DCF outlines child-welfare priorities; proposes shorter secure-care stays and changes to neglect rules

At a Committee on Social Services Budget hearing, Secretary Laura Howard of the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) gave an overview of the agency’s child-welfare work and said DCF plans to introduce three bills next week aimed at shortening the time children spend in restrictive settings and accelerating permanency reviews.

Howard said DCF’s mission is “protecting children, strengthening families, and promoting adult self sufficiency.” She told the committee that prevention and protection—DCF’s child welfare services—are the largest portion of the agency’s state-funded spending. The department emphasized expanded front-end prevention services implemented after the Family First Act and said those services have helped reduce foster-care entries.

Howard listed three legislative priorities the department expects to file next week. First, DCF will seek to reduce the number of days a child in the custody of the secretary can be court-authorized for a secure (locked) placement from 60 to 45 days, aligning the child-welfare time limit with recent juvenile-justice changes. Second, the department will seek to shorten the time frames for required permanency hearings for children in foster care. Third, DCF said it will propose changes to the state’s child-in-need-of-care code to clarify neglect definitions so that children are not separated from families solely because of poverty-related issues.

Howard described secure placements as “essentially like being in a jail setting” and said reducing the authorized length is intended to limit time in restrictive placements while the department expands other supports. She said DCF’s longer-term aim would be to eliminate locked placements in child welfare where possible, but that parity with juvenile-justice time limits was the immediate proposal.

The secretary credited recent legislative support and federal options under the Family First Act for allowing the state to expand prevention programs such as parent-skill building, kinship navigation and evidence-based mental-health interventions. Howard said those prevention services have contributed to sustained reductions in foster-care entries in recent years.

Howard also described a new permanency option created by the legislature, the Sole Family Legal Permanency Option (Sole Family Legal Permanency Support Opportunity Unity and Legal Relationships), developed with the Casey Foundation and people with lived experience. She said Kansas is the first state to add this permanency option and that the department has already completed multiple such legal permanencies since the option took effect July 1.

Committee members pressed for implementation detail. Representative Ballard asked why the secure-care limit is being reduced; Howard answered it is driven by youth welfare concerns and by expanded supports such as therapeutic foster homes and added behavioral intervention services through Medicaid. Representative Ballard and others asked about specialized foster-home capacity; Howard cited roughly 31 therapeutic foster homes with capacity for about 62 children and said DCF is piloting smaller caseloads for certain providers.

Howard said more detailed statutory language and bill drafts will be introduced next week in the House child-welfare committee and that staff will return to the budget committee with additional information.

Ending: The department framed the bills as incremental steps to reduce time in restrictive placements and to strengthen community supports; formal bill language and hearings were expected in the coming week.