A bill separating the Office of Child and Family Services (OCFS) from the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) was passed Wednesday in the Senate with strong bipartisan support.
Instead, this bill establishes a cabinet-level department that would take on the responsibilities currently managed by the DHHS OCFS, including child welfare, children’s behavioral health, and early childhood services.
According to the appropriations and allocations section attached to the amended version of the bill currently under consideration, roughly $4.2 million from the state’s General Fund will be needed to cover the costs associated with the new department.
On Wednesday, the Senate voted 22-8 in favor of accepting the minority Ought to Pass As Amended Report from the Health and Human Services (HHS) Committee.
Seven Democrats — including, Sen. Mattie Daughtry (D-Cumberland), Sen. Jill Duson (D-Cumberland), Sen. Henry Ingwersen (D-York), Sen. Cameron Reny (D-Lincoln), Sen. Peggy Rotundo (D-Androscoggin), Sen. Mike Tipping (D-Penobscot), and Sen. Eloise Vitelli (D-Sagadahoc) — and Republican, Sen. Marianne Moore (R-Washington) voted to against this bill.
Five lawmakers were excused at the time and did not participate in the vote.
[RELATED: Maine Lawmakers Seek New Gov’t Agency to Address Systemic Child Welfare Failures]
Although the HHS Committee nearly-unanimously recommended that the Legislature reject this bill, lawmakers in the Senate opted Wednesday to take up the minority Ought to Pass As Amended report signed by Sen. Joe Baldacci (D-Penobscot) and Rep. Ann Fredericks (R-Sanford).
When introducing this bill — LD 779 — to the HHS Committee, sponsor Sen. Jeff Timberlake (R-Androscoggin) argued that “the repeated, growing, and endemic failures of the Office of Family and Child Services under Maine’s DHHS merit very special care and attention, as well as bold, comprehensive action.”
“The issues within this particular office that have arisen in recent decades are far-reaching and well-documented — ranging from consistently extended waiting times, all the way up to the numerous instances of innocent children slipping through the cracks and losing their lives because of negligence and weak, feeble policy,” Sen. Timberlake said.
“Many of the specific examples are almost too grotesque to explore in detail in this setting,” Timberlake continued, “but suffice it to say that a system where 22 children (in 2017) died after the state had received reports of abuse — and a system where 34 children died with OCFS involvement in 2021 — is one that cannot continue to exist in its present form.”
“The support for this legislation from different corners of our local political life is not lacking,” Timberlake said. “It currently enjoys several co-sponsors from across the aisle; we have numerous groups and individuals of all persuasions lined up today eager to testify in favor; and, quite notably, former Maine Secretary of State Bill Diamond has moved mountains to blow the whistle on this issue, between his attempt at similar legislation and the tireless efforts devoted to Walk a Mile in Their Shoes.”
[RELATED: Ex-Dem Sen Diamond’s Report Details Mountain of Failures in Maine’s Child Welfare System]
“Even DHHS itself is ready to acknowledge the need for something different,” said Timberlake.
Click Here to Read Sen. Timberlake’s Full Testimony
Maine DHHS Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew testified before the HHS Committee in opposition to this bill, explaining that while the Department “remains open to all policy ideas that are supported by evidence and can help achieve our mission,” they would not support this proposal until an “in-depth” study has been conducted showing that “the cost of a new department for child and family services could improve child safety more than other investments.”
“We would recommend that this proposal be considered only after such a review,” said Commissioner Lambrew.
Click Here to Read Commissioner Lambrew’s Full Testimony
This move to separate OCFS from the Maine DHHS comes as the agency remains the subject of increased scrutiny over its continued failures to protect the children for which it is responsible.
The Child Welfare Ombudsman’s most recent report found that there was a continued “decline in child welfare practice” in the 2023 fiscal year.
“As has been true in previous annual reports, this year shows continued struggles with decision-making around child safety,” the report stated. “Primarily, the Department has had difficulty in two areas: 1) during initial investigations into child safety and decision-making around where a child is safe during an investigation, and 2) during reunification when making safety decisions about whether to send a child home.”
[RELATED: Child Welfare Ombudsman Reports Continued “Decline in Child Welfare Practice” for 2023]
The report also made reference to ongoing issues with Katahdin, the software used by the Department to upload and access case data, as well as to assess the risk a child in the system is facing and make decisions about whether or not a child should stay in, or be returned to, their biological home.
Caseworkers have recently reported that overriding recommendations made by the program has been “discouraged” by management at DHHS.
“Katahdin has been in use for over a year. In any transition to such a complex database, there will be setbacks and training issues, and cultural adjustment to the change,” the report said. “However, Katahdin’s issues go deeper than this.”
Furthermore, the number of child fatalities on the watch of DHHS has been increasing for more than a decade now.
