The review comes as hundreds of children with behavior disorders, autism, cognitive impairments and other mental health challenges, especially in rural areas, are on waitlists for services. Read More
A DHHS official said the agency could produce only “incomplete and inaccurate” records. Read More
“If someone’s going to the emergency room for any condition, you hope they’re able to get treatment for any condition and that the end result wouldn’t be jail,” said Kevin Voyvodich of Disability Rights Maine. Read More
The Maine Children's Trust first received $23 million in 2016 without competing for it. Read More
“When you’re done with this experience, you do not want to wear the badge of former child welfare mom,” said one mother. “That’s not a title anybody’s proud of, ever.” Read More
Gov. Paul LePage hasn’t made appointments to the board since January 2016. Read More
They had nowhere else to go. Read More
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services “will take prompt action” to comply with a law requiring that it restore its staff of public health nurses, according to a lawyer defending the department against a lawsuit for its failure to implement the 2017 law. Read More
“There’s funding there to hire nurses,” said one nurse who's part of the lawsuit. “I don’t understand why the department isn’t hiring highly qualified nurses to work.” Read More
“How are we doing a good job for these kids, that we’ve removed them from their parents, they’re traumatized, they’re scared, and then we plop them in a hotel? How is that best for them?” Read More
The work was more expensive than keeping state employees on the job. Read More
“All of this duplication of effort, all this extra work is only further overloading DHHS, making it that much more likely that the workers are going to miss a case of a child in danger,” said Richard Wexler of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. Read More
It's still unclear how many facilities there would be, how many children they would house, how long residents would remain there, and who would run them. Read More
The services that exist today to help children with mental illness, autism and intellectual disabilities have their roots in key actions in the courts and state Legislature in the mid-1990s. Read More
Local agencies are unsure if they can continue providing the service long-term. Read More
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services has filled only about a quarter of the vacancies it was required to fill by March 1. Read More
“It is important that in our review, we are taking a holistic look at areas possibly in need of improvement,” said DHHS spokeswoman Emily Spencer. Read More
The Department of Health and Human Services' “door is wide open and families are being served inconsistently,” the state’s associate director of child welfare services told a state advisory panel last June. Read More
Six school districts have started working to take over special education services from the state’s Child Development Services system before any mandate comes down from the Legislature. Read More
Coastal Counties Workforce Inc. had sued the LePage administration in October over the governor’s refusal to release the $8.4 million in federal job training funds to three regional boards that oversee job training services in their local areas. Read More
