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Child advocate: Supreme Court reverses decisions that endangered children

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The state Supreme Court has issued rulings in two cases that advocates worried could have halted some child abuse investigations and caused names to be taken off the child abuse registry.

In two cases, lower courts had ruled in favor of plaintiffs who said the state Children’s Division didn’t complete an investigation within a 90-day statutory deadline. One plaintiff argued that meant the Division lost jurisdiction in her case. Another argued that it meant her name should not be on the child abuse and neglect registry.

The Supreme Court reversed both lower court rulings and sent the cases back to those courts.

Missouri Kidsfirst Deputy Director Emily van Schenkhof says the Supreme Court’s decisions favor Missouri’s children.

“It said that the lower courts had erred because they had put the interests of the alleged perpetrators above the interests of the victims of child abuse and neglect, and the statute was intended to protect the interests of children,” says van Schenkhof.

Van Schenkhof says in the ruling regarding the abuse registry, if the Supreme Court had upheld the lower court decision, anyone who had been placed on the registry after the 90-day deadline had been exceeded could have sued the state to have his or her name removed.

“Anyone who wants to be employed in working with children or other vulnerable persons, employers must check the registry to make sure that (the potential employee) is not on that,” says van Schenkhof, “So these individuals can’t work in our schools and our daycares and our nursing homes.

The Court ruled that the legislature can impose a deadline, but that courts can not impose a sanction – such as the loss of jurisdiction or removal from the registry – if the legislature doesn’t specify one.

Increases for Children’s Division still pending for legislative budget proposal

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The Senate Appropriations Chairman says some of the money Governor Jay Nixon (D) and the state House proposed adding to the budget for the state Children’s Division might make the final legislative budget plan.

The Senate Budget Committee didn’t follow the proposal to add $4.6-million to pay for increases to the career ladder for child abuse investigators and the creation of two new levels of caseworkers, more technology upgrades, and student loan forgiveness.

The Senate is working through the budget now and once it is done, some of its members will confer with counterparts in the House to arrive at a final proposal to send to Governor Nixon.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) says he’s open to possibly restoring the dollars for the technology upgrades, that would include giving caseworkers internet-enabled I-Pads and WiFi service to expedite filing of and retrieval of information in child abuse investigations.

“We see a lot of proposals in the state budget that if you just put more money into technology we’ll fix all these problems,” says Schaefer, “just because we put the money there doesn’t mean it’s going to solve anything. I have had some discussions along the lines of the I-Pad proposal, though, and I do think that probably is one that is probably worth looking at in [budget conference with the House].”

Deputy Director of Missouri Kids First Emily van Schenkhof says she hopes the proposed boost in pay can also become part of the budget the legislature will propose.

“Right now there is no incentive for someone who is a really good investigator to stay in the trenches and doing this work,” says van Schenkhof. “They can make more money as a supervisor and they can make more money in private industry. As a result of that we see incredibly high turnover in front line workers because this work is hard. It’s extremely hard. It’s not well compensated.”

Schaefer says doesn’t think the pay increase received enough study by legislators this year and doesn’t fit in with the recommendations of the Personnel Advisory Board.

Child advocacy group pleased with criminal code passage (VIDEO)

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Child advocates say there are changes made in the proposed rewrite of Missouri’s criminal code that are good for children.

Deputy Director of Missouri Kids First Emily van Schenkhof was involved closely in the development of the legislation. She says one of the significant changes it makes is to add incest as an aggravating factor to increase penalties on sentences for sex crimes.

“We see [incest] in about two-thirds of the cases that go through child advocacy centers … that the child is related to the person that is harming them,” says van Schenkhof. “We believe that this will be something that will allow us to increase penalties for a lot of folks that harm children.”

The bill would also eliminate a misdemeanor class of child molestation, so that the crime at all levels is now a felony.

“This allows … a little bit more variation in the charge and the penalty that the person will face,” says van Schenkhof. “We think we will get more “C” felonies, more “E” felonies.”

She says it also gives juries more options in sentencing, “which we think will ultimately benefit children in having stiffer penalties for people who hurt children.”

Van Schenkhof says also important is that there are no proposed reductions in penalties for child abuse crimes or changes in definitions that would impact prosecution of those cases.

The criminal code legislation (SB 491) is awaiting action by Governor Jay Nixon (D).

Watch Emily van Schenkhof talk more about the criminal code bill and the proposed budget below:

Senate budget committee criticized for pulling money for child abuse investigators

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Governor Jay Nixon (D) is lending his voice to those concerned about the removal from the budget of $4.6-million for the state Children’s Division by the Senate budget committee.

