Committee hears competing views on bill to restore juvenile residential placements and authorize up to $10 million

The Committee on Corrections and Juvenile Justice held a hearing on House Bill 2,329 on Oct. 27, 2025, taking testimony from child-welfare providers, county officials, prosecutors, law enforcement and state agencies. The bill would restore and fund certain juvenile residential placements and authorize up to $10 million per fiscal year from the Evidence Based Programs account to contract for non–foster-home beds in youth residential facilities.

Jason Thompson of the Reviser’s Office summarized the measure’s provisions: it would expand placements of juvenile offenders in non–foster-home youth residential facility beds, require the Secretary of Corrections to pay associated costs, authorize expenditures from the Evidence Based Programs account, and change statutory cross-references in multiple juvenile code sections. Thompson noted the bill reinstates a provision that expired on Jan. 1, 2018, and inserts funding for specific placements under new and existing subsections of the juvenile code.

Proponents said the change addresses what they described as an unintended consequence of Senate Bill 367 (2016), which reduced use of residential placements and led some juvenile offenders into the child welfare foster-care system. Crystal Hedrick, chief executive officer of the Children’s Alliance of Kansas, told the committee: “We’re…