Social worker to lead division over Mo. child welfare system

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A longtime social services worker will lead a new state division responsible for overseeing Missouri's child welfare system.

Frederic Simmens, currently the state's children's services director in Jackson County, was named Tuesday to head the new Children's Division in the Department of Social Services.

The Children's Division, which is to begin operations Thursday, was created by an executive order of Gov. Bob Holden after the death last year of a 2-year-old Springfield foster child. Child welfare services previously have been handled under the Division of Family Services, which is being narrowed and renamed the Family Support Division.

"This is a time of great change in the child welfare system and with that change comes opportunities for improvement," said Simmens, who began work for DFS in 1975 as a social worker. He left the department in 1998 to serve as chief operations officer of the Missouri Patient Care Review Foundation, then returned to DFS in July 2002 to take the job in Jackson County.

The changes at the Division of Family Services began after the August 2002 death of Dominic James, who was removed from his mother's Springfield home because of a domestic dispute and was placed in the custody of John Dilley, of Willard, Mo.

Dominic remained with Dilley despite the concerns of his biological father, medical personnel and some state workers that he showed signs of abuse. Dilley has pleaded innocent to charges he shook the boy to death.

The legislature passed a bill earlier this year attempting to revamp the state's child welfare system. But Holden vetoed the bill, citing concerns it would limit the state's subpoena power in abuse and neglect cases.. Holden then directed the Department of Social Services to implement some of the things the bill sought to make law.