Federal court gives Missouri 60 days to remedy SNAP program violations
This article was originally published in Fox 4 KC. Read it here.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — This week, a district court judge ordered Missouri to take remedial action to improve its SNAP program, saying the state has made “no progress” in addressing the violations outlined in a 2024 court order.
SNAP is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that provides food benefits to low-income families.Six arrested in Kansas as part of alleged drug smuggling operation
The court on Tuesday, May 6, ordered the Missouri Department of Social Services (DSS) to come into compliance with the SNAP Act, the Due Process Clause and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) – and outlines steps the agency must take under the court’s supervision.
Since the DSS has not been able to make the changes laid out in the court’s previous 2024 order, the court said it has created benchmarks for the administration of the SNAP program – benchmarks that the DSS will be required to reach.
Within 60 days, the agency must:
- Implement meaningful changes that make it easier for applicants to apply for SNAP, including providing for online, mobile and mailed paper applications.
- Cease denying applications for failure to interview when the applicant has made reasonable attempts to complete the interview, and take steps to inform applicants of the interview requirement and the ways interviews can be completed, including the option to have a face-to-face interview and scheduling an interview.
- Reduce average call center wait times so that 90% of callers have no more than a 20-minute average wait time.
- Reduce the number of applications rejected for failure to interview to no more than 20% of all applications.
- Develop an ADA policy that ensures their SNAP program complies with the ADA.
“The Missouri DSS has created unnecessary and illegal barriers to obtaining SNAP benefits, and we are grateful the court has once again vindicated the rights of low-income and disabled Missourians,” Katie Deabler, attorney at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice (NCLEJ), said in a news release. “We look forward to the implementation of much-needed fixes to ensure that eligible Missourians have access to the food benefits they need to survive.”
This comes after a federal lawsuit was filed in 2022 against Missouri DSS Director Robert Knodell. Since then, Jessica Bax has taken over as director.
In May 2024, the court entered a summary judgment order, which determined that the state’s administration of SNAP violated federal SNAP law and the ADA.
The court said in its 2025 order that monthly reports filed by DSS showed the state has made “no progress” in addressing the issues described in its 2024 order.
“[DSS’s] ‘promises’ that it is doing the best it can in its administration of SNAP and in its compliance with ADA are both too little and too late to be credible,” the court said in its 2025 order.
“In short, food challenged Missourians who clearly qualify for SNAP benefits have gone hungry due to [DSS’s] deficiencies in administering the program.”
Nearly 50% of SNAP applications rejected due to long wait times, dropped calls
One of the biggest issues the DSS was supposed to address was its call center wait times.
In March 2025, the court said the average wait time for the SNAP interview call center line was 49 minutes and 37 seconds; there were 50,488 queue deflections and 15,896 customer disconnects after an average wait time of 37 minutes and 11 seconds.
“A shocking 48.22% of SNAP applications were rejected solely for failure to complete the interview and not based on any other qualifying factor,” the 2025 court order reads.
Another major issue the DSS has not yet addressed is its failure to comply with ADA standards.
The court said DSS reported in March 2025 at a hearing that it was working on an ADA policy. However, the department has not adopted an ADA policy or provided any draft of an ADA policy since the lawsuit was filed or since the court’s 2024 order.
You can read the full 2025 court order here. You can view the 2022 lawsuit by clicking here.
