Note: The comment period has closed.
The Missouri Task Force on Children’s Justice is seeking comments from providers, court personnel, case managers, foster parents, and other stakeholders on the progress made by the Children’s Division and the courts in implementing the Dominic James Memorial Foster Care Act of 2004. In order to be sure that everyone has the opportunity to comment, criticize, or recommend changes of policy or implementation a web survey will be available for the public until October 19, 2007. Comments may be submitted on a variety of topics, including but not limited to the following:
- The Office of Child Advocate
- The use of voluntary placement agreements for children requiring mental health services
- Efforts to achieve permanency for children
- Family Support Team (FST) meetings
- Putative father registry
- Diligent search for natural parents
- Preference for relative placement (kinship)
- Privatization of case management
- Changes to strengthen foster parents including:
- Training for foster parents
- Notice of hearings
- Changes in court practices including:
- Juvenile court hearings may be open to the public
- Timeframes
- Hotline changes
- Use of the structured decision-making (SDM) protocol
- Mandated reporters may not place an anonymous hotline call
The mission of the Missouri Task Force on Children’s Justice is to recommend improvement to child abuse and neglect laws, policies, programs, professional education and public awareness, and to provide funding to support these recommendations in order to benefit and enhance the lives of Missouri’s children. The Task Force is multi-disciplined and comprised of representatives across the state from the areas of law enforcement, health, mental health, judiciary, education, community services, child advocacy, child welfare, residential services, and the state legislature.
CJTF Press Releases (PDF):
- None at this time.