Second WV foster care ombudsman leaves role after Legislature created the oversight position

by Amelia Ferrell Knisely, West Virginia Watch
September 5, 2025

Elizabeth Hardy is resigning as the state’s foster care ombudsman, a job created by the Legislature to investigate ongoing issues with children, families and workers in West Virginia’s overwhelmed child welfare system.

A spokesperson for Gov. Patrick Morrisey confirmed Thursday evening that Hardy is leaving the role and said she will become a commissioner at the Bureau for Behavioral Health.

Hardy, a former foster parent, has served as ombudsman a little more than a year and was the second person to hold the position. Lawmakers created the foster care ombudsman role in 2019 in an effort to bolster accountability in the troubled foster care system that has struggled with high Child Protective Services case loads, a lack of safe homes for children and accountability.

Along with investigating complaints from foster parents and children, the ombudsman was tasked with advocating for the rights of children and families. 

In 2024, lawmakers passed a bill clarifying that the foster care ombudsman would work impartially under the state’s Office of Inspector General. There had been concerns that the role wasn’t able to work independently without interference from foster care officials.

Last November, Hardy told lawmakers that since its inception in 2019, the office of the foster care ombudsman had received more than 3,000 complaints.

“Compared to the state fiscal year of 2024 we have received almost an additional 700 complaints, which is a 171% increase,” Hardy said. “This data trend shows our office’s relevance as a value by the substantial increase in the number of complaints over time.”

She added that part of her work included enforcing the state’s Foster Kinship Parent Bill of Rights and the Foster Child Bill of Rights.

Hardy replaced the state’s first foster care ombudsman Pamela Woodman-Kaehler, whose initial report in 2021 detailed how fear of retaliation and communication problems were pervasive in the foster care system and extended to families caring for foster children. 

The bill creating the position only required that the ombudsman submit reports through 2023. Woodman-Kaehler stepped down in May 2024.

There are a little more than 6,000 children in West Virginia foster care, and the state continues to lead the nation in the rate of children coming into care. 

West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.