Legislative Advocacy in Kansas

Systemic Change Requires Legislative Reform

Systemic changes must be made to address family hunger, child welfare issues, youth and adult justice, and a loss of integrated voter engagement in Kansas.

Our staff and board members appear before legislators at all levels to educate and motivate decision makers. We also make presentations for like-minded organizations and grassroots movements. Together, we fight for systemic change, so that foster children find safe homes, families have enough to eat, and Kansans can participate fully in a just democracy.

Promoting Just Laws for All of Us

Our board members and staff members work as a whole, utilizing their specialties for a united plan of impact.

  • Data. We research and analyze statistics, target their roots, and craft reports that explain their effects on our state.
  • Solutions. Our team identifies attainable answers and reforms that legislators at all levels can understand and support.
  • Social. We speak with the affected, matching their truths to statistics so that legislators and the public understand the human impact.
  • Political. We appear before legislators to educate and motivate them.
  • Litigation. If education doesn’t move policymakers toward positive results, we turn to litigation for those who suffer under systemic failures.
  • Organization. Our reports connect dots for like-minded organizations and citizens, giving them the tools to help create change in Kansas.

We do all of this with the firm belief that by working together, we can all build a more thriving, inclusive, and just Kansas.

2025 Policy Priorities

Child Welfare

The Kansas foster care system, in its current form, creates strains on stakeholders throughout. It is not good for children, families, social workers, attorneys, judges, administrators, health care workers, or foster parents trying to keep children safe. The system, as is, doesn’t represent our values as Kansans. We should take every opportunity to create a foster system that is effective for everyone involved and centers the well-being of foster children at the forefront of the work.

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Youth Justice

Kansas Appleseed has a long history of unwavering commitment to advocating for the rights and well-being of children, including ending punitive youth justice practices in the state. The revised Kansas juvenile justice code establishes that the primary goals of the code include promoting public safety and improving the ability of youth to live more productively and responsibly in the community. Despite these revisions, there are still parts of the youth justice system that are failing the kids it promises to help.

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Child Nutrition

In Kansas, almost half of students receive free and reduced priced meals, meaning their families make less than 130% of the federal poverty guidelines for free meals, and less than 185% for reduced priced meals. These meals are a lifeline for many Kansas families, ensuring kids do not go hungry. In Kansas, many kids experiencing hunger and food insecurity are not able to access critical programs that provide much needed nutritious meals and ease the financial burden for their families.

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Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

With a motto like Ad Astra per Aspera, it is in Kansans’ blood to shoot for the stars regardless of our hardships. Kansans are among the hardest workers in our nation– feeding the world and feeding our families. But too often, Kansans can’t make ends meet. With 1 in 8, Kansans struggling to put food on the table, we must work together to ensure all of us can shoot for the same stars. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the primary way we tackle hunger in Kansas. 

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Help Us Advocate for a Better Kansas!

Advocacy starts at the grassroots, and it succeeds in the halls of power. Working together, we can build a state full of thriving, inclusive, and just communities for all Kansans.

Sign up to receive legislative text message updates from our team during the Kansas legislative session. This will include information on policies and bills Kansas Appleseed is following, general legislative information, and when and how to take action on proposed legislation throughout the session. 

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