Missouri Senate approves child welfare bill aimed at foster care system

by Clara Bates, Missouri Independent
March 7, 2025

Issues that have long been plaguing Missouri’s child welfare system were the focus of hours-long debates in the state Senate this week, as lawmakers approved a sprawling bill aimed at helping the state’s most vulnerable children.

Missouri takes children into foster care at a rate higher than the national average and houses some of them in hospitals, hotels and offices locally, and residential treatment facilities out of state. 

One section of the wide-ranging bill, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Travis Fitzwater of Holts Summit and approved by the Missouri Senate Thursday, would require the state to establish residential care programs for children currently housed in inappropriate settings. 

The state would contract with qualified service providers to deliver comprehensive care to those children, many of whom have behavioral issues.

“A kid shouldn’t be in a hospital that has behavioral challenges when we have facilities around the state that I think would be willing to take these kids and help,” Fitzwater said during a Senate debate on the bill Tuesday. “And they shouldn’t be in businesses. They shouldn’t be in hotels. And so we’re trying to answer that.” 

The bill — which also includes provisions related to legal counsel for foster kids, tax credits for youth programs and nondisclosure agreements for victims of childhood sexual abuse — was passed out of the Senate Thursday by a vote of 31 to 2. 

It now heads to the House for consideration.

Missouri Senate delays vote on new social services director over foster care concerns

Concerns surrounding foster care were so persistent that they delayed Senate confirmation of Jess Bax, who Gov. Mike Kehoe appointed to be the new director for the Department of Social Services. 

State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a Republican from Arnold, said last week she was holding up the confirmation until she got answers from the department about chronic problems and the agency’s failure to implement new laws approved by the legislature to address the issues. 

The Senate confirmed Bax on Thursday.

Coleman said in an interview with The Independent on Thursday that the department has been responsive in providing information and she’s looking forward to continuing their relationship to help Missouri kids.

“This was about making sure that I had the leadership team that was committed to working with the General Assembly to follow the laws of the state and the appropriations that have been made,” Coleman said, “and it took a little bit of a longer runway for us to get to a position of trust because of the past failures in leadership.”

Missouri foster children who have nowhere else to go are receiving residential treatment in states as far flung as Florida, Arizona and Utah, Baylee Watts, a spokesperson for the Department of Social Services, told The Independent this week.

There are around 85 kids receiving treatment out of state, according to department data shared at an appropriations hearing. It costs the state over $3,200 daily per child to house them out of state, according to a fiscal note, totaling $13.6 million total last year.

“Think about what that feels like to a foster care kid that they don’t even stay in their home state,” Fitzwater said. “And the cost that entails.”

Last year, 314 foster children resided in hospitals. The total current cost to house foster children in hospitals is over $28.7 million. 

It’s estimated that shifting away from placing foster kids in hospitals and out of state could cost over $9 million in startup costs, but in the long run could save the state around $13 million yearly in general revenue. 

The bill would also change the model of legal representation for foster children who are 14 and older, so kids “have somebody going to bat, that are on their side in the court system,” Fitzwater said Tuesday. 

Currently, foster children in Missouri are assigned guardians ad litem, who are attorneys tasked with acting in what they view as the child’s best interest. 

The bill would assign children 14 and older to client-directed attorneys, meaning they would act based on the goals of the children. 

There are 10 states that have adopted client-directed legal representation for all foster children, and 11 other states have adopted it for kids of a certain age, competency or need, according to the National Association of Counsel for Children’s campaign Counsel for Kids.

State Sen. Barbara Washington, a Democrat from Kansas City, was concerned some children would want to go to unsafe homes, such as return to parents who’d recently gotten out of prison. The bill was changed in response to her concerns to offer the judge discretion as to whether to appoint counsel in addition to a guardian ad litem. 

Additionally, the American Bar Association’s model rules of conduct provide guidance for attorneys in those kinds of situations, and studies have shown the client-directed model for kids to produce better outcomes in terms of time spent in foster care, and chances of reunification. 

Senators tacked on their own child welfare-related priorities as amendments to Fitzwater’s bill. 

Those amendments include:

Increasing a tax credit for donations to certain youth programs ;Making non-disclosure agreements in childhood sexual abuse cases void and not judicially enforceable;Requiring law enforcement to enforce child custody and visitation orders;Changing the criminal offense of endangering the welfare of a child in the first degree, by raising the age of a child from “under 17” to “under 18”;Raising the marriage age to 18, which was also passed as a standalone bill Thursday;And requiring Children’s Division caseworkers to present identification of themselves when conducting investigations of child abuse and neglect, and inform parents of their rights.

Fitzwater has called his bill his top priority for the session, which Democrat state Sen. Stephen Webber lauded during the Senate debate.

“So much in this building is driven by those who have the financial ability to hire people to advocate for them — to hire lobbyists — or to reach out to politicians,” Webber said. “And the fact that this group of kids clearly does not, and that you made that a priority, I sincerely think that’s very commendable and really important.” 

Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com.

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