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Amelia Ferrell Knisely

Amelia Ferrell Knisely

West Virginia

How we uncovered West Virginia’s foster care crisis, despite the state’s lack of transparency

CHARLESTON – If a child has to leave home and enter the foster care system, the hope is...

Oct 06, 2021
Rights

WV lawmakers promise look at system that left foster kids in abusive out-of-state facilities       

Editor's note: This story provides an update to the "No shelter: West Virginia’s foster care crisis" special report....

Sep 28, 2021
Rights

West Virginia knows how to keep kids out of foster care. But funding for key programs has been in short supply.

Editor's note: This is Part 3 in a three-part series, investigating West Virginia's foster care system. Read Part...

Sep 23, 2021
Rights

Foster kids need families to live with and state social workers to check on them. West Virginia doesn’t have enough of either

Editor's note: This is Part 2 in a three-part series, investigating West Virginia's foster care system. Read Part...

Sep 22, 2021
Rights

West Virginia’s reliance on out-of-state group homes leaves some foster kids in unsafe, abusive situations

In early 2015, West Virginia state inspectors visited an all-boys group home in Grove City, Pennsylvania. There were...

Sep 21, 2021
ON THE GROUND IN CHARLESTON, WV

Children were going hungry in West Virginia. COVID-19 is making it worse.

This dispatch is part of a project exploring the dimensions of daily life in West Virginia, “coal country” as...

Jul 23, 2020
ON THE GROUND IN CHARLESTON, WV

Kids in WV are going hungry as state touts summer feeding plan

This story was produced in collaboration with Mountain State Spotlight, a nonprofit news organization that aims to hold...

Jul 22, 2020
ON THE GROUND WITH USA TODAY

Poverty and hope battle in the hollers of West Virginia

CHARLESTON, WV – Last June, I was dispatched home to West Virginia as a Report for America corps...

Feb 27, 2020

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