Maine’s still not making full use of its child welfare services watchdog amid ‘a bit of a crisis’

In the more than 10 months since 10-year-old Marissa Kennedy was abused to death allegedly at the hands of her mother and stepfather, the number of assessments state-contracted caseworkers conducted into potentially at-risk families nearly doubled.

The resulting sharp uptick — 909 assessments in 2018 compared with 545 in 2017 — occurred because, suddenly, “there were fears things were being missed,” Child Welfare Ombudsman Christine Alberi told the legislative Committee on Health and Human Services last week in Augusta.

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