Advocates for children and prevention of abuse say the money would have supported efforts to retain investigators in the division and allow for more expedient response to reports of abuse. They say high turnover and low numbers among investigators as well as slow response has resulted in a backlog of abuse reports and some causes going uninvestigated.

The items eliminated included more than $2.2-million for the Children’s Division Career Ladder including the creation of two new levels of caseworkers, more than $1.5-million for a “mobility project,” involving the use of I-Pads and WiFi for investigators to be able to respond to and deal with reports more quickly and $828-thousand for student loan forgiveness for new investigators.

The Governor included those amounts in his budget proposal and House budget makers kept it in theirs, but this week the Senate budget committee removed it.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia) says the career ladder increase would have gone above-and-beyond an overall 1-percent increase in pay for state employees that is included in the FY-15 budget proposal. 

Schaefer acknowledges the argument that the state needs to do more to retain child welfare investigators, but says, “This late in the process with that coming up when it did I think that would be difficult … pay increases for employees and additional things for employees that are presented to us as an incentive to give to those employees, those are intriguing ideas but I think we need a little more information on that.”

The Senate committee did not remove $347-thousand dollars for secondary trauma and child abuse training.  “Our concern is making sure we’re getting money on the ground for services,” says Schaefer. 

The removal of that money disappointed Emily Van Schenkhof, Deputy Director of Missouri Kids First. She says it would allow Missouri to do a better job of investigating reports of child abuse.

“These increases in Children’s Division are vitally important for the safety of Missouri’s children and for us to make positive steps forward in improving our response to investigating.”

Chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee for Health, Mental Health and Social Services, Sue Allen (R-Town and Country), says she will fight to restore the funding for the I-Pads and WiFi for investigators.

“Possibly, maybe there is a level of looking at either the loan forgiveness or the career ladder,” says Allen. “We probably can’t do it all, but we kind of prioritize and figure out which things we can do now, and then maybe we put the next things on the burner for next year.”

Told of Schaefer’s concerns with the budget items, Governor Nixon was asked what his message to Schaefer would be.

“Follow the House position and have a little discussion in your committee on stuff this important,” answers Nixon. “The House had interim committees about it. We all have. Everybody here is well aware of the challenges that are faced, the difficult situations that occur in the Children’s Division and are aware that we worked hard with a number of policy makers as well as folks in the legislature to come up with a solid set of recommendations.”

Once the Senate budget committee completes its work on the proposed budget, the full Senate will vote on the proposal and then conferees chose in the House and the Senate will meet to work out differences between the two chambers’ proposals. A budget plan must be sent to the Governor by 6 p.m. May 9.

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:

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.

Governor to sign changes to child sex abuse reporting law, ‘Safe Haven Act’

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Governor Jay Nixon will sign into law on Tuesday legislation meant to offer more protections to children from sexual abuse and tragic ends.

One provision in House Bill 505 changes the way in which a person required to report instances of child abuse may make that report.

Emily Van Schenkhof is the Deputy Director of the advocacy group Missouri Kids First. She says the Jerry Sandusky case helped spawn that bill.

“What we saw happen at Penn State was that someone observed child sexual abuse, someone saw it happening, and didn’t quite know what to do and reported that to a supervisor who reported that to a supervisor and it was never reported to the people whose job it is to investigate such things.”

Van Schenkhof says her organization has found that such cases are not limited to Penn State or athletic programs, and has heard of similar situations all around Missouri.

The bill requires that reports of suspected abuse be made to the Children’s Division within the Social Services Department.

“We want people who have expertise in talking to children and who have expertise in investigating child abuse to be able to look at these cases and to be able to investigate whether abuse is occurring. Right now I think we’ve got a lot of people who are making that call themselves and it’s not really a call for your average teacher or your average minister.”

That change was one of the proposals suggested by the Task Force on the Prevention of Sexual Abuse of Children, created by a 2011 law and intended to sunset at the end of last year. Instead, the legislation to be signed by the Governor makes that body a permanent entity.

Van Schenkhof is a staff member for the Task Force, the members of which she says were hoping to keep working.

“The Task Force agree that they wanted to continue to do the work and that they wanted to continue to meet. I think we all understood that the process of really actually preventing child sexual abuse is a long-term process that can not be accomplished in a year or two years.”

Senate Bill 256 also extends from 5 to 45 days after birth the period under which a parent can drop off an infant at a law enforcement of medical facility or fire station without fear of prosecution, under Missouri’s so-named “Safe Haven Act.”

“Parents in crisis … it is far better for them to abandon an infant than it is for them to hurt the child.”

Governor Nixon will sign those bills in a visit to St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Tuesday morning.