Missouri fixed its child welfare backlog. Now it’s growing again.

Good morning,

Four years ago, Missouri’s child welfare system was in bad shape.

More than half of the frontline workers at the Children’s Division had left in a single year. Investigators were buried in cases. Children were missing visits with their parents. Workers were triaging families because there simply weren’t enough hours in the day.

“This job is impossible,” one former investigator told The Independent in 2022.

Missouri eventually responded. Lawmakers restored 100 positions that had been cut during the pandemic. Pay went up. The state worked through a backlog that at one point topped 10,000 child abuse and neglect reports. By September 2024, the Children’s Division had cleared 80% of it.

Now the backlogs are growing again.

Steph Quinn spent the last few months trying to understand why. What she found is that this time, the answer isn’t as simple as too few workers.

Caseloads are surging in parts of Missouri. Investigations are taking longer to close. And current and former employees say changes inside the Children’s Division have made an already difficult job harder to do.

When investigators get overwhelmed, children who may be in danger can wait longer for help. Families whose children are safe can spend months dealing with the state.

Steph’s story gets inside what has changed at the Children’s Division, why workers say the system is bogging down again and whether a major reorganization set to begin next month will actually help.