ELKINS, W.Va. — The West Virginia Department of Human Services say consistent absenteeism in schools will be dealt with in another way after making the announcement that a historic children’s home will permanently be closing its doors.

The DoHS said the West Virginia Children’s Home in Elkins is scheduled to officially close down tomorrow, Tuesday, December 31.

DoHS Cabinet Secretary Cynthia Persily said a decision was made to close the facility as the state is working to reduce reliance on residential care for children. She said this facility and its use for housing children who have been adjudicated by the court, primarily for truancy, is not consistent with those goals.

Persily said all of the adolescents who were currently living in the Children’s Home have now been removed from the facility and have been transferred to more appropriate placements elsewhere.

“We made arrangements to close the facility in November and worked diligently in transferring the very few children who were housed there into more appropriate housing for them,” said Persily.

She said there were just two remaining children in the facility at the time the decision was made to close it, and the average daily census of children there has been about four since it reopened after the Covid-19 Pandemic. The facility was only licensed to house a total of seven children at a time.

Persily said they have been working with the Department of Education who has been working diligently on truancy prevention programs for children instead of housing them for truancy purposes, as they believe there are more appropriate solutions that can be put in place to address this issue.

“The children who were housed there were not receiving treatment, it was purely housing, and the county school district was providing schooling for them,” she said.

Persily said it was also costing them $1.7 million annually to keep the facility operational due to it needing to be staffed 24/7. She said it just wasn’t feasible.

“If any of us do the math, $1.7 million dollars a year to care for an average of four children, it doesn’t seem to be financially-sound either,” she said.

She said they had about 21 full-time employees working at the facility at the time of closure as well as a few more temporary staff. Persily said they are being transferred to work at other state-run facilities.

Additionally, Persily said a recent study by ZMM Architects also highlighted the need for $7.8 million in deferred maintenance to be put into the building, which was completed in 1909. She said the architect company said there would need to be a lot of new safety measures put in place to keep the building up to code.

Persily said, given that it is a historic building, they weren’t sure if more maintenance needs would be tacked on.

“So, consequently, those costs could have gone up significantly, and given the fact that it’s just not consistent with our goals to house children in a residential facility who could be housed elsewhere, we opted to close the facility.

While she said WVCH had received additions and upgrades in 1916 and again in 1935, and has been well-maintained over the years, the over 25,000 square foot facility now faces challenges due to age and structural requirements.

Once home to the West Virginia Orphanage beginning in 1909 when it opened, Persily said interestingly enough, there are a number of historic artifacts there that they are currently working with the Department of Culture and History to archive some of those artifacts, including historic pictures and documents.

She said the facility has definitely made an impact on the children it has served over its 115 year tenure, but it can no longer serve such a purpose.

“I certainly think that it has kept children safe, and in many instances, caused those children to be able to graduate, to go to school and graduate, but again, we think there are better ways to do that for children today than by housing them in a residential facility,” Persily said.

However, the state is currently evaluating any future potential use for the historic building to preserve its legacy. Those plans will be developed in coordination with the West Virginia Real Estate Division.