BY: ANNA KAMINSKI
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — An annual, independent review of Kansas’ foster care system shows it fell short for the third year in a row of improvements to housing instability and mental health care delays.
The progress report, released Monday, put into words the reality foster children across Kansas face everyday. The report said those children are “let down at every turn and left to fend for themselves in a broken system.”
The review is mandated by the terms of a class-action lawsuit settlement agreement, which was reached in 2020 after child advocacy organizations sued the secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, which oversees the state’s foster care system, and other state departments in 2018 for failures within the state’s foster care system. The Washington, D.C.-based Center for the Study of Social Policy conducts the independent review each year.
The lawsuit exposed the Kansas foster care system’s struggle to adequately house children, rendering them “effectively homeless” while in the state’s custody, said Leecia Welch, the deputy legal director of the New York-based nonprofit Children’s Rights, in a Monday news release.
“Sadly, almost six years later, that grim picture looks much the same,” Welch said.
The state showed progress in 2023 in reducing the number of times a child slept overnight in an office or other non-licensed facility. The state reported that 57 kids spent a total of 68 instances in a non-licensed facility. That was down from 85 kids and 141 instances in 2022.
But early 2024 data shows progress was short-lived. In the first half of the year, there were 141 instances of a child sleeping in a non-licensed foster care environment.
Each progress report evaluates the system based on five performance improvement goals, among other desired outcomes. Those goals include ceasing the practice of children sleeping in non-licensed facilities like offices and hotels, ending night-to-night and short-term placements, ensuring children aren’t overcrowded in their placements, ending housing-related delays in mental health services and providing child-focused crisis services across the state.
The report said despite the state’s “focused efforts,” most performance measures remained or fell below the settlement agreement’s requirements.
On average, foster children moved nearly eight times in a 1,000-day period in 2023. That exceeds the five-move performance benchmark outlined in the agreement, and it’s an increase from both 2022’s report of 7.3 moves and 2021’s 5.8 moves. Children older than 12 and Black children moved at a higher rate than their peers, according to the report.
“I want to put a focus on that cohort of youth to identify ways to get them the individual services they need to find stability and have a positive transition into adulthood,” DCF Secretary Laura Howard said in a news release responding to the progress report.
The state highlighted that 69% of youths in DCF custody received timely mental health and trauma screenings, an improvement of 35 percentage points from the 2021 report. However, it’s still below the class-action settlement’s benchmarks, which began at 80% in 2021 and escalated to 90% for 2023.
DCF case reviews discovered that of all children who needed mental health services in 2023, 20% either didn’t receive services or saw a delay because of housing instability, according to the report. That’s an increase from 2022, which showed only 13% of children needing services experienced delays. Of the 52% of cases reviewed for 2023, children had their mental and behavioral needs addressed. That’s a marked drop from previous years. In 2022, 70% had their needs addressed, and in 2021, 65% of cases reviewed had their needs met, according to the report.
DCF contracts with five private organizations to provide foster care services to one or more of the state’s seven geographic areas.
TFI Family Services covers most of southeastern Kansas, including part of the Wichita area. Saint Francis Ministries covers the entire western half of the state, the largest geographic area of the seven. Cornerstones of Care serves the Kansas City, Kansas, area. KVC Kansas serves northeastern Kansas and part of the southern Kansas City area. EmberHope Connections has been providing services in Sedgwick County since July when it formally took over for Saint Francis, which was booted out after investigations revealed alleged criminal behavior among Saint Francis’ leadership and a habit of exceeding the state’s required caseload maximums.
DCF requires that its contracted caseworkers maintain caseloads that do not exceed 24-30 cases. The contractors failed to meet that requirement in 2023, according to the report. Two contractors, TFI and Saint Francis, consistently had more than 40% of their caseworkers handling more than 30 cases each.
Lori Burns-Bucklew, an attorney and child welfare law specialist, said in the Monday news release the state and its contractors have failed to fulfill their obligations under the class action settlement agreement.
“The state demanded control, but they have consistently failed to exert oversight,” she said. “The state needs to consider whether or not self-reform can be effective in Kansas.”
Gov. Laura Kelly said in a statement the state has made “great progress.” She added, “but there is more work to be done to improve access to mental health services.”
The overall need for foster care services in Kansas has decreased by 24% in the past five years, the state said in the news release. A recent audit found that spending on foster care and preventative services has increased by $25 million since 2009. Kelly said she was encouraged by the fact that the state has “reduced the need for traditional foster care as more children are living with relatives or kin.”