‘Utterly unacceptable.’ Missouri House committee passes contentious reform school bill

A Missouri House committee approved a bill Tuesday that critics say would unravel a 3-year-old law that implemented regulations on Christian boarding schools.

The Children and Families Committee voted 6-2 along party lines, with Democrats in opposition, to approve House Bill 2307. The measure now goes to the full House for possible debate.

Tuesday’s discussion and vote took just under seven minutes. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Adam Schnelting, R-St. Charles, briefly explained the proposal and answered a few questions.

“You’re not deleting any previous statutes?” asked Rep. Ann Kelley, R-Lamar, referring to critics’ concerns that HB 2307 would negate HB 557, which passed three years ago.

“This would not delete anything — right,” Schnelting said.

“So what your legislation does is just create an extra board to honor the religious beliefs of…,” Kelley started to ask.

Schnelting responded: “Yes, that’s correct….This does not undo or negate what the House Bill 557 did.”

But critics say the legislation could undermine the 2021 law meant to protect kids by requiring schools to register with the state, conduct background checks of employees and undergo safety and health inspections.

Though supporters say HB 2307 doesn’t those regulations away, critics say it would create a shield protecting unlicensed schools — several of which have been closed in recent years amid abuse allegations — from state scrutiny.

The measure would no longer require unlicensed schools to directly answer to the Department of Social Services. Instead, those facilities would be overseen by a new board, with more than half of its members representing Christian schools.

Rep. Ingrid Burnett, D-Kansas City, questioned the necessity of the proposed legislation at Tuesday’s hearing.

“Just to clarify, if this does not undo what 557 did, then why do we need it?” she asked Schnelting.

“It does not undo what 557 did,” he said. “What this does is it provides an additional layer of protection.”

Under HB 2307, an organization seeking to provide care for children can register with a “qualified association” instead of obtaining a child care license. The qualified association, which must have been operating for at least 20 years, will develop standards for the member organizations.

Schnelting told lawmakers at a hearing in February that the bill “allows child agencies and organizations that practice their Christian faith to continue practicing by self-regulation by doing what they’ve always done, which is operate under their own set of standards.”

It also creates a “Child Protection Board” within DSS that it says will provide oversight of the organizations. The non-partisan board is to be made up of 10 members appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate.

“Members shall be appointed based upon recommendations from faith-based child care agencies, foster care and mental health boards, and similar entities,” the bill says.

Two of those members must be foster parents; one must be a member in a leadership position of the Missouri Association of Christian Child Care Agencies, Inc.; five must be members of faith-based child care agencies with priority given to the Missouri Association of Christian Child Care Agencies; one a nutrition expert; and one a certified educator.

The bill which passed out of committee Tuesday would in some instances allow DSS to place children in these boarding schools.

Currently, the state does not place children in unlicensed schools, the bill’s supporters say.

David Clohessy, former national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said “kids in boarding schools are especially vulnerable to abuse.”

“They need and deserve more protection, not less,” he said Tuesday. “This (HB 2307) amounts to a free pass and a ‘get outta jail free’ card to anyone running a for-profit facility and calling it ‘religious.’”

Schnelting, Clohessy said, “openly admits the measure will let these controversial entities ‘self-regulate.’”

“No institution that is responsible for children should ever be allowed to ‘self-regulate,’” he said.

The Missouri Association of Christian Child Care Agencies, which would have a strong presence on the proposed Child Protection Board, “serves as a state fellowship of Christian childcare programs that voluntarily choose to be accredited by their Christian peers,” its website says.

The three who founded that association in 1998 ran two unlicensed boarding schools in Missouri that have since been closed amid abuse allegations. One of the men, the late James Clemensen, opened Agape Boarding School in 1996. The Star has spoken to dozens of former Agape students who say they suffered years of abuse but no one would listen to their pleas for help. Five Agape staffers were charged with physically abusing students in 2021.

Chad Puckett, the current president of the Missouri Association of Christian Child Care Agencies, is a key proponent of the bill. State corporation records show he has been on that association’s board since 2003, and sat on it with Clemensen, his son, Bryan, and other Agape Boarding School leaders over the years. He also is the director of Show-Me Christian Youth Home in La Monte, which is a member of the Missouri Association of Christian Child Care Agencies.

Emily Adams, a former boarding school student, drove from southwest Missouri to attend Tuesday’s hearing in Jefferson City.

“It was difficult to watch them vote on the issue,” said Adams, who said she was abused at a Mississippi school in the 1980s that was closed after a judge ordered authorities to remove students. That school’s owner then opened a boarding school in Missouri and founded the state association with Clemensen.

Adams questioned Schnelting’s bill, especially the proposed Child Protection Board that would have the majority of its members coming from Christian schools.

“Why would you put the fox in charge of the chickens?” Adams said. “Utterly unacceptable.”