Teddy Papadopoulos told lawmakers Wednesday that the Children’s Division’s negligence killed his son.
“Our family had to bury our son,” he said, “because of negligence on Children’s Division’s part.”
Korbin Papadopoulos was 17. He had type 1 diabetes and autism. Macon County division workers placed him nearly 300 miles away in southwest Missouri. He died June 6. The autopsy listed diabetic ketoacidosis.
Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, an Arnold Republican, chairs the Joint Committee on Government Accountability. She called the hearing after what she described as “a number of fatalities” this summer among children in the agency’s care. Korbin was one of them.
Police records reviewed by the Independent show the foster parent was licensed only for relatives and later told law enforcement he had not been trained to manage diabetes. Macon County workers did not verify the license. Six days after they dropped Korbin off, they learned the home could not take him. They did not go get him.
Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin, a Shelbina Republican who represents the district where Korbin’s parents live, asked how the agency keeps a child safe “when an appropriate placement can’t be found.”
Children’s Division Director Sara Smith said emergency placements for kids with high medical or behavioral needs are “all hands on deck.” Central office. Regional leadership. Everybody looks.
When there is no appropriate home, she said, workers stay with children in hotels, because “at the end of the day, Children’s Division is who is charged with keeping that child.”
Rep. Ian Mackey, a St. Louis Democrat, said that is not a system. Smith had described a centralized residential screening team and regional “level of need specialists.” She also described staff at every level joining the search.
“You said it’s a centralized system, and then you described an all-hands-on-deck approach, which is actually the opposite of a centralized system,” Mackey said. “Having anybody and everybody who’s got their fingerprints on the case … ultimately being responsible for finding qualified placements or specialized placement is an incredibly chaotic and unsustainable system.”
O’Laughlin said she still could not tell who owns the last decision.
“If that many people get notified when you’re having a problem placing someone,” she said, “somewhere the buck has to stop.”
The day Korbin died, a supervisor tried to arrange a ride back to the Macon office. No one was available. An on-call worker was told to drive to southwest Missouri. The worker said the foster parent would keep Korbin a few more days, until Monday. Korbin died that day.
Coleman asked Smith how many children had died in foster care since she became director in March 2025. Smith did not have the number. She said she would find out.
Papadopoulos said he testified “for Korbin and every other kid in foster care now and in the future.” Whether Wednesday mattered, he said, depends on what changes.
“If nothing gets done at all, nothing changes, no policies or no change, nothing at all, then it’s just a waste of time.”
Smith put frontline turnover at about 40 percent. It hit 55 percent in fiscal 2022 after then-Gov. Mike Parson cut almost 100 division jobs in 2020. She said two specialized teams, older foster youth and a critical-investigations unit, have had no turnover so far.
Gov. Mike Kehoe signed Executive Order 26-17 on Tuesday, Aug. 25. It creates a Child Welfare Task Force to write a single statewide definition of child safety. Recommendations are due Nov. 15. The task force dissolves Dec. 31. Coleman told the Independent she did not know about the order before it was issued. She said it was a reaction to the legislature’s decision to hold the hearing.