Missouri has nearly 14,000 children in foster care, but there aren't enough homes for them.
Director of the state's child welfare system Darrell Missey said the lack of foster homes is a crisis.
"Somebody reported to me we have something in the neighborhood of 5,000 foster homes," Missey said. "And what you have to have for this be effective is you need enough foster homes that you have open, empty foster homes all the time waiting for children to go into them."
Missey said there's a scramble to figure out where foster children will be places. He said prevention is the way to reduce the number of children in the state foster system.
He called the state system reactive rather than proactive, driven by fear of what might happen later, and that results in many children ending up in foster care.
Missey encourages foster care workers to listen more closely when children enter the system.
"Ask about where their heart is and where they need to go," he said. "Because I've had several professionals over time tell me what really happens. Frequently kids are not running away from something — they're running to something."
He said children often go back to their biological family, people they know, or friends.
"We need to listen to kids when they talk to us about needing these connections," he said.
Current estimates say that in Missouri, 90 foster children are unaccounted for, though Missey said it could be more like 73 because some of them have turned 18.
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