Kansas

Federal watchdog says Kansas has one of the highest rates for missing foster children – Kansas Reflector

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TOPEKA — Greater than 7% of Kansas foster youngsters went lacking throughout an 30-month interval, in response to a brand new federal watchdog’s report that locations the state’s charge of runaways among the many highest within the nation.

The state was in a position to find youngsters after that they had been lacking for 27 days on common, which was faster than most states, in response to the report by the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Companies Workplace of Inspector Basic.

The OIG checked out reviews of lacking youngsters between July 1, 2018, and Dec. 31, 2020, in an try to summarize knowledge, look at polices to report and find lacking youngsters, and report on challenges recognized by state companies.

“Youngsters who go lacking from foster care are susceptible to crime and exploitation, which can end in bodily hurt and even demise,” the OIG report mentioned.

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In Kansas, the place 72 foster youngsters are lacking presently, the peril is clear within the latest demise of a transgender 15-year-old. Ace Scott’s physique was present in an empty lot in Kansas Metropolis, Kansas, days after operating away from a state contractor’s workplace, the Kansas Metropolis Begin reported.

Nonetheless, the Kansas Division for Youngsters and Households, which administers the privatized foster care system in Kansas, in addition to the advocacy group Kansas Appleseed, questioned the strategies and knowledge utilized by the OIG for its report.

DCF spokesman Mike Deines mentioned the company was making an attempt to higher perceive why the OIG used a time interval of two.5 years. The state tends to have a look at the variety of lacking foster youngsters at deadlines, he mentioned. Every day reviews over the previous 4 months present 60-75 foster youngsters are lacking at any time, which is about 1% of the variety of youngsters in foster care.

Deines mentioned the company has made vital investments in efforts to find lacking foster youngsters for the reason that present administration took workplace in January 2019. That features enlargement of a particular response workforce with 12 members throughout the state whose sole duty is to find and get well lacking foster youngsters.

“They make contact with household, buddies, regulation enforcement and different group members to higher perceive the place the youth could also be and likewise determine the underlying causes for the run conduct,” Deines mentioned. “DCF believes that if we are able to handle the ‘why’ these youth run, then we are able to make higher placement selections and join them with companies as a way to stop additional run episodes.”

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The typical variety of foster youngsters who’re lacking every single day has declined from 90 three years in the past to 65, Deines mentioned.

The OIG mentioned there have been 2,274 cases of a lacking foster youngster in Kansas in the course of the 30-month window it examined. The numbers have been decrease in neighboring states, together with these with bigger populations. Kansas was one in all six states the place greater than 7% of foster youngsters went lacking.

Different states reported as few as 24 lacking youngsters, though reporting requirements various from state to state. Some states, the OIG mentioned, solely reported youngsters who had been lacking for no less than 24 hours.

The OIG outlined lacking youngsters as those that will not be within the bodily custody of the company, particular person or establishment with whom a toddler as been positioned. The precise whereabouts of the kid could also be recognized or unknown.

Most states, together with Kansas, reported the typical variety of days for a kid to be lacking between 7 and 46, though 9 states had a mean of fifty or extra days.

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The danger of operating will increase with age: 65% of lacking youngsters have been 15-17 years previous, the OIG mentioned.

The challenges most incessantly recognized by states contain the variety of youngsters who repeatedly go lacking, cooperating from households and buddies of lacking youngsters, acquiring help from regulation enforcement, and discovering a placement to forestall a toddler from operating away.

Quinn Ried, a coverage analysis analyst for Kansas Appleseed, mentioned a few of the knowledge OIG relied on for its report are inconsistent with knowledge on the DCF web site. Kansas Appleseed is monitoring numbers as a part of a federal lawsuit settlement through which the state agreed to enhance instability inside the foster care system.

Ried mentioned the precise share of lacking youngsters in Kansas might be anyplace between 6.5% and seven.5% based mostly on his estimates.

“Whereas Kansas has one of many highest percentages of lacking youngsters, in response to the OIG report, it’s beneath common on the subject of common days lacking. … This leads me to imagine the brink for reporting a toddler as lacking is totally different in numerous states, and subsequently the comparisons are perhaps much less helpful,” Ried mentioned.

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