Gov. Janet Mills wants to strengthen the office of child welfare ombudsman, hire more child welfare workers to fill critical gaps and expand family support following a jump in child deaths.
The proposals announced Monday address child welfare recommendations after recorded child deaths doubled last year.
Mills said the administration wants to tackle underlying issues that contribute to abuse and neglect, like substance abuse disorder and poverty, to improve the child welfare system overall.
“Every child in Maine deserves to grow up in a safe and stable environment that provides them with every opportunity for success,” she said.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services hired a national child-welfare organization, Casey Family Programs, to assist in investigating the four high-profile child deaths in June.
By year’s end, the state had recorded child deaths in incidents that were associated with abuse or neglect or involvement with the child welfare system, the state reported last month. The numbers, which didn’t include any homicides, were more than double the number of 2020 deaths. The 2021 figure will grow once several homicides are adjudicated.
The governor’s proposal would bolster the child welfare ombudsman by lengthening the ombudsman’s term from one to five years and ensuring the ombudsman has authority to hire additional staff.
The proposal would close child welfare case worker gaps on nights and weekends by hiring 16 workers and three supervisors, as well as additional support staff and a regional training director.
It also would boost training to pave the way for successful family reunions, expand family visit coaching and create a mentor program using parents with previous experience with the child welfare system.
The governor, a Democrat, will include funding for her proposals in an upcoming supplemental budget.
The bipartisan effort builds upon past efforts to bolster pay and hiring along with the replacement of a decades-old child welfare information system.
Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew and Office of Child and Family Services Director Todd Landry said in a statement that there’s “no higher priority… than keeping children safe.”
The DHHS has been under intense scrutiny and saw many reforms put in place after the deaths of two girls in 2017 and 2018.
Then came a deadly month in June. The death of 3-year-old Maddox Williams in Stockton Springs drew statewide attention after his mother was charged in his beating. The boy was one of four children who died in June.
Two members of the child welfare ombudsman’s board resigned this summer, suggesting the DHHS wasn’t receptive to oversight.
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Sharp reported from Portland, Maine.
