Missouri Teen With Diabetes Died in Foster Home Not Licensed for Him; Task Force Due Nov. 15

Jefferson City, Missouri — A Missouri child welfare task force that Gov. Mike Kehoe created less than 24 hours before lawmakers questioned state officials about foster care deaths has until Nov. 15 to recommend legislation. One of the deaths raised at that hearing was a 17-year-old with type 1 diabetes whom Children’s Division workers placed in a foster home that was not licensed to take him, the Missouri Independent reported.

What happened

The teen, who had type 1 diabetes and autism, was sitting in the Macon County Children’s Division office after 5 p.m. on May 13, the Missouri Independent reported. Workers searched the state’s foster provider database for a home licensed to handle elevated medical needs. He and two workers then drove about 300 miles to southwest Missouri.

On May 19, Macon County workers learned the foster parent was licensed only to care for his own relatives, who did not have diabetes, and could not take the teen, according to the outlet. In the following 18 days, the foster parent asked county workers at least twice to move him, according to police records cited by the Independent.

On June 6, a Children’s Division supervisor booked transportation to return the teen two days later. He died that same day. Autopsy reports list his cause of death as diabetic ketoacidosis. After a police investigation, no criminal charges were filed.

What the police records show

A doctor’s note from April showed the teen was at high risk of diabetic ketoacidosis, the Independent reported. The foster parent told police that workers never explained exactly what the teen needed to manage his diabetes. The battery on his insulin pump died and was never recharged, he ran out of replacement blood sugar monitors and a pharmacy said his prescription had expired. A day and a half before he died, he started throwing up.

The FAN Podcast · New episodes every Tuesday & Friday

The cases they buried, read out loud.

Follow on SpotifyAll episodes →

New

Hardwired · Part 1 · Oct 28 · 14 min

Why the System Never Hears You

CPS builds a file on your family that can decide where your children sleep, and it never once asks who you are. Adam, a certified Core Values Index coach, opens the Hardwired series: the…

Hardwired · Part 1 · Oct 28, 2026 · 14:10

0:00−15s+30s1×14:10

Download MP3

Transcript & sources →Share

Recent episodes

Ep. 14 · 13 minNot Victims, Removed Anyway: Inside a CPS Investigation

Ep. 13 · 12 minAssembly Line Justice: Family Courts Are Factories, and Your Judge’s Wiring Decides Your Fate

Ep. 12 · 12 minJust Comply: When Your Own Lawyer Won’t Fight for Your Kids

Browse every episode →

A caseworker told police she did not ask the foster parent whether he was a medical provider because a supervisor had made those selections in the database. The foster parent told police he did not know he could not accept the placement. He declined further comment.

Where the system failed

Workers realized six days into the placement that the home was not licensed for the teen but did not send someone to pick him up, the Independent reported. On the day he died, a supervisor told an on-call worker to drive to southwest Missouri, but the worker said the foster parent had agreed to keep the teen until Monday.

The teen entered foster care in 2019 and had more than 15 placements, his father said. The Missouri Department of Social Services declined to comment on the case, citing state privacy laws. An Aug. 18 memo from Children’s Division Director Sara Smith now tells staff to get permission from a foster family’s licensing worker before placing a child, and an Aug. 12 memo requires immediate steps to move a child when a provider asks.

Lawmakers and the task force

On Aug. 26, the legislature’s Joint Committee on Government Accountability, chaired by Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, R-Arnold, questioned Smith about foster care deaths. The teen’s father testified.

Our family had to bury our son because of negligence on Children’s Division’s part.

The teen’s father, testifying to lawmakers, as reported by the Missouri Independent

Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina, said that when many people are notified about a placement problem, “somewhere the buck has to stop.” Smith said she did not know how many children had died in foster care since she became director but would find out.

Kehoe signed Executive Order 26-17 on Aug. 25. It creates the Missouri Child Welfare Task Force to write a statewide definition of child safety and recommend legislation by Nov. 15. The order does not mention any specific child’s death. Coleman said the order was a reaction to the legislature’s decision to hold a hearing, the Independent reported. The task force, chaired by Rep. Melissa Schmidt, R-Eldridge, first met Oct. 5 in Jefferson City.

The state had custody of this teen and placed him through a database search no one verified. Workers learned of the error within a week, the foster parent asked for the teen to be moved, and he stayed. No one has been charged, the department cites privacy, and the response so far is memos and a task force on definitions. FAN tracks how often foster care system problems end with a child dead in state custody and no one held accountable.

Key facts

• Macon County workers placed a 17-year-old with type 1 diabetes on May 13 in a home licensed only for the foster parent’s relatives.
• The foster parent asked at least twice for the teen to be moved, police records show.
• He died June 6 of diabetic ketoacidosis, autopsy reports say. No criminal charges were filed.
• Executive Order 26-17, signed Aug. 25, created the Missouri Child Welfare Task Force.
• The task force first met Oct. 5. Its recommendations are due Nov. 15.

Sources

• Missouri Independent — Missouri placed diabetic teen in a foster home not licensed to take him. He died 24 days later (2026-08-21)
• Missouri Independent — Missouri lawmakers press child welfare leaders on foster care deaths, staff turnover (2026-08-27)
• Missouri Secretary of State — Executive Order 26-17 (2026-08-25)
• Missouri Independent — Missouri task force seeks clearer standards for deciding when children are safe (2026-10-06)

Read next

BACKDATED ORDERSUp nextMissouri Took Their Kids the Day After Their Toddler Drowned, Then Backdated Orders: Suit

A Lake of the Ozarks couple says Missouri's Children's Division seized their surviving children the day after their daughter drowned, bypassed grandparents, and backdated custody paperwork.

Oct 19, 2026RESTRAINT DEATHThree Brooklawn Staffers Indicted in 2022 Restraint Death of 7-Year-Old Louisville Foster ChildOct 27, 2026FINEDIllinois DCFS Fined, Director Ordered to Court Over Files in Foster Teen’s 2024 DeathOct 27, 2026HOMICIDEMaryland Rules D.C. Foster Toddler’s Death in Respite Home a Homicide by DehydrationOct 25, 2026