A foster child was sexually assaulted while left unattended in 2018. Now, the state and its private contractor are settling in court.
by Blaise Mesa, KCUR and Kansas News Service
Topeka, Kansas — A court settlement Thursday will require the Kansas foster care system to pay $1.25 million after a child sleeping in a contractor’s office was sexually assaulted in 2018.
A foster child spent a month sleeping in the office of foster care contractor KVC Kansas before the assault. The child, who was 13 years old at the time of the assault, was removed from home as the state investigated allegations of child abuse.
An 18-year-old with a history of sexual abusing others was put at the same office, attorneys said in court documents. KVC was understaffed and didn’t have enough people to watch all the children at once, and the sexual assault happened while D.D. was left unattended.
KVC and DCF knew of the 18-year-old’s past and were warned by family not to put the juvenile with other kids, court documents show.
Mark Schloegel, a partner at Popham Law who represented the 13-year-old, said both KVC and DCF blamed one another. KVC said the foster care system was so unprepared they had few options while DCF said they aren’t to blame for the contractor’s mistake. Attorneys for the victim argued both organizations are liable.
“Defendants DCF and KVC are responsible for [the 13-year-old’s] sexual assault and a failure of the most basic legal responsibility under the federal and state laws and rules,” attorneys wrote in a court document.
DCF declined to comment and KVC said “the safety and wellbeing of children and families is always our highest priority.”
The assault happened in 2018 and a separate lawsuit settlement in 2020 was supposed to end the practice of putting children in offices, but it hasn’t stopped. One higher needs child spent a month in state offices because there was no home to put them in, the Kansas News Service reported.
Schloegel hopes this case will spur improvements in the Kansas foster care system.
“These kids, they don’t have advocates, they don’t have people looking out for their best interest,” he said. “I hope a case like this makes the state wake up; makes these contractors wake up. If you can hit them in the pocketbook, they’re going to change their behaviors.”
Blaise Mesa reports on criminal justice and social services for the Kansas News Service in Topeka. You can follow him on Twitter @Blaise_Mesa or email him at [email protected].
The Kansas News Service is a collaboration of KCUR, Kansas Public Radio, KMUW and High Plains Public Radio focused on health, the social determinants of health and their connection to public policy.
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See more at https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-06-30/kansas-foster-care-will-pay-1-25-million-after-a-child-was-sexually-assaulted-in-a-contractors-office
It is a lose/lose situation if they can’t get enough homes. It is a big responsibility to take extra kids into families that are already peddling as fast as they can. What is KVC and DCF to do, especially with limited funds already and high staff turnover because of pay and burnout? Not everyone can do a job for very long seeing all these suffering kids and families and caseloads too big to really be able to help much. We have had 2 kids that were not rebellious and the first couple years were rough making the adjustments and figuring out how to help – and I am retired. Can’t imagine do this working full time. We were blessed with an amazing seasoned KVC worker that listened and helped so, so much. But most were young newbies, no kids of their own, just getting use to all the paperwork and rules. So many rules to keep kids safe. Blaming these entities isn’t the answer. Orphanages is the only way to house very many at once and no one wants to go back to that. Bless the people who are doing their best to help so, so many kids from dysfunctional parents who usually had lots of issues themselves as kids. Blaming the ones trying is not fair.