Tag: adoption

VIDEO: ‘Baby Box,’ created by House efforts, used for first time to safely surrender a newborn

For the first time in Missouri a “Baby Box,” allowed in state law thanks to a 2021 House bill, has been used to safely hand over a newborn to emergency officials.

Last Thursday a baby girl believed to have been several hours old was left in the “Safe Haven Baby Box” at a Mehlville Fire Protection District Station 2. The child was taken to a local hospital, and is now in state custody. Authorities said she is in perfect health.

For mothers in need of help, the Safe Haven Crisis Line is (866) 99BABY1, or visit shbb.org

The Baby Box, installed in August and the only one in Missouri, is built into an outer wall at the Fire Station. It allowed the mother to place the girl into a bassinet and close the door. This triggered alarms in the fire station to let personnel know that a child had been relinquished.

Missouri law has since 2002 allowed for babies to be dropped off at places including hospitals and fire stations. The 2021 proposal from Representative Jim Murphy (R-St. Louis) to allow Baby Boxes in Missouri meant to expand on that 2002 law, to allow a person to drop off a baby without interacting with anyone, and with complete anonymity.

Murphy shared the news with his fellow legislators on Monday, and commended the little girl’s mother.

See our earlier story on the installation of this Baby Box

“She should be honored for making a great decision for a baby girl, who now will have a fruitful life,” said Murphy. “I personally would like to thank everybody in this body who voted for that bill, because today we celebrate life and saving a baby’s life, and I think that’s something worth celebrating and I think we should all be very proud of that.”

House legislation enables safe place to surrender newborns in Missouri

The first Baby Box in Missouri has been installed, and more are coming. 

Representative Jim Murphy (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Baby Boxes are an extension of the Safe Haven law, which allows parents to relinquish a newborn up to 45 days old without fear of prosecution.  That law, in place in Missouri since 2002, allows for babies to be dropped off at places including hospitals and fire stations, but Baby Boxes offer an option for parents who don’t want face-to-face contact.

      “The whole idea of the Baby Boxes is [for there to be] no interaction with one human to another, so if you just want to do it and you want to do it anonymously, this is a method of doing it,” said Representative Jim Murphy (R-St. Louis), who sponsored the language that made Baby Boxes an option in Missouri.

      For mothers in need of help, the Safe Haven Crisis Line is (866) 99BABY1, or visit shbb.org

      The first Box in the state is in his district, at Mehlville Fire Protection District Station 2.  There is a commitment for a second Box at Mehlville, and more fire stations in the state are expressing interest.

      Murphy said the Safe Haven Law is saving the lives of children. 

      “It’s happened time and time again where we’ve discovered babies in alleyways or in dumpsters and so forth.  For a woman to give up her child after birth has got to be a traumatic decision to make.”

      The box is built into an outer wall at the Mehlville Fire Station.  A parent can open it, place a baby inside in a bassinet, and close the door.  Alarms will alert personnel on duty, who will remove the bassinet and take the baby to a hospital.

      “I think the most important thing is that we try to deliver a message to mothers who are in this situation that their baby will be taken care of, and that’s the whole, entire goal of this thing is that the child shall have a good life from that day on and that we don’t villainize the person that gave the baby up.  We actually honor them for making a decision that if they can’t care for their baby that they gave it up in a proper way.” 

      Murphy said since his language became law two years ago, the state had to develop language to ensure Boxes would be safe.

      “Everything’s inspected properly, everything’s wired properly, the bassinet’s correct, there’s nothing in there that could endanger the baby, the alarms are set so that there are people readily available to retrieve the child … there’s all kinds of regulations that had to be promulgated to make sure that within a minute or two that that baby is put into care.”

      Founder and CEO of Safe Haven Baby Boxes Monica Kelsey helped guide the legislation that allows for these Boxes in Missouri and other states.  So far more than 160 have been installed.

      “I introduced baby boxes to allow parents anonymity so they can place their infant in an electronically monitored box that calls 911 on its own.  It’s heated, it’s cooled, and the infants are only in these boxes for right about two minutes.  With the amount of stories that we’re having across this country right now with babies being abandoned, these boxes are saving the lives of these kids now where before they were being thrown in dumpsters, trash cans, alongside highways, and stuff like that.”

