Senate passes Bellows bill to increase staffing for Child Welfare Services Ombudsman Program

A bill sponsored by Sen. Shenna Bellows, D-Manchester, LD 1094, “An Act To Increase Funding for Staffing for the Child Welfare Services Ombudsman Program,” was enacted unanimously in the Maine Senate on Thursday.

“The child welfare ombudsman’s office is crucial to effective oversight of our child welfare system, and it’s absurd to expect that one person alone without support could effectively monitor our statewide child welfare system,” said Sen. Bellows. “This bill to add an additional staff person is a modest but vital improvement, given the shocking number of children dying in Maine from potential abuse and neglect. I will do everything in my power to continue to push until we fully staff the ombudsman’s office.”

Reporting from the Bangor Daily News revealed that “since January 2017, at least 22 children between the ages of 20 days and 10 years old died after the state’s child protective services system received concerns about abuse or neglect involving their families, according to data from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.”

The Child Welfare Ombudsman Program was established in 2001 based upon data from 1999, a year in which there were 4,450 referrals that were screened in and investigated, of which 2,349 resulted in findings of substantiated abuse or neglect. In 2018, there were 26,636 referrals, of which 11,638 were assigned for investigation. This is more than five times what the volume was from when the program was established.

As amended, LD 1094 would add one administrative support person and provide the office space in which that person will work.

LD 1094 now goes to Gov. Janet Mills, who has 10 days to sign it into law, veto it, or allow it to become law without her signature.