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Kansas DCF Secretary outlines child-welfare declines, CCWIS modernization and early HB 20-75 impacts
Summary
Secretary Laura Howard told the Public Health and Welfare committee that Kansas has about 5,400 youth in foster care — roughly a 25% decline since 2019 — and described DCF's CCWIS contract award and early results from last year's House Bill 20-75, including a reported 42% drop in police protective-custody removals.
Laura Howard, secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, told the Senate Public Health and Welfare committee that the state currently serves "just over 5,400 youth in foster care today," a decline she said amounts to roughly 25% fewer children in care than in 2019.
Howard framed the trend as the result of expanded front-end services under the federal Families First Act and state investments in prevention. "Since those referrals began in 2019, we've had great success with, really, holding to 90 percent of those children being able to be cared for safely in their homes and not entering into care with those services," she said, pointing to programs that include mental-health supports, substance-use services and home visiting.
Why this matters: fewer children in foster care can reduce trauma and long-term cost. Howard told senators…
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