Over the last year, more than 100 Kansas kids placed in the foster care system had to spend the night in offices instead of homes. Kids slept on couches or makeshift beds in the offices of the private organizations that handle foster care placement.
Lawmakers and child advocates heard about the issue during a meeting of a foster care task force in Topeka. Republican Rep. Linda Gallagher is one of the group’s members.
“We’re not talking about large numbers of kids where this happens, but to the extent it happens at all certainly is a concern," Gallagher says. "I do believe that will be something that this task force and our working groups will be looking into."
The secretary of the Department for Children and Families, Phyllis Gilmore, says the agency has been working to increase capacity in the foster care system. She says timing can also be a problem, making it difficult to find foster homes on short notice.
“Eight, nine, 10 o’clock at night, those are typical things that do happen, even into the middle of the night," Gilmore says. "For those reasons it happens."
Gilmore says no one wants children to have to sleep in a contractor's office, but she notes it’s a very small number of the thousands of kids in Kansas foster care.
--
Stephen Koranda is Statehouse reporter for Kansas Public Radio, a partner in the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @KPRKoranda.
To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.