      She said there are many reasons a parent might want to give up a child, including factors like financial struggles, mental health issues, or domestic abuse.  She wants people to support those who utilize the Safe Haven Law.

      “Every story is different.  Every story is unique, and every person handles crisis differently, but the one thing that all of these parents that are surrendering are doing is they’re putting their child first, and we should celebrate that.”

      Babies who are dropped off under Safe Haven receive immediate care, and Kelsey said they are adopted within 30 to 45 days. 

      “Every baby that has come through the Baby Box program and the Safe Haven program has been adopted.”

      For those who drop off a baby under Safe Haven, there is time to change their mind and reclaim their child. 

      “I don’t think our intent is to take babies away from parents.  Our intent is to protect children,” said Murphy.

      “They can get their children back as long as the termination of parental rights has not happened and that usually takes between 30 and 45 days,” said Kelsey.

      The installation of this Baby Box has gotten a lot of attention, but Murphy and Kelsey want to stress that it is not the only place in the state to drop off a child.

      “Every hospital in America – every hospital in the State of Missouri – is a Safe Haven location, and most [states’ Safe Haven laws also] have fire stations, Missouri is one of them, so every fire station that is manned – that is also another avenue for women in the State of Missouri,” said Kelsey.

      Murphy’s Baby Box language was introduced in 2021 as House Bill 76, which was approved by the House 151-1.  It was later amended to and became law as part of, House Bill 432 sponsored by Representative Hannah Kelly (R-Mountain Grove). 

      Since its installation in August, the Box in Mehlville hasn’t been used.  Since the Safe Haven Law was adopted in Missouri in 2002, 61 babies have been surrendered.  

      Kelsey said those who want to see a Baby Box installed in their community can contact her organization for help.

      “We’ll walk alongside you, or contact Mehlville Fire.  Talk to Chief [Brian] Hendrix.  See what his process was, see what he’s learned along the way … contact us if you want to get started.  We’ll help you raise the funds so the government doesn’t have to pay for it.  Mehlville Fire was 100% not tax dollars, so donors stepped forward for that … and that’s what we like to see.  We like to see the communities come together and do this on their own.”

      For mothers in need of help, the Safe Haven Crisis Line is (866) 99BABY1.  Kelsey’s organization, Safe Haven Baby Boxes, can be found online at shbb.org. 

Expansion of adoption tax credit sent to governor

      Missouri legislators hope one of the bills they’ve sent to the governor will lead to more children being adopted into loving homes. 

Representative Hannah Kelly (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      One of the provisions in Senate Bill 24 would expand Missouri’s adoption tax credit, which offers a nonrefundable tax credit for one-time adoption-related expenses such as attorney fees, up to $10,000 per child.  That credit is capped at $6-million a year.  SB 24 would remove that cap, makes the tax credit refundable, and would have the per-child limit adjust with inflation.

      Those proposed changes are now awaiting action by Governor Mike Parson (R), and their House sponsor, Hannah Kelly (R-Mountain Grove), couldn’t be happier. 

      “I just think we did something really good today.  I honestly had given up on it and then it passed.  I couldn’t hardly believe it.  Now it’s on the governor’s desk.  I’m very thankful,” said Kelly.  “We’re just saying, ‘Hey, we’re here to make sure that we invest in these kids and these families, help them get across the line, get them out of the system, get them building their futures together as a family.’”

      More than 2,200 Missouri children are awaiting adoption.  Representative Keri Ingle (D-Lee’s Summit) once worked as an adoption specialist with the state Children’s Division, and said most of the families who would adopt those children see the system as complicated and laced with prohibitive expenses.

      “They know it costs a lot of money, they know it’s hard, they know that they have to jump through a lot of bureaucratic hurdles, but they don’t know that there’s support on the other end of it.  They don’t know that they’ll be eligible, perhaps, for a subsidy and tax credits and things like that, that will help them complete their family and get kids out of foster care and make it affordable and not cost prohibitive.”

