Report: Kansas foster care system has work to do to meet settlement terms

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – Kansas is studying how effectively progress goes in its required efforts to reform the state’s foster care system. The third-party report out Monday exhibits the state has extra work to do to satisfy the settlement phrases of a 2018 class-action lawsuit. That case is seeking to guarantee that psychological well being wants are addressed and to finish conditions the place foster kids in Kansas should sleep in workplaces.

Within the report launched Monday, areas of concern that stay embody placement, psychological well being care and caseloads. the report exhibits the state and Kansas Division of Kids and Households are making some important progress in some areas to enhance the system.

A number of the teams that filed the lawsuit mentioned this exhibits a continued want for funding to serve kids within the foster care system.

“Have some baseline understandings of what’s getting higher and what’s not and the place we have to dig,” mentioned Kansas Appleseed Marketing campaign Director Mike Fonkert.

A few of these areas of progress embody oversight and accountability and stability in placements, lowering the variety of strikes.

“Eighty-six p.c of the instances reviewed discovered that the kid was in a steady placement. The primary-year objective was 80%,” mentioned Kids’s Rights Authorized Director Leecia Welch.

The place DCF and the state weren’t profitable was ending short-term in a single day placements wherein kids are sleeping in workplaces or accommodations. One other concern is the night-to-night placements. Each practices have been imagined to have stopped by the top of final yr.

“(What) administration has realized by way of this course of is that, significantly for kids who’ve particular difficulties, particular medical points or behavioral points, there should not lots of assets,” Kansas Appleseed Litigation Director Teresa Woody mentioned.

Psychological well being was one other space off the mark, with solely 34% of youngsters in DCF custody getting a well timed psychological well being and trauma screening, the third-party report discovered.

“It’s laborious to get psychological well being for kids usually, let alongside within the foster care system,” Woody mentioned.

To work towards the wanted enhancements recognized within the report, teams that filed the lawsuit say they want state lawmakers to make investments in these areas, so assets can be found. Different areas they are saying want enchancment embody knowledge reporting and extra consistency between the non-public contractors DFC makes use of. That is a part of a multi-year effort with the goal of assembly many of those targets by the top of subsequent yr.

The state and Kansas Governor Laura Kelly’s workplace pointed to successes in making enhancements, with about 1,300 fewer kids within the system. The state additionally acknowledged areas needing enchancment, particularly psychological well being.

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