Johnson County accepts $300,000 Kansas Fights Addiction grant to launch family-court substance program

Johnson County commissioners on Tuesday authorized the county to accept a $300,000 Kansas Fights Addiction grant to create a Family Court Substance Abuse Program, funding sobriety monitoring, substance‑use evaluations and treatment for people seeking to stabilize or increase parenting time.

District Court Administrator Laura Brewer, who presented the request, told the board the program will pair continuous alcohol monitoring and a single community treatment provider with case management tracked in the court’s treatment dashboard. “The measure of success for this program will be to stabilize or increase parenting time for those who are receiving the services,” Brewer said.

The one‑year program will use soberlink continuous alcohol monitoring for most sobriety testing and will run from a February start through Jan. 31 of the following year, Brewer said. The court will track individual participants and services in DIMS, a treatment‑court platform the county already uses for veterans and adult drug courts, she said. Cost estimates provided at the meeting indicated substance‑abuse evaluations at about $150 each and treatment costs under $3,500 per person.

Commissioners asked how success will be measured and whether a baseline for “stabilized” parenting time exists. Brewer told the board the outcome will be case‑by‑case: some parents already have parenting time and others have supervised visits; success will be judged by whether parenting time stabilizes or increases after program completion and each client will be entered into the DIMS dashboard for monitoring.

Commissioner Hanslick moved to accept the grant and authorize reallocation of general fund balance reserves for FY2025 in the amount of $300,000; Commissioner Myers seconded. The roll call vote was 7–0 in favor.

The board and staff said they view the program as a pilot year that could be continued with additional grant funding—including opioid settlement dollars or other grants—if the pilot shows measurable success. Brewer said the county has other local fee funds and opioid dollars that could be considered as follow‑up funding sources if needed.

The board approved the measure without amendment and commissioners praised the district court’s preventive approach.

Ending: The program will begin funding and service delivery in February; staff will report program metrics via the DIMS dashboard and may return to the board with a future funding request depending on pilot outcomes.