DCF budget hearing: agency seeks $23.8M in reappropriations, proposes summer EBT admin funding and nurse "co-responder" pilots

Legislative Research staff and Department for Children and Families officials briefed the Committee on Social Services Budget on the agency’s FY2025 revised estimate and FY2026 enhancement requests, highlighting $23.8 million in reappropriation requests, several proposed new programs and differences between the Legislative Budget Committee (LBC) and the governor’s recommendations.

Amanda from Legislative Research opened the session by reviewing the budget summary and explaining that the agency’s revised FY2025 estimate incorporates money the legislature approved last session as well as reappropriations carried forward. She noted the LBC recommendation removed some SGF reappropriations from HB2007; that lapse reduced the carryforward the agency had planned to spend in FY2025. Amanda and staff walked members through Figure 4 (current year analysis) and Figure 7 (FY2026 enhancements), explaining that federal fund timing and updated caseload consensus estimates also changed the totals the agency reported.

Secretary Laura Howard and DCF staff described the agency’s priorities. Secretary Howard said the agency is not requesting supplemental funding for the current year beyond asking to retain most reappropriations that were budgeted in 2024 but not spent; she said $23.8 million of $30.8 million in reappropriations are the agency’s requested authority to spend in FY2025, while the governor’s recommendation lapsed roughly $7 million of that total.

Where the money would go The agency gave the committee a breakdown of the reappropriations and the requested FY2026 enhancements. Secretary Howard and staff emphasized most reappropriations fund IT modernization projects and other multi-year procurements that are timing-driven; delaying those expenditures would slow planned system upgrades. Key items discussed included: - Summer EBT: The federal summer EBT benefit (100% federal assistance to families when school meals are not available) is estimated to deliver about $64 million in benefits to roughly 266,000 children. DCF is proposing to fund the state’s administrative share (about $925,000 SGF) and program administration for a permanent summer EBT program. - Call center and workload management: The agency entered into a contracts-based virtual call center and reported inflationary cost increases; DCF seeks ongoing funding for those contract costs. DCF also proposed purchasing workload-management software licenses (a product used by KDHE) to improve timely processing of benefit applications. - Nurse co-responder pilot: DCF proposed contracting with up to 12 public-health nurses to act as co-responders with child protection specialists when investigators respond to homes with infants under age 1. DCF framed the request as a multidisciplinary way to improve assessment of infant medical issues and family needs during investigations. - Behavioral health intervention teams: To address a cohort of youth with multiple placement disruptions (a focus area in the McIntyre child-welfare litigation), DCF requested funding to expand in-home behavioral intervention teams; the governor’s recommendation would fund several more teams so that high-need youth receive intensive supports. - Executive order implementation on conserving children’s federal benefits: Governor’s executive action aimed to stop using eligible children’s federal benefit payments (SSI, survivor benefits) to offset foster care costs and instead conserve those funds for the child’s future. DCF estimated an $8 million SGF impact to shift away from using those federal benefits to offset foster-care costs; the proposal would set aside funds (including ABLE-account options) for eligible youth. - Child support and TANF changes: The governor proposed ending mandatory child-support referrals in child-in-need-of-care petitions and returning the state’s share of child-support retained from some TANF cases to the families; DCF described federal guidance and cited research suggesting such changes can support reunification and family stability. - Workforce registry and child-care items: The governor proposed moving maintenance of a child-care workforce registry (previously supported with Children’s Initiatives Fund dollars) to SGF ($1.1 million) because the Children’s Initiatives Fund balance was strained.

Committee reaction and next steps Members asked for operational details and suggested staff-level follow-up on some administrative items. Representative Wilcott and others requested more specificity on how reappropriated dollars were committed and spent; Secretary Howard said most of the reappropriations are already committed to multi-year IT projects, contract renewals and a small set of program investments. Lawmakers also discussed the trade-off between restoring large enhancements in full versus adopting smaller, incremental restorations the committee felt it could defend in Appropriations.

No final committee votes on FY2026 enhancements were recorded during this hearing; the chair said the committee will consider recommendations and present them to Appropriations next week. DCF staff provided program status slides and performance indicators in the packet for lawmaker review.

Ending The committee paused after the DCF hearing to allow public testimony at a future meeting; members and staff agreed to follow up on operational questions about reappropriations, call center costs and specifics of proposed pilots.