Advocating for a Safe

Child Welfare System in

Kansas

Holding the System Accountable for Children in Kansas

We leverage legislative advocacy, administrative advocacy, and impact litigation to restore Kansans’ access to safety net programs, ensure full funding for child welfare prevention, and end the traumatizing conditions for kids in the state’s foster care system.

The Kansas foster care system, in its current form, creates strains on stakeholders throughout. It is not good for children. It is not good for families. It is not good for social workers, attorneys, judges, administrators, health care workers, or foster parents trying to keep children safe. It is not good for Kansas.

Read about our class action lawsuit (M.B. v. Howard) to reform the foster care system here.

Children Impacted by a Failing System

9,773

Kansas children were impacted by foster care in 2022.

7

Children died while in the care of the Kansas Department of Children and Families in 2022.

54%

Increase in the number of children in the foster care system sleeping in offices in 2021.

85

Children spent a total of 257 nights in foster care contractor’s offices in 2022.

100%

All children who experienced a failure-to-place episode in 2022 slept overnight in offices.

Resources

SOUL Family Legal Permanency Program

In partnership with the Annie E. Casey Foundation, this program was designed by and for young people in foster care to reflect their vision of family and supportive adult networks.

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Strengthen Families Rebuild Hope

Kansas Appleseed is a part of the Strengthen Families Rebuild Hope (SFRH) coalition, an independent coalition formed in 2018 advocating for a better foster care system for Kansas kids. The coalition has convened town halls, produced reports on the status of Kansas’s foster care system, and advocated for statewide reforms. SFRH is comprised of youth who have experienced foster care, foster parents, social workers, and other allies.

 

Litigation Partners

The fight to reform our state’s foster care system isn’t just important to Kansans; it is also important across the country. In our 2018 lawsuit (M.B. v. Howard), we partnered with these individuals and organizations to transform the broken foster care system and end years of victimization and trauma for Kansas children.

Kansas Fails on Foster Care Commitments, Leaving Vulnerable Children at Risk

In its current form, the Kansas foster care system isn’t suitable for children, families, or Kansas.

The Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) released its third annual report reviewing the State of Kansas and its contractors’ 2023 compliance with their commitments to providing services for youth in the foster system. The report revealed a troubling reality: children in the foster system were consistently let down and left to navigate a broken system on their own.

Read the Period 3 Report and our statements below.

Learn more

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