Good morning from Augusta. An initial round of long-teased proposed reforms to the child welfare system from Gov. Paul LePage was released on Wednesday ahead of the Legislature’s return to the State House next week.
A spokeswoman for the governor called the five bills to be considered by month’s end “a first wave” of proposed changes to the system, which is reeling after the recent deaths of two Maine girls. Caseworkers have already criticized the administration’s internal policy response.
The wording of four of those bills was released on Wednesday. Another more sweeping bill that the Department of Health and Human Services said would pay caseworkers more — to combat a 60 percent turnover rate as measured by the state employees’ union — and replace an outdated new computer system to track cases hadn’t been printed as of Thursday.
To read the rest of “LePage offers details on how he wants to fix Maine’s child welfare system,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News staff writer Michael Shepherd, please follow this link to the BDN online.
