Missouri’s child welfare office criticized for missing foster kid report

The Missouri House's Children and Families Committee on Tuesday grilled officials with the state's Department of Social Services over a report revealing a pattern of mishandling missing foster children who run away.

The report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General indicates Missouri does not have solid enough policies for identifying children who may run away. In 59 cases, Missouri “rarely demonstrated attempts to reduce children’s risk of going missing,” the report indicated.

“We have some work to do,” said acting DSS Director Jennifer Tidball.

Read more from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.