State senator says stand-alone agency needed to fight child abuse in Maine
The bill would take the state Office of Child and Family Services and make it a separate, stand-alone state agency, with its own commissioner and budget Author: Don Carrigan Updated: 9:48 PM EDT April 13, 2021
AUGUSTA, Maine Sen. Bill Diamond (D-Cumberland) says he’s been looking for answers to Maine’s child abuse problems for 20 years, ever since little Logan Marr died at the hands of her foster mother.
That work became far more urgent in early 2018, after the deaths of two other little girls, Kendall Chick and Marissa Kennedy. Both children were already involved with Maine’s child protective system when they were abused and then killed by those supposed to be caring for them. Chick died after abuse by the girlfriend of her grandfather, with whom she had been sent to live after her own mother proved unable to care or a child.
Lawmaker wants new state department to protect Maine kids
Windham Sen. Bill Diamond s legislation comes after several child deaths in Maine that exposed weaknesses in the state s system for protecting children from abuse and neglect.
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The abuse that has led to the deaths of several Maine children is driving legislation at the State House to create a new cabinet-level department in state government with the sole task of protecting kids from suffering and neglect.
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham, would remove the Office of Children and Family Services from the Department of Health and Human Services, and establish a new state department, with a commissioner to be nominated by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate.
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