Missouri child welfare agency pitches plan to ‘rebuild’ overburdened foster care system

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Media Conglomerate: Tribune Media

Missouri child welfare agency pitches plan to ‘rebuild’ overburdened foster care system

The director of Missouri’s child welfare agency told lawmakers this week that the state has “effectively legally orphanized” around 1,500 children. Those children have had their legal ties to their biological parents severed — by a court, in what’s called termination of parental rights — but the social services agency had no adoptive parents ready to take their place.  They wait, in foster care, to be adopted or age out of the system. “If you kn…