Missouri faces a deep crisis when it comes to protecting its children and supporting families. Our child welfare system—from foster care to parental rights and the state’s social service agencies—is broken and urgently needs reform.Foster Care Instability: Over 20,000 Missouri children have received foster care services, many experiencing prolonged stays and repeated, traumatic placement transitions. These disruptions harm emotional and psychological development and make it harder for children to achieve lasting, stable homes.Disproportionate Impact: African American children make up nearly 20% of Missouri’s foster population, despite being only 12% of the overall population. This disparity raises serious questions about equity and fairness in how cases are managed and decisions are made.Inadequate Representation for Parents: When parents enter the system, weak or delayed legal representation often undermines reunification efforts. Without proper documentation or advocacy, families can be fractured permanently—even when reunification is possible and safe.Judicial Misalignment: Today, parental rights termination cases are often heard in juvenile court divisions. These cases, filed by the Division of Children’s Services, rightly belong in the Family Court Division, where judges focus on family matters and custody law. This improper venue undermines due process and consistency in outcomes.Children’s Division Accountability: Too often, investigations and child welfare decisions lack proper training, leadership, and oversight. Inconsistent follow-through leaves both children and parents unsupported, eroding trust and leading to preventable failures in the system.Other Major Concerns:Federal timelines often force premature termination of parental rights before full support for reunification is provided.Vague legal standards allow for subjective interpretation of “failure to rectify.”State agencies have even been found using children’s federal benefits to pay for their own care—a practice that should never happen.The Solution: The Missouri Children’s Bill of RightsWhen I am elected as a Missouri State Senator, I will introduce the Missouri Children’s Bill of Rights, a comprehensive reform package that ensures justice, stability, and dignity for every child and family in our state. This legislation will:Transfer jurisdiction of parental rights termination cases from the juvenile court to the family court division.Establish clear criteria for filing termination of parental rights cases, ensuring families have a fair chance at reunification.Create the Children’s Protective Services Division in every county sheriff’s office to guarantee local oversight and prevent unchecked interstate or inter-county transfers.Prohibit agencies from transporting a child from one county to another without judicial approval.Guarantee the right of every child to maintain meaningful and loving relationships with relatives who support their safety and well-being.Establish a birth custody record, an addendum to birth registration filed in the family court of the county where the child is born, documenting lawful guardianship and custody.Guarantee children’s fundamental rights to safety, education, nourishment, health care, and freedom from abuse and neglect.Hold violators criminally accountable for any act that deprives a Missouri child of these basic rights.Every child in Missouri deserves to grow up in a home where they are safe, loved, and supported—and every parent deserves a fair and just process. Together, we can create a system that protects families, strengthens oversight, and upholds the principle that no child in Missouri should ever be lost to bureaucracy or neglect.