AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) - Republican Gov. Paul LePage said on Thursday that lawmakers should only take up child welfare reform legislation that his administration is drafting once the Legislature wraps up its ongoing special session.
LePage said he will call lawmakers back this summer for a separate special session to consider such legislation but doesn’t want to see child welfare legislation become a political “soccer ball.” The governor, who escaped abuse as a child, called for criminalizing mandatory reporters who fail to report suspected child abuse and neglect.
Maine is struggling with increasing reports of possible child abuse and neglect. Child welfare caseworkers’ workloads have spiked as call volumes increase and the LePage administration’s new policy changes require more assessments of some allegations.
A legislative watchdog agency is investigating Maine’s child welfare system following the deaths of 10-year-old Marissa Kennedy in February in Stockton Springs and 4-year-old Kendall Chick in December in Wiscasset. Lawmakers said they are looking into ways to improve the child welfare system and are set to meet again Aug. 9.
“It would be helpful to have something to work from,” Democratic Rep. Anne-Marie Mastraccio, a co-chair of the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee, said during a committee meeting on Thursday.
The committee’s chairs had asked the governor to release his proposed legislation while lawmakers finish pending business.
The committee is looking at ways to reform the child welfare system and at whether such changes will require legislation or internal policy changes. Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability Director Beth Ashcroft said one area the committee could look at is ensuring that when students transfer to new schools their previous school districts are sharing child abuse and neglect concerns.
Lawmakers are technically in a special session, but they haven’t been back to Augusta for more than two weeks. Legislative leaders say they haven’t made progress on a stalemate over held-up public campaign funds and tabled bills to address tax code reform and elderly residents facing foreclosure.
Spokespeople for Republican Sen. Mike Thibodeau and Democratic House Speaker Sara Gideon said it remains unclear when lawmakers will return. LePage’s office said the text of the governor’s child welfare reform legislation is unavailable.
Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Ricker Hamilton has said Maine’s struggling child welfare system needs more caseworkers, a new computer system and changes to mandatory reporting and family reunification policies. Hamilton has said LePage’s bill will address such concerns.
The governor also criticized current Maine law that he claims requires repeated attempts to keep children with parents.
“Folks, how many times must reunification or rehabilitation fail before the system determines it’s not possible,” he said in his radio address, calling for reform to make reunification “secondary” to a child’s best interests.
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