The director of Missouri’s Department of Social Services will resign next month, allowing Gov.-elect Mike Kehoe to choose a new leader for the embattled agency.

Robert Knodell’s last day as director of the department — which oversees foster care, Medicaid, other public assistance programs and services for delinquent youth — will be Jan. 13. He accepted a job to be the city manager of Poplar Bluff, his hometown, on Tuesday.

Knodell has been director since Oct. 2021.

Previously, he worked in Gov. Mike Parson’s office as deputy chief of staff and then acting director for the Department of Health and Senior Services.

In an interview last week, Knodell said his biggest accomplishments leading the agency included helping push for staff pay raises, modernizing technology and putting the child welfare system on a more “positive trajectory” by emphasizing prevention.

“We have to continue to try to do everything as a full continuum to make sure that family needs and children’s needs are being addressed and that safety can be assured,” he said, “to prevent children from having to go into the foster system. And the prevention focus is new for the department.”

During his tenure, the department faced criticism over its administration of public benefits. 

A federal judge earlier this year ruled Missourians were illegally denied food aid by the state due to hourslong call center wait times for participants to receive a required interview. 

The most recent monthly data the state submitted in the lawsuit says the average wait time to get through for its general call line was 43 minutes as of November.  The wait time for the interview line for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, was 23 minutes.  

The department in its budget request to the state legislature is asking for $11 million to hire 220 new staff in the Family Support Division to help ensure the agency complies with federal and state rules on timely processing, and “maintains a reasonable wait time in the call centers,” the budget request states. 

The state has also struggled to meet federal guidelines for its processing of Medicaid applications. 

Over the summer, the federal Medicaid agency announced it was intervening to help bring the state back into compliance. According to the most recent federal data, 27% of low-income Missouri Medicaid applications were processed in excess of the 45-day limit in July, which is down from 72% in February.

The department also faced scrutiny for its handling of missing foster kids.

A federal report in 2022 found that there were 1,780 instances of foster kids going missing in Missouri over a two-and-a-half year period that spanned July 2018 to December 2020. The agency last year said it has increased efforts to find missing foster kids. As of the most recent public data, from October, there were 72 foster children categorized as runaways.

That data doesn’t distinguish between missing kids and those whose locations are known but unauthorized, though the department says it collects that data now.

Knodell said one of the challenges has been balancing the desires of those who want as robust a safety net as possible with those who want to control costs. 

“We try to build as strong a safety net as we can, being as responsible a steward of the resources that we have as possible,” he said. “But there is a push and a pull, and there are limits to what the government can do, but certainly we want to do the things that we’ve been tasked as efficiently and effectively as possible. “

Knodell said the social services system in Missouri has “ been underinvested in for so long. But you know, hopefully, we’re pointed in the right direction.”

Parson in a press release Tuesday said “I remain ever grateful that, regardless of the challenges, Robert answered the call to serve in leadership within both DSS and the Department of Health and Senior Services.”