child neglect Archives

Joint committee on child abuse and neglect holds first meeting

December 4, 2012 By Mike Lear

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

December 1, 2012 By Mike Lear

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).