      Ingle said this bill could make a huge difference.

“We have kids that linger in care indefinitely and unnecessarily, because there are so many families out there that want to adopt kids, that want to create forever homes for these kids, but they just feel like it’s beyond their fiscal ability to do so.  Anything we can do to help them through that process and create that forever family and get these kids out of [state] care … there are way too many people that would love to expand their families and adopt.”

      The bill is especially personal for Kelly, who talks often to her colleagues and in public settings about her own experience adopting her then-teenage daughter. 

      “My daughter is building her own life and celebrating her impending wedding coming soon and going to college and doing all the things that you hope to see your children do, not because of me but because she simply had the opportunity to know she had a forever home base to come back to.  To be a part of that is a privilege and to get to be a part of helping Missouri families provide that for children who otherwise would not have that, is a privilege.”

Representative Keri Ingle (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Ingle said even as other issues have caused tension between her party and Republicans there has been a lot of cooperation on issues like this one, and she’s been glad to be a part of it.

      “We’ve been really, really lucky to have a specific group of people in my tenure that have really placed children and child welfare at the forefront of what we work on and placed partisan ship at the very, very back when it comes to those things.  Politics has nothing to do with child welfare and it shouldn’t have anything to do with that.  We should all come together and do what’s right for the kids of this state, and so I’m always really proud to see the work that my colleagues do, on both sides of the aisle, when it pertains to that.”

      Kelly added, “If any Missouri family wants to give a child who does not have a forever home a home we need to back up and support them, and that is what this credit is about.”

      The House’s final vote on SB 24 was 139-5.  It now awaits the governor’s decision to either sign it into law, veto it, or allow it to become law without his action.

House member wants to favor family placements over foster care

      A House member wants the state to put more effort into finding family members with whom to place children who are taken into state custody, before placing them with strangers.

Representative Dave Griffith speaks with Alysa Jackson (left) and Sarah Bashore (right) with the Central Missouri Foster Care and Adoption Association (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Jefferson City representative Dave Griffith (R) thinks the state Children’s Division could do more to that end, and some agencies who support his bill agree with him.

      “We want to go 50 deep if we have to, to try to find somebody that is going to be a good match for that child, that is going to be able to provide that child with a safe and healthy place to live,” said Griffith.  “It really comes down to what is going to be best for the child or the children, and trying to keep children and families together rather than separating families.”

      Griffith said he has heard from a number of constituents who have their own, “stories and their own personal nightmares that they are dealing with when their children are taken from them and trying to get their children back and … having their children separated and not being able to go to relatives, or going to wrong relatives and it being injurious to their future, and many of them, to their health.

      “Trying to work inside the system and trying to find a way that we can do what’s best for the children of Missouri as a whole, that’s really the genesis behind bringing this bill forward.”

      Griffith’s House Bill 1563 would require the Division to make “diligent searches” for biological parents when a child enters state custody.  In the case of an emergency placement, the Division would search for grandparents.  If they can’t be found or aren’t fit, it would then look for other relatives for placement within 30 days. 

      Members of the House Committee on Emerging Issues asked Griffith whether his proposal would simply place burdens on overworked, underpaid, members of an understaffed agency.  Griffith agreed those are concerns for the Division, “but I think that there are resources that are available to [the Division] which are not being utilized to the fullest.  I think if we can utilize these agencies … those are a resource that they can use … and we already have them under contract.”

Sarah Bashore with the Central Missouri Foster Care and Adoption Association told the committee that her agency, serving 24 counties, helped find family members for 34 children in state care in the last two quarters of the last fiscal year.  She said it could help even more children, but the Children’s Division hasn’t being asking.

      “We don’t receive the referrals like we should, for being a contracted agency.  They’re paying for our service but they’re not always using it,” said Bashore. 

      She believes as employees with the Division leave and are replaced, those new hires simply don’t know that her agency and others like it are available, or how they can be used.

      She said similar agencies cover other parts of the state, “So we would just ask that we continue doing our work and, if at all possible, if they do some of the work as well then I think, combined, that we’ll see a lot less kids in stranger foster care.” 

