AUGUSTA, Maine — Todd Landry, the director of Maine’s child welfare system, which has faced scrutiny in recent years over the deaths of numerous kids in state care, has resigned.
A Department of Health and Human Services official said in a Monday morning email to lawmakers on the Government Oversight Committee that Landry resigned as director of the Office of Child and Family Services due to “personal reasons.”
Bobbi Johnson, associate director of child welfare services in DHHS, will serve as the acting director of the child and family services office while the department searches for a permanent leader, Molly Bogart, government relations director for DHHS, told lawmakers in the email obtained by the Bangor Daily News.
“We will continue to address problems in the child welfare system under the Acting and next Director,” Bogart wrote. “We wish Dr. Landry the best in his future pursuits.”
DHHS spokesperson Jackie Farwell confirmed Landry’s resignation Monday afternoon in a statement to the BDN that repeated what Bogart told the oversight committee members.
Landry had led Maine’s child welfare office since 2019. He made roughly $145,000 in 2022, according to an online state employee salary database.
He came to Maine from Fort Worth, Texas, where he served as the chief executive officer of a nonprofit providing counseling and educational training for children and families. Landry led the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services from 2007 to 2009.
Maine’s child welfare system has come under pressure during the administrations of Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, and former Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, due in large part to high-profile deaths of kids and caseworkers repeatedly complaining about burnout amid higher turnover as Maine leaders directed more funds to the system in hopes of alleviating issues. The Legislature has also struggled to figure out how to solve the long-running child welfare problems.
Mills said in a statement she has directed DHHS Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew to conduct a national search for a new director “who can strengthen support for the dedicated staff at OCFS, who understands the complexity of the child welfare, child care, and children’s behavioral health systems, and who is committed to the hard work of making needed improvements.”
In 2021, at least 31 children in Maine, the highest number on record, died in tracked incidents that were associated with abuse or neglect or had occurred after a history of family involvement with the child welfare system. Last year, DHHS reported at least 29 child fatalities, with the numbers updated at times following the completion of investigations, and official year-to-date figures for 2023 are not yet available.
The department and Landry’s office had also grappled with nation-leading child abuse rates that DHHS attributed to Maine using a broader definition of “maltreatment,” but critics noted the state’s data in that area had not improved in recent years.
In May, Landry and Lambrew announced an initial version of a “ Child Safety and Family Well-Being Plan” that aims to boost parents’ economic security, assist caregivers and improve agencies’ coordination on child welfare. One part includes $1 million to start an education campaign for parents that seeks to “reduce the stigma of asking for help.”
Farwell and the DHHS official’s email to Government Oversight Committee members both said Landry and his office “accomplished much” during his nearly five years in charge. That included supporting the child care system during the COVID-19 pandemic, implementing a children’s behavioral health plan and “diligently working to improve” the child welfare system through the use of state and federal funding.
But lawmakers, particularly those on the oversight panel that has reviewed the more recent child fatalities, grew impatient at times with Landry and DHHS leaders over the pace of reforms. Assistant Senate Minority Leader Lisa Keim, R-Dixfield, the ranking Republican on the oversight committee, said the Mills administration “has too long delayed a change in leadership” and that the panel’s “intensified scrutiny of OCFS likely triggered” Landry’s resignation.
Earlier in November, the state watchdog agency told the committee that child protective services workers made several “unsound safety decisions” when interacting with the family of Jaden Harding in the years before the Brewer boy was born and then eventually killed by his father in 2021 when he was 6 weeks old. Landry was not at the Nov. 15 oversight meeting, with officials saying he had been on a previously scheduled vacation.
Sen. Jeff Timberlake, R-Turner, a member of the oversight panel, reiterated his desire to break off the child and family services office from DHHS and said Monday he wished Landry “nothing but the best, but I think it’s time that the department gets a chance to start over.”
Sen. Craig Hickman, D-Winthrop, and Rep. Jessica Fay, D-Raymond, the oversight committee chairs, thanked Landry in a joint statement for his service and said the panel will provide a report and child welfare-related recommendations to the Legislature “in the coming weeks and months.”
Another oversight committee member, Sen. Mike Tipping, D-Orono, said he is confident the acting director and eventual permanent child and family services office leader will take action to fix the office’s “deep and systemic” problems.
“It’s a broken system that requires fundamental changes,” Tipping said.
