Tag: Marlene Terry

‘Missouri Fathership Project’ plan sent to Senate

     A plan to help good fathers overcome anything that keeps them from being with their children has been given overwhelming bipartisan support through the House, and has been sent to the Senate.

Representative Jamie Gragg (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

     House Bill 1948 would create the “Missouri Fathership Project” in the Department of Social Services. Representative Jamie Gragg (R-Ozark), the bill’s sponsor, said the Project would promote fatherhood engagement and empower dads to become successful in engaging with their children.

“This doesn’t take dads who do not want to be dad. This will take dads who want to be dad who have barriers that are in the way and help him navigate that,” Gragg said. “Whether it’s the court system, whether it’s job security insecurities, whether it’s working through and trying to navigate legal issues that he has gotten himself into. Whatever it takes to get from where he’s at today where he’s not with his children, to with his children, because we have children that need their dads.”

     Gragg’s proposal would create the Missouri Fathership Project Grant Program and an accompanying fund. This would support grants for family-focused community agencies, faith-based agencies, family advocacy programs, and nonprofits to have Fathership Project specialists on staff.

Representative Pattie Mansur (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

“Those fathership engagement professionals will help those dads maneuver those roadblocks, and it’ll help them be dad again so those kids can succeed and we can get children away from these statistics and they can succeed in life.”

     Another provision in the bill states that fathers participating in the program are eligible for limited driving privileges when those might have otherwise been revoked, and protected from having occupational or professional licenses revoked.

Representative David Dolan (R-Sikeston) said his experience as a prosecutor and a judge showed him why that addition is needed.

“I would see these fathers that would come to court, and they were responding to come in for non-payment of their child support. And they would look at me and say, ‘I’m doing the best I can, but how do you expect me to pay this support if I can’t get a job, or if I can’t get to a job?’ So this would provide that if they’re participating in a program, they’re trying to work, that the court can give them their driver’s license to participate in the program and make them better fathers for providing their support.”

     That section also prevents participating fathers from losing hunting or fishing licenses. Dolan said this is because for many fathers, especially those who are struggling, hunting and fishing allow them to provide for their families.

Representative David Dolan (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

     The legislation received unanimous votes in two committees and passed out of the House 141-4. Along the way, some of its most vocal supporters were Democrats, including Representative Raychel Proudie (D-Ferguson).

     “There are fathers who are working and trying to reintegrate back into their children’s lives or to do better in their children’s lives. And it is a value of this country to have those two-parent homes when and where possible, where safe and where feasible. This is our way of doing our part to be pro-father is not to be anti-mother.”

     Representative Marlene Terry (D-St. Louis) said it’s a shame that such a program is needed, but there is no doubt that it is, and some of the state’s own systems are the reason for that.

“There are a lot of good fathers, great fathers. Just like there are a lot of great mothers. But our child support system needs a total overhaul. It is biased and it is not fair. And so fathers have to go through organizations like this in order to make things happen within their children’s lives,” Terry said.

Representative Raychel Proudie (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

     Representative Pattie Mansur (D-Kansas City) said this program could prove vital for men who are coming out of the Department of Corrections.

     “It is not only good for kids, but it’s in fact really important for successful reintegration because helping these men re-establish a family network, helping these individuals feel that they have a purpose and a connection and obligation to their family supports their ability to get work and to get stabilized and then become contributors to our community,” said Mansur.

     In addition to creating the Missouri Fathership Project, HB 1948 would make Jone “Fathership Month,” encouraging activities and events to raise awareness about the importance of fathers being a part of the lives of their children.

     The bill is now in the Senate.

Proposal would add 17 year-olds to legal definition of ‘missing child’

      The definition of a “missing child” in Missouri law would include 17 year-olds under a proposal heard by a House committee this week.

Representative Bishop Davidson (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      Republic representative Bishop Davidson (R) said he heard from a constituent about a 17 year-old who ran away from home and police could not act to retrieve her.  He said her family felt she was in an unsafe and abusive situation, and noted that they still have responsibility for her care until she turns 18.

      “It’s really a question about at what point are you considered a child and at what point are you considered an adult.  I think if we want to allow for a 9 year-old or a 10 year-old or an 11 year-old, at some point in time that line has to be drawn.  In all of the law we draw that line at 18.  Here we draw it, curiously, at 17,” said Davidson.  “In terms of whether or not a child is considered a child or an adult, I think that there should be consistency across the law.”

      Davidson presented the proposal to the House Committee on Children and Families, the members of which raised some concerns. 

      “If you’re 17 and living in a bad environment at your home … if you leave this would actually give law enforcement people the authority to retrieve you and force you to go back home?” asked Republican Randy Pietzman (Troy).  “I’m just thinking of scenarios growing up, people I know that have left home at 16.  They dropped out of school, they left home because it was a bad environment, and 90 percent of those people are pretty well off and doing very well, and I’m just thinking if they’d have been forced to stay there for another year they might not be doing as well as they are.”

      Davidson said it would, but noted there are other systems in place to help a young person in such a situation.

      “Now would I want an officer or someone close to the family, I mean if the child is running away at 17 could that be a pause for concern?  Could that stir up some questions that go, ‘Hey, did they run away for any particular reason that maybe we should look into?’  Sure, that’s a whole other conversation,” said Davidson, who added that he appreciated Pietzman’s reservation. 

      Several committee members thanked Davidson for opening the discussion.  Shrewsbury Democrat Sarah Unsicker recently read about a 17 year-old who was dropped from the foster care system but was not emancipated, so among other things she could not enter into a contract such as a lease to find housing.   

      “The report I got from the government says law enforcement refused to file a missing persons report or issue a pickup order due to the child’s age … so I think it’s really important that law enforcement know that they need to look for missing kids when they’re 17 years old,” said Unsicker. 

      Representative Marlene Terry (D-St. Louis) asked Davidson about expanding his bill to specify that law enforcement search for such individuals, and what must be done in that search.

Representative Marlene Terry asks Rep. Bishop Davidson about his bill, as Representatives Hannah Kelly (light blazer) and Mary Elizabeth Coleman, Chair of the House Committee on Children and Families, listen. (Photo: Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)

      “What I’m finding is that there are not procedures in place that make it manadatory to actually search for individuals that are missing.  A lot of times they’ll put up pictures and it’s a blank picture and not a photo.  All those things are important.  Even with the age, makes a difference, there’s other things that make a difference that might be helpful to make the search more valuable,” said Terry.

      “I come to this with a very open mind,” Davidson told Terry.  “This is not an issue that I have been most closely involved in and so I’m excited to see where the conversations go.”

      Mountain Grove Republican Hannah Kelly said in her experience, much frustration for caseworkers comes from directives being handed down without understanding of what would be necessary for them to be met. 

      “I would just ask to be able to have a continuing part in that conversation with you about what the ultimate structure looks like … what does it take to go do this,” said Kelly. 

      “I hope that this piece of legislation won’t leave this committee just in the form that it’s in now,” said Davidson.   

      His bill, House Bill 1559, is scheduled for a second hearing by the committee on Wednesday, and it could be voted on and/or amended at that time.