In 2007 — the first year for which child fatality data is available — seven children died despite the involvement of child protective services. In 2022, that number rose to twenty-eight, meaning that four times more children died that year compared to 2007 despite DHHS interventions.
Of these twenty-eight, eleven children were determined to have died as a result of “accidents,” including “motor vehicle accidents, drowning, fire, etc.” Six died as a result of “unsafe sleep.” For three others, the cause of death was classified as “sudden unexpected infant death.” Two children died from unspecified causes. One child was murdered. Only five of these children were determined to have died of “natural causes.”
In 2021, four children who had been previously involved with DHHS died within weeks of each other, prompting renewed scrutiny of the Department. Since then, the parents of all four children have been charged with either murder or manslaughter in connection with the children’s deaths.
As pointed out in the Ombudsman’s 2023 report, however, these fatalities are part of a larger problem within DHHS and OCFS.
“Children are living in difficult and traumatic circumstances all over the state every day,” the Ombudsman wrote. “We have the responsibility, as a state, to protect those children.”
LD 779 will now advance to the House for further consideration.
Jean Lambrew and Darcey Lombart are part of the problem and need to be replaced. They were both specifically involved in my case over a decade ago. They were corrupt then and are corrupt now.
I have been requesting to review my case file since 2021, it is 2024 and I still have not gotten a returned phone call. My case has referred to CPS by family, friends, a doctor, counselors, the school spanning over 10 years with zero intervention. Most recently referred by the West Bath District Court in September 2023 after a Protection Order was filed on behalf of my son and he testified to assault, neglect, abuse, child endangerment, and possible poising. CPS never even responded!!
Establishing more funding and training is not a solution to the problem. Ceasing the financial incentives to take children and holding those accountable that traffic children from unsubstantiated cases will have much better results. But that will never happen until more people acknowledge that the system is not broken and is working as it was intended, to traffic children for profit, while destroying the families of Maine. CPS is only one branch of this child trafficking in Maine. CPS gets funded to take healthy children from families for profit, which is 80% of caseloads according to national studies, leaving no time to manage the remaining 20% in need of intervention, and we see again and again how that turns out.
CPS cannot take children without court orders. The origin of this child trafficking is in our family and juvenile courts, which is supported by our judicial committee who nominates corrupt judges, an oversight committee who ignores this, and a governor who protects this. The same governor who overturned the closure of Long Creek juvenile Detention Center where many of these child trafficking victims were abused, neglected, and molested by adult staff, and did not survive the trauma. Many of these victims came from the Wednesday Club established by Judge Field in the West Bath District Court where he unlawfully and illegally took children in both juvenile and family court for over two decades. These victims also had the same probation officer, the same lawyer, went to the same facilities where they experienced the same abuse, did not survive the trauma inflicted on them, and they were all boys taken from single mother households, which goes against the laws of probability. The evidence of the unlawful and illegal removing of all these children is in the case files at the West Bath District Court. The evidence of the abuse at Long Creek can be found in claims filed and the surviving victims. The deaths of these children can be confirmed by their death certificates at the vital statistics office. The lawyer involved can be found still practicing at the West Bath District Court and is on the GAL roster last I knew. If anyone is interested in viewing the rest of the evidence regarding this Judicial child trafficking ring and what is really going on in CPS, they can contact me. My name is Lisa Keathley.
This is a mistake, it’s just allowing cover for the incompetent and corrupt while adding new positions that will never be eliminated! DHHS Department of Hell and Human Sacrifice has proven that corruption is at all levels and it’s inbreed over decades. Now they are just going to duck and hide the guilty. Typical of this Mills regime. The state continues to sink lower and lower as these pathetic wanna be tyrants abuse citizens and ignore real problems and push their marxist agenda!
The Maine DHS is a crime syndicate to steal money off wards of the state ,inducing intentionally with off label meds to cause serious life threatening adverse reaction which is a federally mandated public critical level ,7 public health emergency, then kidnap by CPS or APS, by falsifying corrupt judges at probate and other courts , Gov mills sister and brother are cheif organizers,director,infectious diseases, patient safety ,other brother director Maine energy, and interstate,how convenient,,then they make millions on wards( victim ) of stare each ,,reimbursement hospital acquired condition, medical insurance,pharma settlements of 15 million some times,each !,while wards get no medical intervention at all ,wear arrest bracelets in ankle,burn alive inside out from toxic meds, ,paralyzed,blinded, necrotizing internal soft tissues ,slow horrific torturous deaths years depending on age!,justice for Abraham ongoing trafficking hostage torture situation , our lives are in danger for telling we are being retaliated against ,we are nit allowed to see or talk to dying son for three years now now for no reason at all ,which is illegall its all.illegall in everyway , son is cognitive , stop the torture please every cifizen help us demand his release to come home !