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Dec. 20, 2024 |  By: Clara Bates - Missouri Independent

Mike Kehoe appoints new leader for Missouri social services agency

missouri house budget hearing

By Clara Bates - Missouri Independent

Gov.-elect Mike Kehoe announced that he is appointing Jessica Bax as the next director of the Missouri Department of Social Services.

Bax, who is currently the director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities for the Department of Mental Health, will become acting director of DSS effective Jan. 13. She will then need to be confirmed by the state Senate. 

“Jess brings valuable experience working with state and local agencies and successfully building partnerships with stakeholders to this role,” said Kehoe in a press release Wednesday.

“With her extensive knowledge of social service programs, the budget and legislative process, and her passion for providing quality service to the people of Missouri, I am confident she will bring excellent leadership to the Department of Social Services,” Kehoe added.

Prior to her time with the Department of Mental Health, Bax worked at the Department of Health and Senior Services as director of the Division of Senior and Disabilities Services.

She will replace Robert Knodell, who served in the role for three years and recently accepted a job to be the city manager of Poplar Bluff, his hometown.

The Department of Social Services oversees foster care, Medicaid, other public assistance programs and services for delinquent youth. 

“I am humbled at the opportunity to serve in the Kehoe Administration and the people of Missouri in this capacity,” Bax said in a press release. “I look forward to working on streamlining operations, program integrity, and incorporating national best practices to help all Missourians have access to the tools they need to be safe and healthy.” 

Over the last few years, the agency has faced criticism for its administration of public benefits. 

A federal judge earlier this year ruled Missourians were illegally denied food aid by the state due to hourslong call center wait times for participants to receive a required interview. 

The state has also struggled to meet federal guidelines for its processing of Medicaid applications. The department in its budget request to the state legislature is asking for $11 million to hire 220 new staff in the Family Support Division to help ensure the agency complies with federal and state rules on timely processing, and “maintains a reasonable wait time in the call centers,” the budget request states. 

And the department faced scrutiny for its handling of missing foster kids. A federal report in 2022 found that there were 1,780 instances of foster kids going missing in Missouri over a two-and-a-half year period that spanned July 2018 to December 2020. The agency last year said it has increased efforts to find missing foster kids. 

Knodell said in an interview last week that one of the challenges as director has been balancing the desires of those who want as robust a safety net as possible with those who want to control costs. 

“We try to build as strong a safety net as we can, being as responsible a steward of the resources that we have as possible,” he said. “But there is a push and a pull, and there are limits to what the government can do, but certainly we want to do the things that we’ve been tasked as efficiently and effectively as possible.”