Missouri Department of Social Services

State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick says a review of the Children’s Division, which has struggled for years to recruit and retain staff, may not happen right away because of staff constraints in his own office. Meanwhile, Missouri has a backlog of more than 10,000 open child abuse and neglect cases.

There are more than 10,000 cases of alleged child abuse and neglect in Missouri that remain open, including over 3,600 in the Kansas City region. The NPR Midwest Newsroom found that investigators in the state's Children’s Division are overloaded and dealing with a shortage of case workers.

Officials agree that clearing the backlog at Missouri’s Children’s Division won’t be easy or quick. “I think this is a business decision when it comes down to it," says one Lee's Summit lawmaker. “If we value the children of Missouri, we have to do more.”

As some states wrap up this year’s summer food aid program, Missouri is still distributing last year’s benefits for children. The state also declined tens of millions in federal aid for low-income kids in part because officials lacked confidence they could disperse those benefits by the deadline.

As Missouri and all states begin reassessing the eligibility of every Medicaid participant on their rolls, one major concern is that many are losing coverage due to paperwork issues rather than a lack of eligibility. Of those who lost coverage in June and July, three-quarters were for "procedural reasons."

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that callers to Missouri's social services helpline waited an average of 48 minutes before reaching someone, and 44% of callers hung up before being helped.

Over 1 million Missourians on Medicaid will have their eligibility checked between now and next May. Many have never undergone the process before, and hundreds of thousands are project to lose coverage — mostly because of paperwork problems.

June was the first month of eligibility reviews for Missouri's roughly 1.5 million Medicaid enrollees. Children accounted for half of all the state's Medicaid terminations, mostly for procedural reasons.

Transition benefits gradually reduce the amount of benefits someone gets from things like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as their income rises. The measure is seen as a way to incentivize people to earn more money working, without falling off the so-called benefit cliff.

During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government issued emergency protections that barred states from removing people from the government-funded health insurance program for low-income people and families. That changes this month.

Applicants to the state child care subsidy program often face long call center wait times and onerous paperwork requirements — and child care providers who accept the subsidy face administrative hurdles of their own.

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft tweeted that a job posting for a “diversity, inclusion and belonging leader” was an example of “left-wing indoctrination in the workplace” and the wrong use of taxpayer dollars. State agency leaders say inclusion and belonging programs help retain employees during a severe staffing shortage.