For the first time in years, the number of Maine children in state custody is going down. Officials say it’s a sign that efforts to repair the embattled child welfare system are working.

The number of children removed from homes because of suspected abuse or neglect and placed in foster care grew at a faster rate here than in any other state from 2019-23, attributable in part to a spate of high-profile child deaths. In June 2024, there were nearly 2,600 kids in state custody — the most in 20 years.

This June, the most recent month for which data is available from the Department of Health and Human Services, that number had fallen 14%, to 2,210, the lowest it has been since there were 2,196 in July 2021.

Bobbi Johnson, a former child protective caseworker chosen to lead the Office of Child and Family Services in 2024, said a greater emphasis on “upstream prevention” for families is the primary factor in the declining number of kids in state care.

“In addition to ‘Is … this child experiencing child abuse and neglect?’ It’s also about (asking) ‘What are the comprehensive needs that a family may benefit from?'” Johnson said in an interview Wednesday. 

Maine’s child welfare system has struggled for years to meet rising caseloads. Long court backlogs, a struggling mental health system and uneven access to facilities that treat substance use disorder have created more demand for services, child welfare caseworkers have said, pushing many kids into a system without the resources to manage them.

In order to keep families together, Johnson said caseworkers now identify what she described as “systemic barriers” that prevent children and families from receiving care. The state also has programs to provide families in need with money for transportation, electricity, heating, housing and other basic necessities that are being made more widely available than in the past, she said.

Additionally, Johnson said the decline in numbers is because more kids in state custody are finding permanent homes “through reunification with their parents, through adoption, through permanent guardianship.”

“We have very few children in care that actually age out of the system. Our numbers are really low in Maine,” she added.

Historically, children in state custody often wait more than a year before being placed in permanent housing. The average child is in DHHS’ care for 682 days, according to the agency’s 2024 child welfare report, and less than 25% of children in the system find safe, long-term homes within a year of entering the system.

Although the number of kids in state custody rose consistently for years, it was not linear. Data shows the rates at which children are removed from suspected unsafe environments typically spike after high-profile cases of likely preventable child deaths.

“The system, including the child welfare agency, gets more risk averse, and so you see an increase of calls to the child protective hotline,” Johnson said. “A corresponding increase in the number of kids in care happens as a result of that.”

The state’s independent child welfare ombudsman, Christine Alberi, did not respond to interview requests for this story, but has previously said Maine’s systems are “unable to support children and families in the way that they should.”

Frontline workers in child protective services also have previously said they are being stretched thin by a “broken system” that is understaffed and dealing with an increasing case volume wrought by Maine’s overburdened health care system.

Last year, Johnson even fielded calls to resign over the agency’s practice of using hotels and hospital beds to temporarily house children in state custody, as well as the poor working conditions for caseworkers. A letter signed by nearly 150 agency employees (roughly 17% of staff) said working conditions had become unsafe due to excessive caseloads and high expectations for caseworkers.

Johnson said she believes the decline in overall caseloads has helped address employees’ concerns. But Mark Brunton, who represents thousands of state workers as the president of the Maine Service Employees Association, said the numbers are encouraging but that state still “has more work to do.”

“OCFS caseworkers feel that their caseloads are still too high, that they have inadequate support, and that they’re working an impossible number of hours each week to meet the demand for their services,” Brunton said in an email.

The agency’s approach of relying more on local organizations for providing families preventive care and finding kids permanent housing comes at a precarious moment for Maine’s health care and child welfare infrastructure.

Maine’s health care system is struggling, especially in rural areas where hospitals have closed and providers have reduced services. Alberi has previously said that dynamic is exacerbating people’s needs while shrinking the ability of the state and providers to meet them.

“Mental and behavioral health resources, especially the more intensive resources, are not readily available to help children who have already experienced significant trauma,” she wrote in testimony to the Legislature in January. “This can cause placement disruption and lack of support to kinship placements and foster parents.”

Simultaneously, the number of active foster homes licensed with the state has fallen 16% in the last three years to its lowest level since the pandemic, heightening concerns around the state’s ability to care for kids in its care.

Still, Johnson expects the number of kids in DHHS custody to continue falling.

“I anticipate that we’ll get to a point where that will stabilize and we’ll continue to focus on not just the number, but also the timeliness of children exiting care,” she said.

Note: This story has been updated to include comments from Mark Brunton, president of the Maine Service Employees Association.