🎥 Kan. foster care system has seen ‘great progress,’ DCF secretary says

BY: RACHEL MIPROKansas Reflector

TOPEKA — Kansas Department for Children and Families secretary Laura Howard on Monday said the number of children in foster care has dropped, marking some improvement in the state’s long-criticized child welfare system.

(Click below to watch Secretary Howard's report)

“Lots of great progress, but yet we know that we still have some work to do,” Howard said in a presentation to the House Committee on Child Welfare and Foster Care.

As of Jan. 16, there were 5,895 youths in the system, a decline of 22% since 2019.

In fiscal year 2023, 61% of entries into foster care were attributed to abuse or neglect, and the other 31% were the result of a family in need of assessment, or FINA, case. FINA cases include children with behavior problems, truancy, runaways, and caregiver substance use, among other issues.

Howard said the average length of time youths spend in foster care is 3.41 years.

“Overall, children stay in care too long,” Howard said. “They stay in care too long if they are on the adoption track, they stay in care too long if they’re reintegrated.”

Howard said her agency was working on an action plan to shorten the amount of time youths spend in care. Part of improving outcomes, she said, has been expanding Family First Prevention Services and Family Resource Center programs, which offer support to struggling families to reduce childhood abuse and neglect. The FFPS program has had 4,280 referrals since implementation. According to DCF data, 90% of youths who have reached 12 months since the first referral remained at home without need for foster care.

“A child shouldn’t have to come into custody to get their mental health needs met, and frankly, coming into custody doesn’t necessarily help them get their mental health needs met,” Howard said.

The state still far outstrips national averages for entry into foster care. The national rate of entry into foster care is 2.37 per 1,000 children, but the rate of entry in Kansas is 4.36 per 1,000 children, according to February 2023 data.

Rep. Paul Waggoner, R-Hutchinson, questioned Howard on the state’s higher rate of entry.

“Why would our kids go into foster care so much more than other kids?” Waggoner said. “It does strike me really odd, the more I think about it.”

Howard said FINA rates, availability of alternatives to the system, and different states’ criteria for entry were factors, but that there “were a lot of facets” to the state’s heightened rates.

With few community resources available, foster care providers have shouldered the majority of juvenile delinquency cases, without proper resources to handle them, and advocates have warned that children are not receiving needed intervention and oversight.

Rep. Susan Concannon, a Beloit Republican and committee chairwoman, said she had been called by a mother who had to place her daughter into foster care because of uncontrollable behavior.

“There was no abuse or neglect,” Concannon said. “She just couldn’t handle her child and so she got put into foster care.”

Concannon asked if therapeutic family foster homes could help with similar cases to the one she mentioned. Begun as a 2022 initiative, the homes provide 24-hour care for children with higher needs. The state currently has 15 of the homes in place, and the program is set to be expanded using $6 million in allocated funds.

Howard mentioned juvenile crisis centers as another planned option for providing more state mental health resources. The state has millions set aside for juvenile crisis center funding, which would provide about 30 days of treatment for youths experiencing behavioral health crises, but it hasn’t used any of the funding. In 2018, Johnson County applied to create a center, but the state government dropped the project.

Howard said plans were underway again, with licensing regulations for the centers soon to be heard by lawmakers.  

“We think both Johnson and Sedgwick County have interest in doing this,” Howard said. “So again, more to come on that but we’re very close to being through the regulatory side of this and being able to move forward.”