Progress is being made in the Missouri Office of Children’s Division. When Darrell Missey became director of the division, the number of kids in foster care was over 14,200, more than double the national average on a per capita basis. “The number today that sort of...
About 450 foster children age out of the system each year in Missouri. They can remain in foster care until the age of 21. Ann Bockman, a field support manager with the Missouri Children’s Division, said the state noticed that when some of these young people left the...
Missouri has nearly 13,400 children in foster care – making the state’s foster care rate one of the highest in the country. Only about 5,000 foster homes currently exist to care for these kids, sometimes leading to the separation of siblings. A study by a law...
The head of Missouri’s child welfare system knows a thing or two about growing up in a loving but turbulent home in Jefferson County. Darrell Missey, the director of Missouri’s Children’s Division, said his dad was “salt of the Earth” and his mom, who wanted to be...
The new director of the Missouri Children’s Division says due to severe staffing shortages, the division is “treading water” and it is doing its best to “stem the bleeding.” During a legislative committee hearing today, Director Darrell Missey said the division, which...
