Tag: foster care

Kansas foster care will pay $1.25 million after a child was sexually assaulted in a contractor’s office

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.
Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
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

Family and friends who take on foster kids in Kansas say they need more support from the state

Kinship placements can be a better option than a licensed foster home, but kinship parents say they need more support

by Blaise Mesa, Kansas News Service and KCUR

Topeka — Twila Lasiter worked in a special needs foster home for more than two decades. That taught her how hard the foster care system can be on children.

When a family member’s child entered the system, she took on the job of being a kinship foster parent.

Kinship placements put children with family members or close family friends, like coaches or teachers, instead of a foster home with strangers. It is seen as a better alternative to a regular placement because children are with people they are more familiar with, often in the communities that they know.

But kinship parents in Kansas say they can feel exploited by the system, dumping monumental responsibilities on families without the backing they need to look after children in crisis. They say placements are rushed, they are offered little help once the child is in the home and that children often stay in their homes years longer than expected.

Lasiter learned only after taking the children that they had multiple court appointments in the next few days. The courthouse was two hours away, yet the social worker never checked to see if Lasiter had a car or driver’s license and whether she had to work.

“It was extremely rushed,” she said. “It’s pretty much, ‘Here are these kids, you take care of them and forget that we exist.’”

Lasiter struggled to get a psychological evaluation even though the children’s needs were documented.

Eventually, she wanted to become a licensed foster home so she would go through training and be better prepared to care for the children. Licensed foster parents also get paid more to cover their costs. Her social worker told her licensing wasn’t required and didn’t help her get licensed. Eventually, Lasiter got it on her own.

Because kinship parents are paid less Lasiter thinks the state is rushing placements to kin to “save money in the long run.” The state denied any financial motivation.

Some of the private contractors that handle kinship placements said they have heard similar complaints before.

Programs available to parents do vary by agency, but support groups for parents, day care assistance and transportation help can be available. Some agencies are hiring more managerial and support staff to focus specifically on kinship placements.

Evan Wood, director of kinship care with KVC Kansas, said his department had seven workers and now employs 39 people to work on kinship cases and is trying to hire five more. He said that’s allowed staff to check in with parents more frequently and advocate for their needs.

“(KVC Kansas) has found that we need to invest more and more in supporting those families,” Wood said. “We don’t live in a perfect world where I think all those things could be completely addressed, but we want to do our best and we want to hear that feedback.”

Statewide, the Department for Children and Families partnered with the Children’s Alliance of Kansas to create an online training program called Kinship Origins.

The Origins training program is less than a year old, but the next iteration of it could be coming soon.

Parents can spend 15 minutes or multiple hours taking the online training, said Cris Moody, the training program manager for Children’s Alliance. It has video interviews from other foster parents, slides that help parents through problems they may encounter and includes information on the basics of the child welfare system.

“Origins is the starting point,” he said. “It’s where parents can turn to first and hopefully start to answer some of those questions.”

The changes and upcoming developments do address some foster parent concerns, but Stephanie West-Potter remains skeptical. West-Potter is the chair of the Kansas Foster Accountability and Advisory Board. The group was created as part of a settlement of a lawsuit that accused DCF of neglecting foster children.

She said the additional support is good, but she has not seen it working in practice. West-Potter still hears parent complaints even though some of the support programs are in place.

“We’re all just in a pretty bad place right now,” she said.

Kansas wants to increase the number of kinship placements in the coming years. Currently, about half of children were placed in family foster homes while 42% were placed with family or close friends —kinship placements. DCF wants to increase kinship until it accounts for 50% of placements.

Blaise Mesa reports on criminal justice and social services for the Kansas News Service in Topeka. You can follow him on Twitter @Blaise_Mesa. Foster parents hoping to talk about their experiences in Kansas can 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.
Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
See more at https://www.kcur.org/2022-02-08/family-and-friends-who-take-on-foster-kids-in-kansas-say-they-need-more-support-from-the-state

Help for college, rent and more now available for former foster kids into their mid-20s

Some of the new opportunities for support expire in September. Others extend a year beyond that. People can contact DCF to inquire about their eligibility.

by Celia Llopis-Jepsen, Kansas News Service

Stormy Lukasavage wanted to go to college. So he did his homework on what steps he needed to make it happen, from scholarships to tuition waivers.

“It’s always an extra step when you’re in foster care,” the 25-year-old recalled. “There’s so much more paperwork that you have to go through.”

Lukasavage spent part of his childhood in foster care, an experience that continued to shape his life as he entered college.

“My barriers came from the fact that I don’t have a strong family background,” he said. “One of my biggest things was always on the holidays. Just having to be there by myself in an empty building — that kind of totally sucked.”

Lacking a family network is just one way that instability and trauma during childhood can carry into adulthood and complicate the transition.

Thousands of young adults in Kansas who experienced foster care and similar disruptions to home life as children can apply for help paying rent, buying food and covering college tuition and child care through a new pandemic relief program.

One key change to law makes people eligible until they turn 27 for supports that previously ran out at age 21.

Lukasavage thinks that could help more of his peers get their footing and pursue their goals.

“People in foster care weren’t given all the same chances,” he said. “They need that little help up to become prominent members of society. And if we can encourage that growth in a nurturing way, that benefits all of us down the road.”

Congress passed the law late last year to help young adults who have experienced trauma weather the financial storm brought by COVID-19.

Those who were removed from their homes at age 14 or later and placed in custody of state foster care, juvenile corrections or tribal authorities can apply for support through the Kansas Department for Children and Families.

Eligible young adults can get cash assistance (the application for that goes live on July 1), as well as help affording housing, child care and other daily needs.

The maximum needs-based award for college tuition or other training rose from $6,250 a year to $12,000.

Some of these changes expire at the end of September. Others continue a year beyond that. The Department for Children and Families can help young adults know their options.

Even without a pandemic — which cost many young adults their jobs — life can be tough for people who’ve experienced childhood trauma.

The National Foster Youth Institute says children placed in state care switch schools and fall behind academically more often than their peers. Half don’t finish high school and only 3 percent earn bachelor’s degrees, it says.

Research commissioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found adults in their mid-20s who aged out of foster care at age 18 earn significantly less than their peers without that background.

Lukasavage now does advocacy work for improving the foster system and long-term outcomes.

In 2019, he earned his bachelor’s in criminal justice from Washburn University. Now he’s taking the entrance exam for law school.

Editor’s note: This story was reported in memory of KCUR reporter Aviva Okeson-Haberman, a dedicated journalist who began the research for it shortly before her death.


Celia Llopis-Jepsen reports on consumer health for the Kansas News Service. You can follow her on Twitter @celia_LJ or email her at celia (at) kcur (dot) org.
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.

Kansas News Service stories and photos may be republished by news media at no cost with proper attribution and a link to ksnewsservice.org.
See more at https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-06-11/help-for-college-rent-and-more-now-available-for-former-foster-kids-into-their-mid-20s.