Casey Family presentation urges Kansas changes to neglect definition, removal practice and kin-first placements

Casey Family Programs told the Kansas Committee on Child Welfare and Foster Care on an interim briefing that a fall stakeholder work group developed a multi-year roadmap to reduce unnecessary foster care entries, tighten removal standards and expand kinship-first placements.

Misha Martin, a strategic consultant with Casey Family Programs and former Arkansas child welfare director, told the committee the core team and stakeholders spent three months producing priorities intended as a three- to five-year transformation plan for Kansas. "Families and children have access to a robust array of services and support needed to be safe, healthy, and thriving without child protection services," Martin said, summarizing the group's vision.

The presentation highlighted five headline priorities that emerged from the work groups: amend the statutory definition of neglect to exclude poverty and to ensure children are not placed in foster care for truancy or primarily to receive mental-health or developmental services; improve safety and risk decision-making across agencies and reduce unnecessary family separation; review statutory removal standards including police protective custody to ensure removal is limited to imminent danger; expand and better…