Incoming Missouri Senate leader Cindy O’Laughlin wants to overhaul the state’s Children’s Division, contending the agency tasked with protecting children from abuse and neglect and placing kids in foster care failed at its core mission.
That comes as both O’Laughlin and Gov.-elect Mike Kehoe say they’re on board with paying child abuse investigators and other Children’s Division employees more money — which both Republicans and Democrats have said is needed to recruit and retain employees doing difficult jobs.
“Children cannot make sure that they’re safe on their own. Somebody responsible needs to do that,” O’Laughlin said in an interview with St. Louis Public Radio. “And we’re not doing a good job of it. There’s no question about that.”
O’Laughlin, a Shelbina Republican who is the incoming Senate president pro tem, said she’s been alarmed about some of the systemic problems within the state’s Children's Division. That includes:
- Past staffing shortfalls in the St. Louis branch that created a large backlog of unfinished child abuse and neglect cases. The situation has dramatically improved this year.
- Uneven implementation of a program aimed at steering parents who have drug problems to rehabilitation programs.
- Antagonistic relationships between Children’s Division staff and juvenile officers with the power to remove children from dangerous homes.
- Findings in a recent report showing that Children’s Division investigators knew that parents were taking fentanyl before their children died of overdoses.
“I would tell you that I feel the entire system has failed,” O’Laughlin said. “I know that is a big statement. But I think that courts have failed. I think the guardian ad litems have failed. And I think that system needs an entire reboot. People need to sit down, think about the outcomes that they’re trying to achieve, and figure out a way to get there.”
O’Laughlin, a former foster parent, also said she’s been disappointed that Missouri still has a higher number of kids in foster care than other states. While those numbers have gone down over the past year, O’Laughlin said it’s still too high.
“I think the majority of our departments have been a little bit on autopilot — and have just kind of gone along and implemented procedures and policies that maybe are not successful,” O’Laughlin said. “The legislature comes in, tries to put into statute changes that need to happen. And then sometimes those aren’t followed.”
New Children’s Division director
Kehoe will have an opportunity to choose a Children’s Division director to succeed Darrell Missey, who retired in October.
Kehoe said he will lean on lawmakers like O’Laughlin and state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, for guidance on whom to select for that role.
“We now have an opportunity to make sure that we put somebody in there that understands the roles and responsibility,” Kehoe said.
Higher pay as part of the solution
Kehoe reiterated shortly after he got elected that he supports providing more money for Children’s Division staffers. While department employees received a roughly 3% pay increase this year, some lawmakers sought much higher boosts to attract and retain staffers.
“If you are not compensating for a very important area of the state, a very important part of our workforce, you may not get the best people that are qualified to do that job,” Kehoe said. “And we want to make sure that compensation matches our expectations for excellence.”
Gov. Mike Parson often chafed at providing a larger pay boost for certain departments, instead pushing for across-the-board pay increases. But that approach meant Children’s Division salaries remained much lower than those in other states, like Illinois, or for private-sector jobs. Employees investigating child abuse and neglect have a starting salary of around $44,000.
“People in the private sector, which is where I come from, understand that you get what you pay for,” O’Laughlin said. “So you’re entering a market where you are expecting really an awful lot out of individuals who are going out and investigating child abuse and all these different things.”
One key decision related to the Children’s Division is whether Kehoe will retain Department of Social Services Director Robert Knodell. DSS oversees the Children's Division, along with a host of key programs like Medicaid and temporary assistance for needy families.
Asked if he wanted the future governor to retain Knodell given her criticism of the Children's Division, O’Laughlin replied, “That is a decision that Gov. Kehoe will have to make.”
