BY: ANNA KAMINSKI
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — As Kansas officials, foster care service providers and advocates work to improve a system with a checkered past, new initiatives bring optimism for kids who have historically been left behind.
The fewest number of children entered the state’s foster care system in 2023 since 2006, according to data from the Kansas Department for Children and Families. But older and disabled youths in the system have been left without a permanent place to live at a higher rate than their peers. The state and foster care service providers are seeking to remedy the disparity in several ways, and two solutions are in their early stages.
In 2023, lawmakers directed $6 million from the state general fund toward developing a more comprehensive cache of therapeutic family foster homes. In March, DCF began to disperse about $4.7 million of that across seven agencies.
Eligibility requirements for a therapeutic foster home are flexible, but the homes are geared toward children who require a high level of care. That includes kids who have medical or developmental needs and those who have a tendency to run away or use substances or aggression to solve problems. Particularly, therapeutic foster homes can prevent sending a child to a group home, said Tanya Keys, deputy secretary of DCF.
Therapeutic foster homes provide 24/7 care and involve a child’s family or prospective family in the child’s services and schedule. Therapeutic practices, which could include working on behavioral techniques with a child for at least an hour each day or logging a child’s behavior, are integrated into the household’s day-to-day routine and reported back to professionals.
“The purpose is really to provide for that safety and permanency and stability, and, really, to make sure that we’re doing that in a family-like setting,” Keys said Wednesday at a child welfare oversight committee hearing.
As of late August, 14 children were being cared for in therapeutic family foster homes, according to DCF data. A therapeutic foster home is not a permanent place for children to stay. Ideally, 80% of kids will move to a family-based placement within nine months of beginning their stay at a therapeutic foster home, but there is no time limit on stays, Keys said.
The Kansas foster care system struggles with permanency, which refers to the idea of foster children having a stable place to stay long-term. While entries into the system are lower than in past years, children move from place-to-place in Kansas at a rate higher than the federal recommendation. Kansas foster kids move at a rate of 7.3 times in a 1,000-day period compared to the federal performance measure of 4.8 times.
That rate could change once the SOUL Family legal permanency option, which was born out of House Bill 2536, is implemented. Gov. Laura Kelly signed the bill into law in April, adding a new, first-in-the-nation option for foster kids 16 years old and older.
Traditionally, three options exist for permanent placements for children in the foster care system: adoption, reintegration and custodian appointment. Under the SOUL Family option, kids 16 and over can choose a trusted adult, regardless of blood relation, to raise them into adulthood instead of bouncing from home to home waiting to be adopted or to age out of the system. SOUL stands for Support, Opportunity, Unity and Legal Relationships.
“Through intentional and strategic conversations, we’re able to ensure that young people are fully involved in planning and decision making regarding their futures,” said Nykia Gatson, who sits on a subgroup that connects and integrates the youth perspective with the SOUL model, at the Wednesday hearing.
“The SOUL Family model emphasizes that young people must be actively and meaningfully engaged in the permanency planning process,” she said.
Cornerstones of Care is a behavioral health organization that primarily serves foster kids in Atchison, Leavenworth and Wyandotte counties. It identified three “test cases” to test how the SOUL Family process works.
DCF Secretary Laura Howard said Wednesday the department is prepared to implement the SOUL Family option, but no youths have been formally identified yet.