DCF reports modest data changes, family-finding tech and RFPs; Children’s Alliance urges a 'two-door' prevention model

Department for Children and Families Secretary Laura Howard gave the committee a regular data report and operational updates on June 30. Howard said DCF circulated an RFP to convert congregate-care provider relationships from provider agreements to contracts with built-in expectations (and suggested 'no reject/no eject' language). She said DCF would allow some existing providers who did not bid to continue under agreements for another year while the agency refines the procurement.

Howard also said the state has executed a contract for a family-finding technology tool and expects execution of the vendor agreement in the coming week; the tool is intended to support providers across prevention, foster care and permanency workflows. The family mobile crisis helpline contract will transition on Nov. 1 to a vendor with connections to 988 call centers and CCBHCs, which Howard said should improve integration. On data, Howard highlighted that about half of removals in the latest quarter were DCF-requested and the remainder non-DCF, flagged police protective-custody measures for monitoring, and reported average lengths of stay (reunification about 12 months; adoption about 45 months), prevention referral volumes and the number of licensed foster homes (~21,650 reported in the quarter).

Crystal Hedrick, CEO of the Children's Alliance of Kansas, responded with a proposal to better invest upstream. Hedrick urged a two-door approach and community-pathway pilots so families could access family-first prevention services through community providers without triggering hotline investigations; she provided an illustrative cost calculation showing how prevention could reduce long-term foster-care spending and proposed a Sedgwick County 'safe babies' court pilot that she said could be recouped if it served a modest number of infants.

Committee members asked DCF to produce more disaggregated data (e.g., percent of cases that are truancy-related, behavioral or abuse/neglect) and to provide follow-up materials about foster vs. adopt-only processes, mediator licensing, and feasibility of the Sedgwick pilot. DCF deputy secretary Tanya Keyes said the agency has started community-pathway referrals with four state-funded grantees and will pilot expanded approaches before seeking federal Family First plan changes.