social services

Two Missouri senators have filed legislation that would remove the state's remaining restrictions on providing food benefits to those convicted of felony drug offenses. Missouri's rules comprise "one of the nation’s most stringent bans for receiving SNAP benefits."

A Missouri investigative team has helped locate 628 foster kids this year who were missing from state custody, lawmakers were informed this week.

Over a year after a lawsuit alleged that Missouri's "dysfunctional" SNAP call center violates federal law, low-income Missourians are still facing automatic disconnections and wait times of around an hour.

Sociology professor and author Alex Vitale, who is set to speak at the UMKC Cockefair Lecture on Tuesday, is calling for the end of policing as we know it. He contends that instead of directly addressing problems like gun violence and drug addiction with effective policy, the U.S. relies on police to "manage" the results.

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.

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.

Kansas City voters in April approved a 3% tax on recreational marijuana revenue — 1% of which will go toward finding solutions for the unhoused population. The city's homelessness prevention coordinator says that funding will go toward street outreach and other initiatives.

In April, Kansas City voters approved a 3% tax on recreational marijuana revenue —1% of which will go towards finding solutions for houseless population. The city's homelessness prevention coordinator shared ideas of how the funding might be used.