Rylee Fararro and Hayden Rosener weren’t strangers to Missouri child abuse investigators before they were charged in connection with the death of a 4-year-old boy last year.
Before the child died because of blunt force trauma, Children’s Division investigators responded four different times to reports of abuse or neglect. That’s according to documents from the Department of Social Services, which oversees the division, that St. Louis Public Radio received Thursday from an open records request.
The first instance was in 2019 after Fararro gave birth to her son, when there were concerns about substance use — which resulted in Fararro staying with a relative and being linked to the state’s Nurses for Newborns program.
Children’s Division officials then responded to the home in Fredericktown in 2021 to a report of unsanitary living conditions, illegal substance use and poor hygiene of a child — and another report in 2022 after the boy ingested unknown medication. In both instances, “no services were offered and concerns were addressed,” according to the report. Children’s Division workers did conduct a follow-up visit for the 2021 incident.
Then in 2023, Children’s Division workers returned again after they had concerns that Rosener was allegedly physically abusing Fararro’s son. Children’s Division personnel recommended cutting off unsupervised contact between the boy, and Rosener. Fararro refused further services.
During an interview Friday on The Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air, new Children’s Division Director Sara Smith said one of her top priorities early in her tenure is looking into child fatalities like the one that occurred in Fredericktown and examining if there was anything that staff missed. That includes whether Children’s Division officials contacted law enforcement or juvenile officers at any point before the 4-year-old boy died last year.
The criminal cases against Rosener and Fararro are pending.
Missouri child abuse investigators do not have the unilateral power to remove children from a home. Juvenile officers have to make that recommendation to a judge, who then makes the final call.
“I have done some initial data pulls over the last 30 days, and one piece that I found very interesting was that our referrals to the juvenile office as a division over the last three years have dropped,” said Smith, who was appointed to her position in mid-March. “And so that's a very concerning metric for me coming in. Why did our referrals drop so drastically over the last few years?”
The Department of Social Services typically doesn’t make child abuse investigation documents public unless the director of the agency decides to release them. Department of Social Services Director Jessica Bax chose to release records of child fatalities to St. Louis Public Radio, the Kansas City Star and Missouri lawmakers on Thursday.
Smith said that release of the documents aligned with Bax’s desire for more transparency.
“If we are able to share something, we're going to share that,” Smith said. “If there's an opportunity for us to learn something … especially in a tragedy such as these fatalities, we should be transparent. And really make sure that the community knows that we're here and that we are partners with them.”
In a joint statement, state Sen. Jill Carter of Newton County and state Rep. Holly Jones of St. Louis County said that they wanted the Department of Social Services to inform lawmakers of child fatalities and also have Children’s Division officials contact juvenile officers when a caregiver doesn’t cooperate.
“We will continue to monitor DSS’ progress in working with juvenile officers and stakeholders to implement these and other reforms to prevent further tragedies," Jones and Carter said.
Smith brings experience to the table
Bax and Gov. Mike Kehoe announced Smith’s appointment as Children’s Division director on March 13. She succeeded Darrell Missey, who retired after about three years in the post.
Before taking on the role as Children’s Division director, Smith oversaw the agency’s child abuse and neglect hotline. She also worked as a frontline investigator. She said the lack of consistent leadership at the Children's Division is one of the things holding it back from reaching its full potential.
“I've been with the Children's Division around 20 years. And in that time, I've had at least nine directors,” Smith said. “Some directors come in with really big plans of things to do and it just shifts the pendulum very quickly, one way or the other. And that's hard for the workforce to know where to pick up and what to do.”
One of the biggest challenges for Missey during his tenure was keeping adequate staffing levels. At one point, St. Louis’ office only had 16 child abuse investigators when there should have been 60. Smith said St. Louis’ office is now 89% staffed, and there’s now a recruitment and retention official for that region.
At one point, the Children’s Division’s St. Louis office had a backlog of roughly 7,000 child abuse and neglect cases that remained open for more than 45 days. That backlog was eliminated last year but is currently around 370 cases.
“And so to me, that is a very important number to look at. But also, out of that number, how many kids have we seen,” said Smith, referring to whether an investigator can make direct contact with a child who may have been abused or neglected. “That's an important metric out of that backlog that our team is specifically pulling out and keeping a pulse on.”
While starting salaries for Children’s Division investigators did go up over the course of former Gov. Mike Parson’s administration, both Missouri lawmakers and child welfare advocates have raised alarm about being able to retain those workers when the starting salary is around $45,000. That’s much lower than Illinois — or jobs those investigators could get working for schools or hospitals.
As of Friday, lawmakers aren’t including substantial salary increases to Children’s Division workers in the 2026 fiscal year budget — though longer tenured employees could take advantage of Kehoe’s pay increase plan that provides a salary boost based on years of service.
Smith noted that while pay plays a major role in retention efforts, her examination of exit surveys also showed a need for more robust training.
“I asked for the exit surveys. And adequate training is something that I saw time and time again, and that is a top priority for us — to make sure that our team members are supported and trained to do this hard work,” she said.
Steering parents to drug rehabilitation programs
Another issue that Smith and her team are monitoring is whether a program known as Temporary Alternative Placement Agreements is being used consistently across the state.
Those voluntary agreements involve parents getting connected with drug rehabilitation services while their children stay with a relative. One of the key findings of a report from last year examining child fentanyl overdoses showed that TAPAs weren’t used consistently across the state.
Smith said TAPAs were only used 30 times in the St. Louis region in 2024 — a small fraction of the roughly 1,600 TAPAs issued throughout the entire state.
“I don't know why it's not being used,” Smith said. “And so I'm very interested to dive in and see the reasons why, specifically because the St Louis region doesn't match with Jackson County. When I look at Jackson County, that's similar in some ways. They had 169 TAPAs last year. And so for St. Louis to only have 30 — that's a big difference.”
Listen to Sara Smith's interview on the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or by clicking the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Jada Jones is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
