Juvenile oversight panel urges protection of evidence‑based funds, expands crossover youth pilots
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Summary
Don Heimer, chair of the Kansas Juvenile Justice Oversight Committee, told the joint committee the JJOC is focused on improving data, monitoring the evidence‑based fund, expanding crossover youth pilots, and strengthening juvenile defense and community services to reduce out‑of‑home placements.
Don Heimer, chair of the Kansas Juvenile Justice Oversight Committee and an assistant district attorney in Johnson County, briefed the joint committee on the JJOC annual report, its recent work to improve data fidelity and grant administration, and a pilot program for crossover youth.
Heimer said the JJOC was established after Senate Bill 367 and that the committee’s purpose is broader than implementing a single law: it seeks to track outcomes, promote evidence‑based programs, and coordinate stakeholders across child welfare, courts, and corrections. The committee has four subcommittees (data, communications, reinvestment, legislative) and a staff coordinator to improve continuity and program monitoring.
A primary concern Heimer highlighted was the evidence‑based fund, created from savings when many out‑of‑home placements were closed after SB 367. By statute those dollars are to be used to keep children at home and for justice‑involved youth; Heimer warned that large approved allocations do not always equal money spent, and two‑year grants and conservative local spending produce rollovers that can mask practical year‑to‑year decreases in available funding.
Heimer described JJOC steps to improve grant timing (rolling grants), to vet the statewide detention assessment, and to audit KDOC expenditures per a prior legislative audit. He said the JJOC recommends protecting the reinvested dollars and, if expansion of allowable uses is contemplated, updating the statute rather than stretching existing definitions.
On crossover youth, Heimer said the model was launched in 2020 with Georgetown University support and implemented in Sedgwick, Shawnee and Montgomery counties. The goals are to reduce the number of youth who have overlapping child‑welfare and juvenile‑offense involvement, reduce congregate care placements for children who can safely be served at home, and improve data‑sharing among KDOC, DCF and OJA. Heimer said the pilot will add Atchison, Franklin and Saline counties in the coming year.
Committee members raised concerns about ‘overnight’ placements and the shortage of foster or therapeutic homes for children with behavioral or violent histories; Heimer and members said coordination with DCF and targeted investments (for crisis stabilization or short‑stay facilities like Johnson County’s model) are needed.
Why it matters: JJOC recommendations shape how evidence‑based funds are allocated and monitored, and the crossover youth model seeks to reduce out‑of‑home placements by aligning juvenile justice and child welfare responses. Heimer urged the legislature to maintain the reinvested funds and to ensure any changes in allocation methodology are phased in to avoid destabilizing local programs.
