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ELKINS -- The director of the Randolph-Tucker Children's Advocacy Center (RTCAC) says they saw a decrease in new children served last fiscal year, as the WV Child Advocacy Network's (WVCAN) annual report shows a statewide 8% increase in new children served in the last five years.
According to RTCAC Executive Director Margot Evick, RTCAC received just 87 new referrals in the 2024 fiscal year. Evick said that the organization usually sees around 125 to 135 new children in a year. In the 2023 fiscal year, they saw 154 new children.
"Our numbers in Randolph and Tucker actually decreased significantly last year," Evick told The Inter-Mountain. "Which is interesting. We've had a lot of turn-over in regards to our investigators in the community. As you know, law enforcement and CPS are understaffed."
Evick called the 8% increase of new children served throughout the state "fantastic," as it means more at-risk children are being helped. Overall, WVCAN reports that 4,909 children were served in 2024 by the 21 Child Advocacy Centers (CACs) that service 47 counties in the state.
According to WVCAN, CACs provide a "safe, child-friendly facility where child protection, criminal justice and child treatment professionals work together to investigate abuse, hold offenders accountable and help children heal."
WVCAN also reported that 16% of the children served in 2024 were there because of allegations of drug endangerment. West Virginia's allegations of drug endangerment in children statistics are four times higher than the national average, which is just 4%.
"We, of course, like everywhere else, saw an increase in drug endangerment in children," Evick said about RTCAC. "That was definitely statewide. 23% of our children were seen for drug endangerment."
In fiscal year 2023, only 7% of the children RTCAC serviced were seen for drug endangerment, according to Evick.
"We know that children, if they're being brought up in that environment, are at a higher risk of being abused in other ways," Evick said. "So we do work well with our team so they know, 'Hey, if you have a concern regarding drug use in the home, make sure that we know'. We screen every child from drug endangerment."
Highlights from WVCAN's 2024 annual statewide report include:
∫ 29% of the children served were there because of allegations of sexual abuse
∫ 44% of the children served by CACs were between the ages of 7-12 years
∫ 94% of alleged offenders were someone the child knew
∫ 30% of children are reported to have one or more disabilities
∫ 846 cases had charges filed
∫ 336 individuals were convicted for crimes against children
∫ 330,147 children (93% of the state's population) live in a county officially served by a CAC
∫ 22,217 children (7% of the state's population) live in a county without official CAC coverage
When asked how the 2025 fiscal year could turn out for RTCAC, Evick said they have had a slow start with the July to December new referral numbers also being significantly lower than normal. However, Evick added that things have started to pick up since January.
"It may level out to our normal 120-some kiddos, it might still be slightly lower," Evick said. "Of course, we want to say our prevention efforts have a drastic improvement and kids aren't being abused, but we know that isn't necessarily the case. Especially when you see a statewide increase. My best guestimate at this point is that we'll probably see about 100 new children."
To contact the Randolph-Tucker Children's Advocacy Center, call 304-630-2214, email Evick at director@rtcac.com or visit their website at rtcac.org. The RTCAC is located at 1627 Harrison Ave. in Elkins.