Rep. Melissa Schmidt, a Republican from Eldridge, presents her foster care bill on Wednesday (Tim Bommel/Missouri House Communications).
Legislation that would ban Missouri from seizing the Social Security benefits of foster children was debated Wednesday in a House committee hearing.
Missouri’s child welfare agency takes millions of dollars each year in foster children’s benefits and uses the money to help pay for foster care. As a result, kids who are orphaned or have disabilities are responsible for paying toward the cost of their care in state custody.
The state spent over $10.6 million in seized benefits in fiscal year 2024.
The effort to ban the practice won bipartisan support during last year’s session and was on the precipice of passing. But it died when GOP infighting forced the state Senate to adjourn early.
“This practice defeats a resource that could meet crucial needs and be a significant support for foster children, as they age out of the system and attempt to enter into adult living,” said state Rep. Melissa Schmidt, a Republican from Eldridge who sponsored this year’s House bill, at the Wednesday hearing of the House Children and Families committee.
The legislation would require the state to use the benefits for the child’s unmet needs — not routine costs. The state would need to make up the roughly $10 million per year spending gap.
No one testified in opposition to the bill at Wednesday afternoon’s hearing.
“This is an amazing bill, and it needs to be done. We need to pass this. as fast as we can because children need this,” said state Rep. Wendy Hausman, a Republican of St. Peters.
State Rep. Ann Kelley, a Republican from Lamar, said when the bill was first presented, “this was very eye opening last year, we just couldn’t believe this was happening.”
Joining the bipartisan praise for the proposal was state Rep. Raychel Proudie, a Democrat from Ferguson who called the bill the “type of thing that state legislators come here to do,” and said it isn’t a partisan issue.
“The fact that any government would do such a thing to some of the most vulnerable people on the planet, let alone, children is absolutely repugnant,” Proudie said. “The fact that we do this makes me sick.”
Jason White of Independence testified that the state seized from his foster child thousands of dollars worth of benefits his son was entitled to after his mother died. The money, White said, could have gone to things like car payments or rent.
“The system took $32,000 from him during our time with him,” White said.
The others testifying, all in support, were from the nonprofit social service organization FosterAdopt Connect, Missouri Coalition for Children and Kids Win.
Speaker of the House Jon Patterson in his opening speech earlier this month highlighted the foster care benefits issue in particular, as legislation that “should have been passed but fell victim to our inaction and politics.”
Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, pledged that the legislation would be “the first bill sent to the Senate for their consideration.”
The bill was the first and only bill the House committee heard Wednesday.
It’s long been a common practice nationally to take foster kids’ benefits, but it’s come under increased scrutiny over the last few years. Several states, including Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon, have halted the practice.
Schmidt’s legislation, which is identical to the finalized version of the bill filed last year by former state Rep. Hannah Kelly, includes two other provisions Schmidt said aren’t controversial.
None of the discussion Wednesday concerned those two provisions.
One would require the Children’s Division to take into consideration the religion of the foster child when determining placement, in order to place children in environments of a similar religion to their families’ when practicable. At last year’s hearing, the legislator carrying the bill said that’s already common practice but he wanted to codify it into state law.
The other provision clarifies that parents allowing children to engage in appropriate independent activities without supervision would not be considered abuse or neglect.
Proudie said the bill is “common sense stuff” and she was “glad that it’s been wrapped into one bill” to save time.
The Senate version of the bill this year was filed by state Sen. Jamie Burger, a Republican from Benton, and mirrors last year’s Senate version. It includes only the provisions surrounding foster kids’ benefits.
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