In most Missouri counties, children linger in foster care longer than the federal standard, according to data compiled by the state social services agency.
Under national standards, at least 35% of kids entering foster care should exit with a permanent living situation within one year. That can mean reunification with family, adoption or guardianship.
But only 12 of Missouri’s 114 counties met that standard every month between July and September last year.
That’s according to a report the Missouri Department of Social Services is required to release on a quarterly basis. A law passed in 2020 mandated those reports and created a “response and evaluation” team tasked with reviewing state foster care practices. The team, which includes Children’s Division staff and foster care case management agency staff, met Tuesday.
In the previous report, covering April through June, there were 23 counties meeting that benchmark.
Missouri’s Children’s Division is acting under a performance improvement plan with the federal Children’s Bureau over the issue of timely permanent placements. The state’s performance “has continued to decline over the last several reporting periods,” a report from last summer states.
While in care, foster kids have also faced more instability with their placements than nationally, meaning they can be frequently moved around among foster homes or other placements.
Marcia Wetzel, a program coordinator with the social services department, said during Tuesday’s public meeting that a plan is in the works to establish what are called team decision-making meetings statewide before a foster child is moved to a new placement.
Team decision-making meetings involve those closest to the child and a facilitator. There will be training before it’s rolled out in each region across the state, Wetzel said, with the expectation that the meetings “hopefully will help us improve the data…to really try to stabilize placements.”
As of February 2024, for every 1,000 days a child spent in foster care in Missouri, they were moved 6.23 times. The federal rate was 4.48. Wetzel said more data will come out related to this issue in April.
According to the department’s budget request, team decision-making meetings have been implemented in some parts of the state and will be expanding statewide.
Missouri’s foster care system has faced scrutiny for years and is a major focus of the 2025 legislative session.
A bill sponsored by Sen. Travis Fitzwater of Holts Summit seeks to reduce the amount of time foster children languish in care by changing the model of legal representation for them. Under the proposal, older foster children would be assigned client-director counsel, who act based on the child’s own wishes and goals. Currently, foster children have guardians ad litem, who are attorneys tasked with acting in what they view as the child’s best interest, which Fitzwater said means children are sometimes left without a voice, drawing out their time in care.
Lawmakers are also concerned with foster kids being held in inappropriate placements, such as hospitals, hotels, offices and out-of-state residential treatment facilities.
There are around 85 kids receiving treatment out of state, according to department data shared at an appropriations hearing. And last year, there were 314 foster children residing in hospitals.
Issues with foster care delayed Senate confirmation of Gov. Mike Kehoe’s pick to lead the social services department. State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, an Arnold Republican, briefly held up the appointment to force the agency to provide answers about chronic problems that have plagued the foster care system for years and what she says has been the agency’s failure to implement laws designed to help.
Bax was eventually confirmed after Coleman said the department was responsive to her inquiries.
This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent, part of the States Newsroom.
