West Virginia WIC Policy & Procedure 2.23 Effective Date: 6/18/2026 2.23 State Custody Change Notification

POLICY:

To help remove the barriers of required documentation on foster children and allow them to be served more quickly. The local agency’s (LA) designee will contact potential eligible families to notify them of their eligibility to participate in WIC and get them certified. The local agencies may contact the helpdesk if they have a foster child in the clinic who does not have the required foster documentation. The helpdesk can verify if that child is in foster care.

PROCEDURE:

1. Definitions

a. Custody: Physically in the possession of a parent or legal guardian

b. Family: Persons residing together as an economic unit, excluding residents of institutions.

c. Foster Child: A foster child who is the legal responsibility of the Department of Human Services or other agency is considered a family of one (1) for WIC purposes.

d. Documentation: Paperwork that is from the state or a placement agency that contains the following: i. The child’s name ii. Parent or legal guardian name iii. Date signed iv. Signature of case worker

e. Helpdesk: State Agency staff who take calls from clinics with questions f. Tracker Report: Report updated Daily by the State Agency with data on potentially eligible children g. Mass Messaging system: A notification system that alerts participants of appointments and other important information

2. Implementation of Policy a. LA Designee will contact the participant by phone and schedule the certification appointment. If contact is made and staff are scheduling an appointment, staff should transfer the child to the existing foster parent account or create a new foster parent account in Crossroads so the Mass Messaging System appointment

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West Virginia WIC Policy & Procedure 2.23 Effective Date: 6/18/2026 2.23 State Custody Change Notification

reminder will be sent to the correct family. If the child is within your agency, enter a family alert stating “Child’s Name” is no longer in the family. If the child is not in your agency, contact Helpdesk for an alert to be entered. If contact is not made, LA Designee will mail a foster care outreach letter and foster brochure (Foster Children and WIC Brochure (OR-010). Documenting results in the Tracker Report. b. The following week, LA Designee will review the data in the Tracker Report, look up any records that do not have an appointment scheduled or certified, attempt to contact by phone and document the result in the Tracker Report. c. The third week, they will look up any records that do not have an appointment scheduled or certified d. Two attempts to contact the family are required e. If the foster parent chooses not to participate in the program, staff will document the reason why they chose not to participate on the Tracker Report. 3. Processing standards of 10 days from contact for an initial certification and 20 days from contact for other appointments would start at the time the clinic actually makes contact with the parent or legal guardian (Outlined in Policy 2.05) 4. If the WIC Office is notified that the foster child is no longer in the home, the foster child’s EBT card must be deactivated in Crossroads. This is to eliminate the chance of benefits being redeemed and to ensure acceptable documentation has been provided to the WIC Office and the transfer to the new foster family has been completed in Crossroads. Enter a family alert in Crossroads stating that the child is no longer in the home. (Outlined in policy 2.07) a. If staff is unable to deactivate the EBT card or enter a family alert within Crossroads, contact Helpdesk for the EBT card to be deactivated and for the family alert to be entered.

REFERENCES:

1. WIC 1. Regulations 246.7, Certification of Participants 2. FNS Instruction 803-15, Processing Time Frames

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