Children in West Virginia are more likely to die from abuse and neglect than kids in any other state, according to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services.

Almost 100 West Virginia children have died from abuse and neglect since 2001, according to state and federal statistics.

While West Virginia’s numbers may be high because the states Child Fatality Review Team does such a great job tracking deaths, these numbers are still far too high, regardless of the reasons. This is why the state Supreme Court is publishing emergency rules that are designed to prevent child abuse cases from falling through the cracks.

Chief Justice Robin Davis says that children are at risk because court officials and child protective workers don’t always communicate well with one and other. However, under the new rules that are being put into place, state Child Protective Service workers will have to investigate child abuse claims referred to them from the family court system. After they have investigated, they would then be required to report to the county prosecutor, family court, as well as the circuit court within 45 days.

According to Davis, this wasn’t always happening in the past. CPS workers were wrongly assuming that the courts were taking care of the children’s safety, and vice versa. And while family courts can grant temporary restraining orders, that doesn’t remove the need for CPS to investigate the possibility of child abuse occurring in the home.

“We have acknowledged the problem and taken great strides to close every potential loophole,” says Chief Justice Robin Davis. She has also stated that this new rule is only the first step in a series of reforms that are being planned, which includes eliminating the huge backlog if cases in the family court system.

The West Virginia Supreme Court is working hard with the National Center on State Courts to study the problem, in the hopes of developing new solutions, which would include new technology to help manage cases, as well as more efficient, and effective training for family court staff, and more judges in certain areas of the state to help lighten the caseload.

While the state average is close to 1,300 cases per judge, Davis has admitted that at least one judge has a caseload of over 1,900 cases per year. And with the suggested caseload being no more than 900 cases, with only a glance at the numbers it is easy to see just how backed up the court system is. This large back up causes families to wait months and months to resolve their divorce and child custody cases.

“It’s extremely frustrating to the parties in a divorce to have to wait for something like a visitation schedule for their kids,” Davis says, “Such a problem can escalate into violence.”