missouri children's division

Ashley Swon is a counselor who lives in Moberly and works at Crossroads Counseling LLC based in Fayette. She spoke about the benefits of this home-based care and of giving families skills that help them stay together.

Incoming Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin said Missouri’s Children’s Division has failed in its core mission and needs to be restructured to protect vulnerable children.

Incoming Missouri Senate leader Cindy O’Laughlin wants to overhaul the state’s Children’s Division.

The head of Missouri's child welfare division will resign effective Nov. 1, a spokesperson for the agency told The Independent on Monday.

Missouri’s backlog of unresolved child abuse and neglect cases has fallen by more than 80% since January, with officials anticipating it will be eliminated by the end of the year.

The starting salary for an child abuse investigator is around $43,000 a year.

Missouri House members have passed legislation that would require mandated reporters of child abuse and neglect to report suspicions directly to the…

A task force has released its recommendations on combatting sexual abuse of children in Missouri. There are 22 recommendations in all. They include requiring people who are legally obligated to report sex abuse incidents to directly contact the state’s Children’s Division, instead of just reporting incidents to superiors within their own organizations. That particular recommendation will be sponsored by State Representative Marsha Haefner (R, Oakville). “The failures that were witnessed as the story of continued abuse at Penn State unraveled could also happen in Missouri under our current law," Haefner said. "My proposed legislation...will put the responsibility of reporting directly on the mandated reporter.” Other recommendations include removing the statute of limitations on first-degree statutory rape and statutory sodomy, and improving mental health services for kids who have been sexually abused and who’ve demonstrated sexually inappropriate behavior. State Senator Bob Dixon (R, Springfield) was also a member of the task force. “A wake-up call has been sounded, a discussion has begun, and I believe this report is really truly a blueprint for action," Dixon told reporters Thursday at the State Capitol. The recommendations were delivered to the Governor and lawmakers one week before the start of this year’s legislative session. The panel created by a 2011 state law included legislators, law enforcement officers, children's advocates and other experts. Follow Marshall Griffin on Twitter: @MarshallGReport