Missouri governor names 18 to child welfare task force amid growing scrutiny

With Missouri’s child welfare system under fire over foster care deaths, staff turnover and mounting investigation backlogs, Gov. Mike Kehoe has named 18 people to a new task force charged with developing common standards for how courts, caseworkers and others across the state assess a child’s safety.

The Missouri Child Welfare Task Force will bring together Children’s Division leaders, judges, lawmakers, juvenile officers, law enforcement, private providers, attorneys and advocates. Kehoe created the group by executive order Aug. 25, less than 24 hours before a bipartisan legislative committee held a hearing examining fatalities, foster placements and other problems inside the division. He named the members last week.

The task force is charged with developing a common definition of child safety, identifying gaps in state laws and agency policies, recommending protocols for putting those standards into practice and proposing training and quality-control measures. Its recommendations are due Nov. 15. The group will dissolve at the end of the year.

“The decisions made throughout the child welfare system are life-altering, and the standard guiding them should not depend on a child’s county, circuit, or provider,” Department of Social Services Director Jess Bax said when the task force was announced.

Missouri lawmakers press child welfare leaders on foster care deaths, staff turnover

The panel includes Children’s Division Director Sara Smith; Department of Social Services legal director Teri Armistead; State Courts Administrator Kathy Lloyd; Republican state Sen. Jill Carter; Republican state Reps. Ken Jamison and Melissa Schmidt; juvenile officers Rick Gaines of St. Louis County and Bill Prince of Greene County; and Newton County Sheriff Matthew Stewart.

Other members are Jeannette Koster of Crittenton Children’s Center, Justin Horton of Cornerstones of Care, Audrain County Associate Circuit Judge Melissa Buckman Young, attorney Tamara Veit, Missouri Network Against Child Abuse Executive Director Jessica Seitz, Children’s Trust Fund Executive Director Emily van Schenkhof, Southern District Court of Appeals Judge Joseph Hensley, Christian County Circuit Judge Jessica Kruse and Joplin school counselor Shelby Trimble.

State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, the Arnold Republican who chairs the Joint Committee on Government Accountability, told The Independent last month that she believed Kehoe’s executive order was a reaction to the hearing. Smith said the push for greater consistency grew partly out of an internal assessment conducted over the previous year.

At the hearing, lawmakers questioned Smith about the death of 17-year-old Korbin Papadopoulos, who had type 1 diabetes and autism. Macon County workers placed him nearly 300 miles away with a foster parent who was licensed only to care for relatives and who later told police he had not been trained to manage diabetes. Korbin died June 6 from diabetic ketoacidosis.

Missouri placed diabetic teen in a foster home not licensed to take him. He died 24 days later

Lawmakers repeatedly pressed Smith on who ultimately bears responsibility when the state cannot find an appropriate placement for a child with significant medical or behavioral needs.

Smith also told the committee that an internal assessment had found instances in which workers failed to respond to hotline reports before law enforcement became involved, did not refer alleged abuse victims to child advocacy centers and refused to cooperate with juvenile officers.

“This indicated to our leadership team that our workforce did not understand how to assess safety and risk,” Smith told the committee.

The division has also been struggling again with rising caseloads and delays in child abuse and neglect investigations.

Children’s Division workers are supposed to average no more than 15 open abuse and neglect cases at a time. At the end of July, workers in St. Louis County averaged 97 open cases and workers in St. Louis city averaged 58, according to state data reviewed by The Independent.

State law generally requires investigations to be completed within 45 days, though limited extensions are permitted. By July, 23 of Missouri’s 46 judicial circuits had averaged more than 45 days to close reports over the previous six months. In St. Louis County, the average was 144 days.

Frontline turnover remains about 40%, down from 55% in fiscal year 2022 but still high enough that the division loses more than a third of its frontline workforce in a year.

The division began restructuring its abuse and neglect teams this month, putting investigators under more centralized state supervision and creating specialized career tracks. Smith has said the changes are designed to improve consistency and retention.

Frontline workers interviewed by The Independent have said new requirements and increasingly prescriptive policies have made cases harder to close and reduced their discretion when working with families.