Almost 1,000 Kansas children have been in state custody and foster care for at least 15 of the last 22 months. If these children are not moved into a permanent home soon, Kansas will be breaking the law.

The 1998 Kansas Legislature -- recognizing the desperate need for children who have been placed in foster care to have a permanent family of their own -- passed a strong state version of the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act. Among the law’s requirements is that Kansas judges have a permanency hearing for children in foster care within 12 months.

Recognizing a multitude of bottlenecks in the system, Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services Secretary Rochelle Chronister today announced a $500,000 fund to be used to find ways to move children more quickly out of state custody and into permanency. Staff within the SRS Commission on Children and Families are meeting today with representatives of the Office of Judicial Administration, Kansas Legal Services, prosecutors and private contractors to determine exactly how to use the new funding.

"Every piece of the system has to work right for these children to get a home," Mrs. Chronister said. "The number of children in state custody is increasing not so much because many new children are coming in, but more because we can’t seem to get them out."

Mrs. Chronister pointed to some of these bottlenecks, which all force children to wait in temporary foster care:

*In some counties, prosecutors do not file parental termination motions when evidence is clear that abuse, neglect or abandonment has occurred;

*In other counties, permanency hearing dates are never set or there are repeated continuances;

*In other counties, a permanency hearing is held, but the journal entry needed to move the child from foster care into adoption, permanent guardianship, or reintegration with their family is not signed or filed.

*And in some counties, SRS social workers do not get the needed background information prepared quickly or properly so a judge can make a decision during a permanency hearing.

Mrs. Chronister praised the Adoption and Safe Families Act as an instrument that will help children in need of a home. But she added that "the law is only as good as it’s implementation."

"For children to receive the benefits intended by the law, every piece has to function," she said.

Possible use of the $500,000 fund include training and other support for the judiciary and others. Some of the funding also may be combined with a previous $750,000 grant award from the federal Administration of Children and Families that is being used to help move children in foster care toward adoption. That funding was used to contract with Kansas Legal Services to remove legal barriers with attorneys with expertise in the Child in Need of Care and adoption process.

"Part of this has to go to support the courts," Mrs. Chronister said. "The Adoption and Safe Families Act is saying ‘fix it, and keep it fixed.’ It is time to do that. Children who have actually been provided permanency do not have a judge in their lives, they have parents."

Page Last Updated: May 29, 2001