      Bashore said her agency and others are simply more capable and have more resources than Children’s Division for doing the kinds of searches that Griffith’s bill would require, and with compelling results. 

      “The search engines that we have … it’s not as time consuming as one might think,” said Bashore.  “With our program that we run and are contracted with, it’s called 30 Days to Family, we’re able to find at least 80 relatives if not more.  Our average this last year has 115 relatives, and we do that within 30 days.”

      Bashore added, there could be an additional benefit to the state if more children were placed with family members rather than in foster care.

      “For a child to remain in foster care it’s more than $25,000 a year,” said Bashore.

      The committee has not voted on Griffith’s proposal.

Foster reforms aimed at giving more children permanency sent to governor

      The legislature has proposed several measures meant to give more Missouri children a chance to get out of the foster care system and into permanent homes, and to help foster and adoptive parents afford the costs of caring for and adopting children.

Representative Hannah Kelly watches as fellow legislators cast votes for one of the two foster care reform bills she sponsored. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      House Bills 429 and 430 were agreed to this week and now await action by Governor Mike Parson (R), who lawmakers say has indicated support for them.  Mountain Grove Republican Hannah Kelly sponsored both.

      HB 430 would expand current tax credits for the adoption of Missouri children with disabilities to be available in any adoption, while giving priority to instances involving Missouri children with disabilities.  Kelly said of a program capped at $6-million a year, less than $30,000 was claimed last year.

      She said by allowing a broader offering of this credit, more Missouri children will have the opportunities for permanent families.

      “When people say it should stay to be Missouri children.  Well if a Missouri family wants to adopt a child then that’s a Missouri child in my mind,” said Kelly.  “If you’re a Missouri taxpayer we’re going to support you in your effort to open your home and your heart to children in need.”

      HB 429 authorizes an income tax deduction for expenses related to providing care as a foster parent. 

      It also creates a “Birth Match” program.  It would require the state Children’s Division and the State Registrar’s Office to compare birth reports with information on parents who have been convicted of certain crimes.  When parents have history of the specified crimes, Division personnel will make contact with the family to see if any action is appropriate. 

      This could include seeing whether any crimes are being committed, but Kelly said in a broader sense it is about seeing whether the family is in need of any of the types of assistance the state could facilitate.

      “Birth Match is intended to match the families with the services to prevent a repeat of previous situations,” said Kelly.  “If you can step in and offer services, whether that be parenting classes, whether that be … do you need to be signed up for Medicaid … do you need prenatal care … do you need, OK you need a washer and a dryer.”

      “That is the heart of Birth Match, is to allow government departments to communicate faster … in regards to ensuring the overall outcome is safety of baby and mom and dad and whoever else is in the picture,” said Kelly. 

      HB 429 also increases the age threshold for abandoned infants and children from one year or under to under three years old.  It sets a time frame of six months before a petition of termination of parental rights is considered in cases of neglect by a parent. 

Foster care reform is a priority for House Speaker Rob Vescovo. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Kelly said by restructuring this and other parts of law, impediments to giving a child a permanent home are removed.

      “The research was showing us that [children] were getting ‘caught in limbo,’ is the best way to put it,” said Kelly.  “This is expected very much to help make sure that kids don’t get stuck in what can feel like forever being hung between, ‘Okay, I know that I’m abandoned by my bio-family but I also need a termination of parental rights process to happen before my family who wants to adopt me can officially be my adoptive family.”

      Kelly credits House Speaker Rob Vescovo (R-Arnold) with making the legislation a priority, which pushed these bills to be the first non-budget measures sent to the governor this year.  She said not only did he make these issues priorities, he bravely, publicly shared his own personal story of having been in Missouri’s foster care system as further evidence of the need for reform.

      “His willingness to tell his story; his willingness to lay it out there and personally exemplify why this matters has been huge,” said Kelly. 

      The legislation received overwhelming bipartisan support.  The final House vote on HB 429 was 127-8; the vote on HB 430 was 142-0.