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Child abuse issues to receive attention during legislative interim

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A children’s advocacy group and at least one state lawmaker say the 2014 legislative session has been a positive one for fighting child abuse, but they expect more work in the interim.

Representative Bill Lant (R-Joplin) Photo courtesy: Missouri House Communications.

Representative Bill Lant (R-Joplin) Photo courtesy: Missouri House Communications.

Awaiting action by Governor Jay Nixon (D) is a bill that would allow more time for the state Children’s Division to investigate reports of child abuse and allow for a review of differences in investigation processes. The legislature’s proposed budget also keeps Nixon’s proposal for additional money for that division to improve its efficiency and results.

Missouri Kids First Deputy Director Emily van Schenkhof says it was a good legislative session.

“When you identify any problem, sometimes you’ve just gotta do something,” says van Schenkhof. “You’ve got to try to make some changes and we’re going to be constantly adjusting those changes and asking for more and doing better, so this is really just the first step.”

The Joint Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect will hold a hearing tomorrow in the State Capitol.  Its vice-chairman, Representative Bill Lant (R-Pineville), expects hearings this summer to look at the Division’s career ladder for investigators, which was the target of a proposed 2.2-million dollar budget increase.

“What we’re wanting to look at is to see whether the money is going where it’s needed the most,” says Lant. “Or if we need additional allocations.”

Lant also anticipates the committee to spend time considering how investigators are trained, which was also a target for additional money in the proposed budget. Van Schenkhof says there are many questions there.

“What additional training do they need? What does high-quality training look like?” says van Schenkhof, who hopes for a collaborative discussion including state lawmakers, staff from the Children’s Division and others who deal with child abuse issues as a training program is designed.

Two years have expired among the six that were allotted to that joint committee. When Lant talks about the work that is yet to come, it is clear he expects to need more than the remaining four years.

“This needs to be a standing committee,” says Lant. “As far as oversight and investigation we need to complete as much as we can by the end of this next four years.”

Advocates seek more time for at least some child abuse investigations (AUDIO)

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The state House has passed a bill that would extend from 30 days to 30 business days the length of time investigators with the state Children’s Division have to conduct an investigation into child abuse allegations.

Supporters, including the bill’s sponsor Representative Bill Lant (R-Pineville), say the legislation is a positive step, but perhaps not the final solution to the problem they hope to address.

The issue was raised by two cases now awaiting a ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court filed by two women who say they weren’t told a statutory deadline the outcomes of investigations into abuse allegations against them.

See our earlier story on those cases

Caseworkers have 30 days to investigate allegations and 90 days to tell the accused what they find.

Deputy Director of Missouri Kids First Emily Van Schenkhof says she and other child advocates would like to get away from arbitrary timeframes, but she understands the legislature put them in place for a reason.

“The General Assembly is not interested in giving Children’s Division a carte blanche to say, ‘You can conclude these investigations whenever you’d like to,'” says Van Schenkhof, “because we know that’s also not in children’s best interest.”

She says there is an effort to strike a balance between the two extremes.

“We’re looking to perhaps create … a very narrowly taylored good cause exception for these timeframes,” Van Schenkhof tells Missourinet.

She thinks those involved in the discussion are close to arriving at a compromise. She hopes it will be ready before the issue comes up in a Senate committee.

Hear the interview with Emily Van Schenkhof:

Legislator: Children’s Division investigators need more and better training

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The head of a House subcommittee on child abuse says the top issue he wants to deal with in the 2014 session is how the state’s child welfare caseworkers are trained.

Representative Bill Lant’s (R-Pineville) subcommittee looks at the reporting and investigation of child abuse and neglect. He has high praise for the people that take reports at the state hotline center, but says the people that have to investigate those reports aren’t being trained the way past lawmakers wanted them to be.

“They’re not adequately prepared to face what they need to be facing,” says Lant. “They haven’t had on-the-job training … they haven’t been exposed to, if you will, the horrors of the field. It’s hard to describe to someone in a classroom situation that you’re going to walk into a house trailer where cockroaches are going to be falling off the ceiling into your hair, but those are the realities of this job.”

Lant wants to attempt first to address training issues through policy in the Social Services Department’s Children’s Division rather than through new legislation. He says the Division is already interested in improving training.

“I think we need to have quite possibly a lab course,” says Lant, “where (students) actually get out of the school environment and go out on the street and see some of these things, and that’s one of the things the Department is working on.”

The child welfare advocacy group Missouri Kids First says child welfare workers need to be better paid. Lant does say his committee will take a look at their pay scale early in 2014, but he believes training issues are a greater contributor to turnover among those workers.

