The Missouri Department of Social Services underreported to legislators and the public the number of substantiated incidents of abuse and neglect at faith-based reform schools, The Kansas City Star has learned.
At one school in southern Missouri, the number of neglect findings is 10. Yet DSS told legislators, who are debating a law that would for the first time give the state some oversight of the schools, that there had been “two substantiated reports of neglectâ€Â at Master’s Ranch Christian Academy since 1997.
DSS says that until now, it had been providing legislators and the media with the number of investigations conducted, which each could include multiple substantiated incidents, or “preponderance of evidence†findings.
Rep. Keri Ingle, D-Lee’s Summit, who has led the push to change the state law that exempts religious-based boarding schools from oversight, said it’s “concerning†and “frustrating†that lawmakers haven’t been given consistent, accurate information. Especially, she said, when they must rely on DSS to understand the scope and depth of a problem that may need a legislative fix.
People are also reading…
“There’s a huge difference between 10 and two,†said Ingle, a licensed social worker who spent seven years with the Jackson County Children’s Division, the child welfare agency inside DSS. “Having correct information is pivotal. We have to have it. If our job is to provide oversight and departments aren’t giving us correct information, I don’t know how we can provide that oversight.â€
Rebecca Woelfel, a DSS spokeswoman, said when lawmakers recently asked for more information about findings inside unlicensed schools, agency officials re-evaluated what was previously provided.
Woelfel, in an email to The Star, said if there had been an investigation and a substantiated, or “preponderance of evidence,†finding had been made, “we would report the nature of the POE, not necessarily the number of individual POEs per report. One report may contain multiple POE findings, but this was not reflected in the information previously reported.â€
She said officials now believe that by reporting the “nature and disposition†for each finding legislators and the public will have a clearer picture.
“This may change the number of POEs previously reported per facility because an investigative report may contain findings for multiple perpetrators, multiple victims, multiple findings for different types of abuse, or a combination of these factors,†she said.
Child advocates and lawmakers question the state’s explanation for the change in numbers. The agency never indicated, advocates and lawmakers said, that it was only providing the number of investigations. Indeed, officials often referred to “substantiated reports†of abuse and neglect when they released information.
Ingle added: “A POE and substantiated report are the exact same things.â€
On April 7, Rep. Jered Taylor, R-Nixa, asked DSS officials — including the agency’s acting director Jennifer Tidball — about specific substantiated allegations.
“Can you disclose how many Preponderance of Evidence do you have on unlicensed facilities currently in the state?†Taylor asked during a hearing of the House Special Committee on Government Oversight, which he chairs.
Sharie Hahn, DSS’ general counsel, was at the witness table with Tidball and began to read from a list she and agency officials had with them.
First she read that Circle of Hope Girls Ranch — a facility whose owners have been charged with 102 crimes that include statutory rape and sodomy — had one substantiated report of neglect, one report of neglect and physical abuse and three reports of sexual abuse. The agency recently said the now-closed facility has one more case of sexual abuse.
Hahn went on to include other unlicensed schools.
“Let me start with the name of the facility and then list the POEs, if that’s OK,†she said. “... Master’s Ranch Christian Academy, two substantiated reports of neglect, that would be since 1997.â€
The agency initially said that Legacy Boys Ranch & Legacy Boys Academy, which like Circle of Hope is in Cedar County, had one substantiated report of neglect. DSS then said it had two.
On Tuesday, however, the agency said it had identified the wrong facility. The Cedar County ranch had no substantiated reports, but Legacy Ranch in Bonne Terre, Missouri, a licensed facility, had two.
Officials didn’t give their revised count to lawmakers until late last month — after the House had already voted on the proposal to provide some oversight of faith-based schools. The first legislative hearing in Jefferson City on the issue was in early November, and there have been numerous hearings related to the topic since then.
Members of three legislative committees received the new information on April 27. (Information from that report was included in a ºüÀêÊÓƵ story, published May 1, on the closing of Great Circles residential treatment program in Webster Groves.) On Monday, some lawmakers on those committees received a new email from DSS with the subject line: “Revised Documents.â€
“This document corrects an addition error,†the email said. “And while validating the numbers, two additional cases were identified.â€
One of those cases was at Master’s Ranch, bringing the total to 10 substantiated findings of neglect.
Shelva Thomas-Jackson’s son attended Master’s Ranch in 2017, and she went to work there in 2019. But the Houston, Texas, mother said she quit just one week into the job after she saw — and reported — a series of disturbing incidents, including students physically restraining other students with no adult present and a boy’s arm dislocated by a bully.
“Oh, my gosh, 10 is a lot,†she said Tuesday when she heard about the substantiated findings of neglect at the facility. “It gives me chills to hear that. And if there are 10, there are more. It makes me sick to my stomach. I sent my son there.â€
Thomas-Jackson traveled to Jefferson City twice — once in February and again in April — to testify at House and Senate committee hearings on the proposed legislation. During testimony that became emotional, she told lawmakers about her experience at Master’s Ranch.
“These new numbers show the need for legislation,†she told The Star. “This is why I’m doing what I’m doing.
“How are we going to fix this? They’ve got to change the law on how boarding schools are operated.â€