on the children.

The deceased girl had been homeschooled, according to records obtained from Boone County Schools.

West Virginia Watch sought CPS referral records from the school district and the West Virginia Department of Education.

An attorney for the WVDE said that the agency only had an educational record for the child; its disclosure was prohibited under federal education laws meant to protect student privacy.

Foster care system’s transparency concerns continue  

A lack of transparency from the former state health department — including its management of the foster care system — prompted state lawmakers to break up the department in 2023.

Since it split into three new departments Jan. 1, Pushkin said its secrecy has only gotten worse. 

“When we passed the bill to break up the [West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources], I stated then that unless there was a real culture change, instead of having one large dysfunctional department, we would have three slightly smaller dysfunctional departments. So far, that seems to be the case,” he said.

DoHS is embroiled in a sweeping class-action lawsuit about its alleged mistreatment of thousands of children in foster care. 

The agency is facing possibly $172,000 in sanctions for its role in failing to preserve emails from former top foster care officials, which could have been used as evidence in the case.