Lawmakers working to improve the state’s child welfare system brainstormed several ideas Friday, including a proposal to create a separate Office of Child and Family Services and the need to better support foster parents.

Members of the Government Oversight Committee shared their priorities as a starting point for making recommendations to the full Legislature.

Several committee members expressed a sense of urgency about figuring out how to improve the state’s child welfare system, which has been under intense scrutiny for years.

In recent months, the committee studied four child deaths in-depth to find out if there are systemic issues that need to be fixed to better protect children.

They’ve heard from caseworkers frustrated by heavy caseloads and high turnover.

And in November, the director of the Office of Child and Family Services stepped down following months of questions about decisions made by the department in specific cases.

After about 90 minutes of discussion on Friday, Sen. Jeff Timberlake (R-Turner) implored fellow lawmakers not to call for more studies. He said after six years of serving on the committee he will not support any more delays.

“There’s some drastic changes that has to take place,” he said. “Before we leave here April 18, I really want this committee to have made a difference with the Department of Health and Human Services.”

The mid-April date is a reference to the potential end of the legislative session, which is the shorter of the two-year term. The committee also reviewed 10 bills that are already pending before the Legislature, all of which propose to make improvements at the department.

Timberlake’s top recommendation is to remove the Office of Child and Family Services from DHHS, one of the bills that is currently pending.

He criticized the size of DHHS, saying that it oversees 19 different departments, while the next closest state has 16. He also said the state needs to support caseworkers and create a family court system to move cases along.

He said there are 2,500 cases pending and of those, 200 don’t have legal representation.

And while others expressed support for removing the child welfare office from DHHS, Rep. Anne-Marie Mastraccio (D-Sanford) said she’s concerned about the cost.

“If I thought it could be done efficiently and not cost twice as much money to have duplicative administrative services then that would be something I would consider,” she said. “For me, extra money in administration is not where I’m looking to put our money.”

Sen. Craig Hickman (D-Winthrop) emphasized the need to improve the state’s foster care system, including a close examination of the importance placed on reunification with biological parents.

“When you take in somebody else’s children, you get the angel star for the rest of your life, as far as I am concerned,” he said. “And I was floored by the lack of support for foster parents that is pervasive in the current way that we operate.”

Sen. Rick Bennett (R-Oxford) said he agrees with Timberlake’s suggestion to break up the department and said case aides are needed to help shoulder the workload.

He said somehow the culture at the department needs to be changed, including what he sees as a bias toward mothers over fathers when reunification decisions are made.

“I was very disturbed as I think others were, at listening to the plaintive cries from a lot of people who work in the department about the frustrations they have in having their voice heard, in understanding and being communicated with,” he said. “This is something you can’t legislate but it’s something we should look at.”

When it comes to leadership, Sen. Jill Duson (D-Portland) said the hiring of a new child welfare director is an opportunity to set expectations, including performance audits.

“I would like to put a lot of pressure on the hiring and onboarding of this new person,” she said. “And requiring whomever that is as they come to this system to lead this audit of performance. Whose end goal is to produce a management improvement plan we all can look at.”

The committee is scheduled to meet again Jan. 12 to begin the review of all the recommendations.