Lori Burns-Bucklew is a Kansas City attorney in private practice pursuing improvements to child welfare in Kansas. She graduated from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law and began practicing in 1984. An accredited Child Welfare Law Specialist, she has represented children and youth, as well as parents, grandparents, and other caregivers for children whose families are subjected to state intervention. She has served as class counsel in several civil rights class action matters on behalf of children in state care. She has trained hundreds of lawyers in the Kansas City metropolitan region regarding child welfare law and children’s issues.
Be Informed. Be Engaged.
Be the Change.
Our efforts 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.
Kansas Appleseed works to hold the state accountable for fixing our foster care crisis:
9,773
9,773: number of Kansas children whose lives were touched by foster care in 2022
7
7: the number of children who died in 2022 while in the care of the Kansas Department of Children and Families
54%
54%: the increase from 2021 in the number of children in foster care sleeping in offices.
85
85: the number of children who spent a total of 257 nights in case management provider offices in 2022.
All
All children who experienced a failure-to-place episode in 2022 slept overnight in a foster care contractor’s office.
Read About Our Work
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.
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.
The National Center for Youth Law is a non-profit law firm that helps low-income children achieve their potential by transforming the public agencies that serve them. For more information, please visit www.youthlaw.org.
Every day, children are harmed in America’s broken child welfare, juvenile justice, education, and healthcare systems. Through relentless, strategic advocacy and legal action, we hold governments accountable for keeping kids safe and healthy. Children’s Rights, a national non-profit organization, has made a lasting impact for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable children. For more information, please visit www.childrensrights.org
DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers located in more than 40 countries to help clients with their legal needs around the world. DLA Piper has a long-standing and deep commitment to giving back to our communities through pro bono legal services, and it is one of the largest providers of pro bono legal services globally. www.dlapiper.com
Join Us in Our Fight to Improve Social Justice in Kansas
In its current form, the Kansas foster care system isn’t good for children, families, or Kansas.
As Kansans, we must work together to build a state that cares for and supports all of its children.
Contact us about advocacy opportunities. We’ll provide the information, strategies, and motivation to create a supportive system that safely brings these beautiful children home.
Frequently Asked Questions
Kansas Appleseed doesn’t offer direct services for foster care recipients and stakeholders. Our focus is on systemic change, which in turn will create channels to provide these services for placement, healthcare, and support.
Yes! In our many years of fighting for reform in our state’s foster care system, we have long championed the creation of a Child Advocate’s office that would provide independent oversight to our state’s troubled foster care system. Through our combined efforts with organizations, attorneys, and volunteer advocates, this came to fruition with the creation of the Division of the Child Advocate, created by Governor Laura Kelly’s executive order in October 2021. According to the DCA’s 2022 annual report:
- The Division of the Child Advocate is needed to provide a safe, independent entity for Kansans to turn toward.
- Placement instability increased in 2022 from the previous year.
- The child welfare system continues to experience deficiencies in: workers and supervision, clear communications between the Department for Children and Families and contractors; guidelines and protocols; and support for families.
This is a win for Kansas, and more importantly—for our kids.
To advance positive laws and policies, we research the details of a problem, its root causes, and workable solutions; we support the public’s voice in policy decisions through grassroots engagement; and we shepherd policy solutions through the decision-making process at the state and local level. When necessary, Kansas Appleseed intervenes in systems of injustice through impact litigation to protect Kansans’ rights and wellbeing.
Through our multi-year efforts, we successfully pursued litigation against the State of Kansas (M.B. v. Howard) to reform our state’s broken foster care system. In the settlement agreement, the State agreed to work over four years to:
- End the practice of housing children in unsuitable places like offices and hotels.
- End the practice of night-to-night and short term placements.
- Ensure that placements are not overcrowded and do not exceed licensed capacity.
- End housing-related delays in the provision of mental health services.
- Provide crisis intervention services for children throughout the state.
Our efforts also extend to the Kansas Legislature and the Governor’s office. We’ve long advocated for the creation of the Division of the Child Advocate, and independent office to provide oversight and accountability to the foster care system. In October 2021, Governor Laura Kelly created such an office through executive action, with Kansas Appleseed by her side at the signing ceremony.
We know the foster care system is still in crisis and our work continues in the legislature and in the courts. However, due to the nature of our work, we are unable to provide legal advice to individuals. Learn more about resources and agencies that can offer individual support here.