In Johnson County alone, 336 children ages ranging from a few months old to over 18 were declared Children in Need of Care and placed in state custody last state fiscal year, which ended June 30. Among the problems that made it necessary for a Kansas judge to place these children in state custody were neglect, physical abuse, or sexual abuse.

These children are only a small number of the hundreds of Johnson County children who received needed direct services last year from social workers and other social service employees of the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS).

With privatization of many parts of the child welfare system in Kansas, this is no longer going to be the case.

Although SRS workers will still be deeply involved with intake and assessment of cases involving children and families and with monitoring outcomes, private child welfare providers have or will be taking over much of the direct service work.

Not-for-profit social service agencies have already been awarded contracts to provide two programs previously run by SRS, family preservation and adoption. And beginning in February, 1997, a much larger program, foster care, will be privatized.

Among many services, foster care includes providing foster or group homes for children in state custody, meeting their treatment needs, providing reintegration services or permanency plans for children who cannot be reintegrated with their families, and recruiting foster and group homes.

What do these changes mean for local communities and the hundreds of children and families in the Johnson County area who will be affected by the privatization of Kansas child welfare services?

To explore the role communities can play in this new delivery system, a community forum will be held from 9:30 a.m. until 11:30 am. on Friday, November 8 in Olathe at the Mahaffie Farmstead. This is the first in a series of forums to be held across the state.

Hosted by the Olathe Mayor's office, the forum will feature the executive directors of not-for-profit agencies now under contract with SRS to provide child welfare services. The agency heads, along with Teresa Markowitz, commissioner of Children and Family Services for SRS, will talk about the reasons behind privatization and their vision for the future. They will also challenge communities to get involved in this reform movement and take responsibility for the children and families who live close by.

Wayne Sims, president and CEO of Kaw Valley Center, Inc., and Bernice Karstensen, executive director of Lutheran Social Service, will take part in the panel discussion during the forum.

In the Olathe SRS area, Kaw Valley Center was awarded a contract to provide family preservation program. The same agency will also serve the Chanute and Emporia SRS areas to the south and southwest.

It was recently announced that Kaw Valley Center will also provide foster care for these same areas along with the Lawrence and Kansas City SRS areas. Lutheran Social Service was awarded a contract to take over adoption services statewide, and has subcontracted with other private adoption agencies.

According to Markowitz and the CEOs of the not-for-profit private agencies, building partnerships both between the state and local agencies and the communities they represent will be key to the success of the privatization effort.

Markowitz pointed out that the forums are meant to identify possible gaps in the child welfare system and find out how the privatized system can augment services already in the community.

This is new; we haven't operated this way before," she said. SRS and the private agencies want to know where gaps in services are and what we can do as partners to improve the lives of children and families in Kansas."

Melissa Ness, a long-time children's advocate and director of public policy and general council for the Kansas Children's Service League, said the burden of providing needed services for children and families has now shifted.

In the past, it's been so easy to look at the state as responsible," she said.

Ness said the forums are important because as community members, private child welfare providers need the support of the broader community to do the work now required of them.

To do the job for children and families, we need the authority, the tools to do it, and the support of the community," she said. The forums are one way to let the community know they now have the choice and responsibility for children and families."

For further information about the forum, call Marilyn Alstrom at (913) 334-0294.

Page Last Updated: May 29, 2001