A public meeting on foster care in Kansas is planned at 11 a.m. Monday, Feb. 29, at the Greater Pentecostal Temple, 864 Splitlog Ave., Kansas City, Kan.
Representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice have been invited to hear residents’ concerns.
According to a Wyandotte County resident, Mary Martin, who testified at a recent Kansas House Committee on Children and Seniors hearing on foster care, area residents are concerned about foster care in Kansas. The committee discussed an oversight committee to monitor foster care placements. Some legislators from Wyandotte County are looking at introducing legislation sooner to answer residents’ concerns, Martin said.
Martin, who also is a volunteer with CASA, said several residents have concerns about the way foster care policies are being implemented.
There is a feeling on the part of some residents that the Department for Children and Families is taking children, not letting guardians have access to them, and not letting grandparents intervene, she said. Within a short time, the children are adopted out, she added.
The residents believe it harms the children and is not in the best interest for them to be disconnected from their families, she said.
“Kansas decided to privatize the system, it means everything is money-driven,” Martin said.
The state contracts with a private agency. Children have been taken out of Wyandotte County, long distances from their grandparents, she said. There is a law in Kansas that allows grandparents to step in and have preference in the care of their grandchildren, but the residents feel that law is not being adhered to, she said.
Also, grandparents can’t get any money to take care of the kids, while foster parents are paid, she said. The residents feel there is a profit motive involved in taking children out of their homes, she added.
This issue was brought up previously at a Wyandotte County legislative delegation forum Jan. 5 at the West Wyandotte Branch Library, where several audience members asked legislators to do something about the custody situation for grandparents who were denied the opportunity to see their grandchildren.
On Jan. 5, the grandparents told the legislators that children were placed in foster care although the grandparents were willing to care for them. One audience member remarked that it was like “modern-day slavery,” with children being pulled from their homes.
On Monday, members of the public will be invited to air their grievances to the Justice Department, and mediation will take place, Martin said. This process already has started in Wichita, she added.
For earlier stories about this topic, see https://wyandotteonline.com/legislators-may-ramp-up-scrutiny-of-foster-care-system/
and https://wyandotteonline.com/legislative-meeting-attracts-large-crowd/.