social services

Despite no legislative action on boosting Missouri Children's Division starting salaries, Gov. Mike Kehoe says Department of Social Services leaders could soon take action themselves.

Advocates worry that tens of thousands of vulnerable Missourians will lose Medicaid and food stamps because of new administrative barriers proposed by the GOP-led Congress. Missouri has already come under fire for failing to administer benefits on time.

The legislation, which state Rep. Jim Murphy called "a pro-life bill that everybody agrees with," also expands tax credits for maternity homes and diaper banks and creates a "Zero-Cost Adoption Fund."

Hailey was 15 when she learned she was pregnant. After being told abortion wasn’t an option, she became determined to be a mom in the hopes of keeping her daughter from repeating the traumatic childhood in the foster care system that she experienced.

Sara Smith is in her first month as director of the Missouri Children’s Division, which oversees the state’s foster care system and child abuse investigations.

Kansas City has recorded 12 homicides linked to domestic violence so far this year — the same number reported in all of 2024. Domestic violence service agencies fear the problem could get worse if social services lose federal funding.

Under national standards, at least 35% of kids entering foster care should exit with a permanent living situation — whether adoption, guardianship or reunification with family — within one year. But only 12 of Missouri's 114 counties met that goal.

More than 400,000 of Missouri's nearly 1.4 million Medicaid recipients lost coverage after the end of the COVID public health emergency. Almost half were children — one of the highest rates in the nation.

From 2017 through 2023, roughly 2,680 people with developmental disabilities died under the care of the state of Missouri — on average, one person every day.

The Republican-sponsored constitutional amendment would require able-bodied Medicaid participants ages 19 to 49 to prove they are working as a condition for receiving health coverage. Tens of thousands of patients lost coverage in other states that implemented similar requirements.

Jessica Bax is the new director of the Missouri Department of Social Services. She's currently a division director in the Department of Mental Health.

Robert Knodell has been hired to be the next city manager of Poplar Bluff after three years leading the Department of Social Services. Over that time, the department faced criticism over its administration of public benefits and handling of missing foster kids.