The Maine Senate on Wednesday gave initial approval to a bill that would create a separate child and family services agency.
The proposal comes amid heightened scrutiny of the state’s child welfare system and investigations into several recent deaths.
The Office of Child and Family Services is currently within the sprawling Department of Health and Human Services, which receives significant state and federal funding, but is often criticized as too big to competently oversee its myriad programs.
In recent years that criticism has been directed at the child welfare division, which has faced scrutiny for its handling of children in its care by overworked and depleted staff.
Republican state Sen. Lisa Keim, of Dixfield, is a member of the Government Oversight Committee that has been investigating problems at the agency. During floor debate Wednesday, she argued that breaking it off from DHHS and creating a separate agency might be the only way to improve outcomes.
"By every measurable standard, Child and Family Services has gotten worse," she said. "The department cannot fix itself. They give excuses, they keep telling us the programs they're working on, but they're not improving."
Few senators disputed Keim's assessment, but several questioned whether standing up a new $4.3 million agency will remedy the problem.
Some argued that reforms proposed by the Mills administration need more time to work.
Nevertheless, the bill advanced by a vote of 22-8. The House will take it up next.
