Gov. Patrick Morrisey has promised to lift the veil on West Virginia’s child welfare system. As Brad McElhinny reported for MetroNews, “The governor said the changes follow a series of listening sessions held across the state with key stakeholders and a thorough review of past child fatalities and near fatalities within the child welfare system.”

Morrisey said that, in previous years, the state stonewalled about the status of children in its care, “and that changes now.”

Morrisey’s new policy requires public disclosure by the Department of Human Services of critical information in abuse and neglect cases. That means honoring Freedom of Information Act requests, which the agency has previously routinely denied.

Historically, the agency has hidden behind state law that says such records c

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