The Kansas foster care system has come under fire in a recent class action accusing the state of allowing children to become homeless and at risk for sexual exploitation.
Several advocacy groups recently filed the Kansas foster care class action on behalf of 10 children currently in the state’s system. The complaint argues that children are commonly displaced and moved from location to location, with some children even moving over a hundred times.
The failings of the Kansas foster care system allegedly leads to “night-to-night” placements where children are forced to stay wherever is available. This may be a bed, couch, office conference room, or wherever shelter can be found. In many cases, this allegedly exposes children to the risk of sexual exploitation and homelessness.
In September 2018, the media reported that a 13 year old girl had been raped inside a Kansas foster care office. After a worker left the room, another teen in the foster care office allegedly assaulted her. The girl and the other children at the office were reportedly awaiting placement at foster homes and facilities.
“The story of this child – staying overnight in an office because Kansas’ broken system lacked any housing for her – exemplified a long known danger,” the complaint argues. “Kansas’ child welfare system is, and has been for at least a decade, systematically failing to protect the safety and well-being of vulnerable children and youth in foster care in the custody of the Kansas Department for Children and Families.”
The children in the Kansas foster care class action are accompanied by similarly tragic stories. One 10-year-old boy has allegedly been in the Kansas foster care system since 2012 and has been moved over 70 times. In one three month period, he was subjected to “near continuous” night-to-night placements resulting in him missing a significant amount of school.
Another 17-year-old girl entered the Kansas foster care system in 2007 and was later adopted along with her sister in 2010, according to the class action lawsuit. However, their adoptive father and brother “repeatedly sexual assaulted and sodomized” her and her sister over a three year period, according to the complaint. The girl was allegedly subject to sexual exploitation and trafficking at one of her other placements.
The Kansas foster care class action names a variety of defendant including: Jeff Colyer, Kansas’ governor; Gina Meier-Hummel, Secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families; Jeff Anderson, Secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment; and Tim Keck, Secretary of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services.
The complaint does not seek damages for the alleged failings of the Kansas foster care system, but instead seeks changes to be made to the system on a state level.
The children are represented by Larry R. Rute and Benet Magnuson of Kansas Appleseed Center for Law & Justice Inc.; Loretta Burns-Bucklew of Law Office of Loretta Burns-Bucklew; Leecia Welch and Freya Pitts of National Center for Youth Law; and Ira Lustbader, Marissa C. Nardi, Jonathan M. King, and Stephen A. Dixon of Children’s Rights Inc.
The Kansas Foster Care Class Action Lawsuit is M.B, et al. v. Colyer, et al., Case No. 2:18-cv-02617-JWL-GEB, in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas.
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5 thoughts onKansas Foster Care Class Action Claims State System is Broken
I was sexually molested, abused, attempted rape and murder from foster child when I was age 12, three dorm teachers and supertendent.
Contact me please…
i am here not to argue not to be judged but to give a point of view that some may not want to hear. i am willing to put my life out there as it is was and can never be. I am a 38 year old single mother from Kansas City Mo. My children once had 2 move in to their fathers in Wetmore Kansas in the year 2014. Many many things have gone so side ways back words and just so wrong that our lives had been destroyed as they were. I cant say the worst of it is even here, but i am determined to make this story my story, our story be known so that other families never have to feel the strain of what we had and still are going through. i would like to dive deeper into this. Whom do i contact that can help me shione the light on this side of the grass.?
cps took custody of my daughter without following any guidelines and my rights were trampled on.
I just adopted a child and was a foster parent to this child’s cousin (long story). The cousin that i fostered went back home to the mom after living with me and my daughter (her cousin) for 1.5 years. She then got removed, then went back home then got removed. This happened about 3 or 4 times. The child is now in a home with family members who are under the influence of some kind of substance more often than not. The child is removed from one place to just be placed in another just as bad.
I did try to get her back and DCF denied me. It makes no sense since i did have her for 1.5 years and everything was great, and i just adopted her cousin. I have several stories on this one child that would show you that the Massachusetts system is broken. Represent this child.
Louisiana CPS is broken as well. My kids were removed, rightfully, then never reunited. All the way to the Louisiana state supreme Court trying to terminate my parental rights. But the original decision to begin the reunification was upheld. Paid for my own drug screening. 8 years. I missed two visits. Got clean and sober and the foster parents fought against me. My judge was indicted on fraud, and my kids were not going to come home after 7 years completely complying. Clean and sober I feel every day I live without them. They said there was a high demand for white children under the age of five in Louisiana and I had a perfect set of two year old twins. They are rewarded for helping addicts forget the purpose they struggle to survive. I wasn’t told about rehab. Funds to help me get on my feet. Rides to meetings. Yes I deserved to lose my kids. But the system failed me and my kids because I earned the right to be their mama. But instead they created them new birth certificates without my name in them. But I held my broken heart and mheld my head up when they came to me. Good Mama’s don’t smoke cocaine. I know that. Now and for the last 12 years. The foster mom died from using dirty needles and the foster dad is a full blown alcoholic now with no care for anyone but himself. I am angry. I am hurt. My kids don’t deserve what they went through. The horrible stories of abuse. We deal with CPS abuse related stuff because they didn’t follow their own case plan. For 7 years they broke the law.