A Republican Kansas lawmaker is calling for an end to the state’s first-in-the-nation privatized foster care system, as it nears its 20th anniversary with increasing scrutiny and a record number of children in foster homes.
Republican Representative Mike Kiegerl, an Olathe Republican, wrote a report that was among more than 100 pages of documents provided to the Legislature’s Special Committee on Foster Care Adequacy, which met for a day last month and wants to arrange more meetings.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Kiegerl has been a critic of the foster care system for years. He says the privatized system should either end or be radically overhauled.
Kiegerl's comments come as the Department for Children and Families is facing questions over the deaths of multiple children in the foster care system.
