The governor’s administration acknowledged Thursday that it had engaged in destitute communication in connection with the high-profile death of 14-year-old Kyneddi Miller.
In response, state officials promised improvements that could prevent future tragedies. Possible changes include tightening home-schooling laws, since the girl was taken out of public school before her death.
Kyneddi’s mother, who opposite Charged with aggravated child neglect, had failed to file required home schooling evaluations with the local school district, which could have prompted someone to check on the child.
“If you want to say, ‘What do we consider a failure in terms of what we’re seeing and what we need to fix?’ I think this is a failure and we need to see what we can do,” said Brian Abraham, Gov. Jim Justice’s chief of staff.
Kyneddi was found in a “skeletal state” on the bathroom floor of her Boone County home in April. Two Grandparents Charges have also been filed in connection with the girl’s death.
The West Virginia State Police shared a document And audio They said they had made a report about the girl to a local child welfare office in March 2023, and a GPS tracker verified that his patrol car was going there. CPS, which is overwhelmed by the state’s nursing crisis, said it was not a record the transfer.
The discrepancies in the stories, together with the statements of the heads of state, blockade And combative reaction Questions from the media about the case were followed by a press conference at the state Capitol, which Abraham attended along with representatives from the State Police, the Department of Human Services, the State Department of Education and the Governor’s administration.
Justice was not present at this event.
Abraham rejected the allegation that there was a government cover-up in the case.
He told reporters that the administration had shared information that was “not 100 percent accurate” because the media had repeatedly questioned the governor about Miller’s death.
“From a policy perspective in the governor’s office, we wish we were more open. Because I think as we get to the bottom of this and get more information, a lot of our concerns will be addressed,” Abraham said.
He conducted an investigation that included interviews with police and child welfare officials who may have had knowledge of the case. A formal report was not released to the media.
Among his findings, Abraham said West Virginia State Police officers had no reason to report abuse and neglect when they visited Kyneddi’s home in 2023.
“The statements of both police officers indicate that she was in good health and unharmed, that she was not malnourished in any way and that she showed no signs of abuse or neglect,” he said. “… They had no intention of reporting or reporting this to the Department of Health.”
He added that he believed officers went to the local health department to make “informal contact” with CPS to raise concerns about Kyneddi’s mental health. The girl told officers she was afraid of being around people due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
“We believe that the state police went there and made this informal disclosure. That disclosure, again, was not indicative of abuse and neglect. [It] would never have led to an investigation and, in my opinion, would have had no impact on the events of this year,” Abraham said.
Despite this knowledge, Abraham said, local CPS staff had no recollection of the officer making the referral, and an office security system provided no record of officers entering the building.
The state has records of two previous referrals to CPS involving Kyneddi’s family – one from 2009 and another from 2017.
DoHS Secretary Cynthia Persily previously said that these transfers “nothing to do with the death of this young lady.”
Abraham, a former prosecutor, stressed that neither of these two referrals contained information that Kyneddi had been abused or neglected.
He added that, in his opinion, the 2017 referral contained “a nuance” in which the allegations made against the adult, which were then unfounded and directly concerned Kyneddi, “could have been substantiated and pursued.”
West Virginia Watch has requested copies of these referrals through an attorney under the Freedom of Information Act, but the Department of Health has not yet provided the records.
Heads of state schools and Senate President call for review of homeschooling rules
Abraham also pointed to missed steps in the local school system, as Kyneddi’s mother, JJulie Anne Stone Miller, has not submitted the home schooling evaluations required by state education law.
Müller started home schooling Kyneddi in 2021.
A FOIA request to Boone County Schools revealed that Miller never submitted evaluations showing Kyneddi’s progress. The evaluations can be used by a local truancy officer to raise concerns about the child’s status, but school districts are not required to review the missing records.
“If you don’t do the assessment, you can be expelled from the residential school,” he said. “There’s a possibility that there could have been a court conviction that could have had contact with her at least between 2023, when the trigger was there, and 2024, when they found her.”
State Education Minister Michele Blatt said they are looking into how to tighten home schooling requirements.
I think the 7,000 foster children in our system are proof that not all parents are doing the best for their children.
– Michele Blatt, Secretary of Education of the State of West Virginia
“While we know there are many parents who homeschool their children and properly care for their children, and that’s the best choice for those families, I think our 7,000 foster children in the system is evidence that not all parents are doing what’s best for their children,” she said. “And during the pandemic, our biggest concern was that we weren’t keeping an eye on some of those students every year.”
The state legislature, which is predominantly Republican and strongly supports school choice, would have to approve changes to homeschooling laws.
At the beginning of the year, lawmakers failed to pass an amendment that would have suspended or potentially denied a parent’s homeschooling request if a teacher reported suspected child abuse. The bill, known as “Raylee’s Law,” was named after an eight-year-old girl Who died of abuse and neglect in 2018 after her parents took her out of school.
Senate President Craig Blair said in a statement that Kyneddi’s story was “has made it clear that our current system of checks and balances is showing cracks.”
“What has become clear above all else is that this child was failed by her local safety net. Through a series of circumstances, she fell into the system and tragically lost her life. As legislators, we have a duty to protect our most vulnerable citizens, especially our children,” said Blair, R-Berkeley. “…We will work with the governor’s office, the Department of Education, the Department of Health and the State Police to discuss ways we can legally improve our regulations regarding homeschooled children to ensure no child suffers the same fate.”
DoHS develops a fresh referral procedure
Abramam urged mandatory reporters, including police, to make all reports through the central abuse and neglect hotline, which can keep a record of reports.
In addition, Persily said, the department is developing a “differentiated response system” for reports that do not meet the legal requirements for abuse or neglect but still involve a child in need of assistance.
Currently, the state can only filter out these calls.
“There is this middle ground, and I tell you that it is mostly related to poverty, and we do not equate poverty with abuse and neglect,” she explained.
The system would enable the Ministry of Health to better connect families with local assistance centres for lend a hand.
Abraham also spoke Allegations from Wednesday Miller’s lawyers said her constitutional rights were violated when a CPS investigator attempted to “interview” her earlier this week as part of the state investigation. Her lawyers were neither contacted nor present during the interview.
Abraham explained that a Health Department employee went to the prison to “close the file” on Miller.
“The court documents allege that the employee concealed his identity and described himself as an attorney. This is inaccurate,” he said.
“Now I have no words to explain how incredibly stupid it was, in my opinion, of this employee to go into this facility and try to interview this individual, given what we are doing here today, and given the fact that just last Friday they were in the governor’s office and were interviewed on this issue,” he continued.
Abraham stressed to reporters that the governor’s administration would no longer answer questions about the ongoing criminal proceedings.
“We will not discuss anything about the criminal proceedings. We never intended to do so,” he said.