Legislation would give child welfare workers more time to investigate abuse claims

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The state Supreme Court has heard arguments on two cases that could result in pending child abuse investigations being thrown out, and the removal of names from the state’s child abuse and neglect registry.

Two women filed lawsuits saying child welfare workers didn’t notify them within 90 days of initial abuse and neglect reports made against them, of the conclusions of investigations into those reports. State law allows 30 days for such allegations to be investigated and 90 days for the accused to be motified of the case worker’s finding.

Representative Bill Lant has filed a bill that would give those workers 30 business days to complete investigations. He says that would be a good starting point, the details of which could evolve during the legislative session.

“It adds nearly 30 percent to the total amount of time they have when you think about the four weekend days that month of time … in most cases it’s going to let them complete that job.”

Lant has filed the annual report on the findings of the Joint Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect. Of the findings in that report, he says he wants to focus this year on improving training and support for child welfare investigators. He thinks that will help them reduce caseloads and thereby diminish the number of cases that go beyond the statutory timelines.

See our earlier story on this subject.

Advocates worry state Supreme Court ruling could end many abuse investigations

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Child welfare advocates are worried about how the state Supreme Court will rule on two cases related to the time it takes to investigate reports of child abuse and neglect.

Two lower courts have agreed with two women who say child welfare investigators didn’t tell them by the statutory deadline the outcome of investigations that led to their names being put on the registry of child abuse and neglect. Caseworkers have 30 days to investigate allegations and 90 days to tell the accused what they find.

Missouri Kids First Deputy Director Emily Van Schenkhof says the cases before the Supreme Court could be causing investigators to be told to rush cases.

“Saying that (caseworkers) have to have a letter out to the person … that you have to have this case decided in a certain timeframe … it’s just not possible in all cases,” says Van Schenkhof. “We’re forcing people to make decisions when they don’t have all of the facts and we want people to have quality investigations, not just simply, ‘We’ve got to meet this timeframe and if we don’t, we lose jurisdiction.'”

She worries that cases older than 90 days will be dropped.

“So where does this leave these children?” asks Van Schenkhof. “We’re dropping these children and a lot of times in very complex cases. Law enforcement doesn’t have these sort of artificial timeframes.”

The Court heard arguments in those cases December 3. Decisions could come at any time.

Representative Bill Lant (R-Pineville) has filed a bill that would allow 30 business days for investigations.

Joint committee on child abuse and neglect holds first meeting

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A joint House-Senate committee that will look at how agencies at all levels in the state handle cases of child abuse and neglect has held its first hearing. The body has decided to split into several subcommittees that will each study a set of issues related to such cases.

Representative Bill Lant (R-Joplin, left) is the vice chairman of the Joint Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect and Senator Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) is the chairman.

Its chairman, Senator Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia), says that means looking more at the court system, law enforcement, the foster system and more.

“It is a very large universe of things to pull together to see if all parts are working together.”

He says the work will be much like that of an oversight committee, to make sure that state resources and money are being used properly and with the best possible results, “To make sure that kids are, in fact, being protected with the programs that are put in place to do just that.”

The topics the Committee discussed dividing between subcommittees were the handling of abuse and neglect reports, the staffing, handling and policies of children’s services, the technology used by related agencies, the foster care system and the removal of a child from a home.

First meeting of legislative committee on child abuse and neglect is Monday

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Representative Bill Lant (R-Joplin) Photo courtesy: Missouri House Communications.

A House-Senate committee on child neglect and abuse will hold its first hearing on Monday.

Representative Bill Lant (R-Joplin) sponsored the legislation that created the Joint Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect when it was passed as part of another bill. He will be the vice-chairman of the Committee, under Senator Kurt Schaefer. Lant says he’s excited to get to work.

“The statistics that were brought to my attention over a year ago are that one in four children in the state of Missouri are either physically or sexually abused before they’re fourteen years old, and I find that to be totally unacceptable. We can do much better than that.”

Lant wants to see the committee begin its work by looking at the system for reporting child abuse and neglect.

“Take a look at the reporting system, see if it’s doing what it’s designed to do and if it’s doing it in the best way possible. If so, move on to the next problem and if not, take steps to improve it.”

Lant says he has received literally hundreds of phone calls about the committee from interested parties all over the state.

“It’s not any one particular thing that people are concerned about. It’s just the entire system. That’s what I felt when I first started investigating a little bit … that we really needed to look at the whole system and figure out what was the best thing to do and what was the best time to do it. So I’m really anxious to see us get started on that process.”

The committee’s Chairman is Senator Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia).