Kelly plans massive Kansas social service agency to replace DCF, other departments

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly announced a sweeping reorganization Wednesday of the state departments that administer foster care, mental health hospitals and services for troubled juveniles — consolidating them all into a single, massive agency.

One objective of the proposed Kansas Department of Human Services would be to provide stronger support to troubled families, allowing children to remain safely at home when possible.

“The creation of the new agency allows us to focus on prevention, so that we can get to these families before their situation becomes a crisis,” Kelly said.

The proposal, if implemented, would be the largest reorganization of Kansas government in the past decade.

The state has struggled for years with its child welfare system, with growing numbers of children entering foster care. Kelly has made improving social services, especially foster care, a core focus of her office.

“From the beginning of my administration, I’ve made it clear that one of my top priorities is ensuring the safety and well-being of Kansas children and families,” Kelly said at a news conference in Topeka. “Creating this new agency provides us the opportunity to strengthen families and support individuals” by focusing on prevention, better services and improved connections with partners in local communities.

A yearlong investigation by The Star, published in a six-part series last month, found bleak long-term outcomes for some youth who have aged out of foster care, including an inferior education, lasting trauma and poor prospects for productive adult lives.

Kelly’s plan will also affect roughly 6,000 state employees while creating an agency with an annual budget of more than $1 billion. The Legislature has the power to stop the change, and the fate of Kelly’s plan may rest on whether Republican leaders embrace it.

The first-term Democratic governor said she will formally notify the Legislature of her plans within the first 30 days of the legislative session, which begins Jan. 13. Lawmakers can act to stop the reorganization, but if they do nothing within 60 days, Kelly can proceed.

House Republican leaders in a joint statement criticized Kelly, saying she chose not to discuss her plan with lawmakers before announcing it publicly. But they held off on taking a position on the proposal itself.

“Given the rhetoric from her administration about working together and finding compromises, it’s unfortunate that Governor Kelly has kept the legislature in the dark on such a major reorganization. Kansans can rest assured: Republican leadership is committed to thoroughly vetting this plan to ensure it is in the best interest of Kansas families and children,” the statement said.

Senate President Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican, said that putting “a new name on a problem does nothing to actually solve the problem.”

The Department of Human Services will include the current Department for Children and Families (DCF) and the Department for Aging and Disability Services, or KDADS. The juvenile services division currently housed in the Department of Corrections will also join the new agency.

Laura Howard, secretary of both DCF and KDADS, will lead the new agency. She said that every employee affected by the reorganization will continue to have a job, but said it may not be exactly the same job as before.

“This is really about creating a new agency. We’re not approaching this with a business as usual mentality,” Howard said.

Kelly told The Star late last year that Kansas was focused on trying to preserve the biological family and keep kids safely at home when possible. The state was one of the first in the nation to sign on to the federal Family First initiative which allows dollars to be used on family preservation services that were previously earmarked for foster care services.

Kansas also has implemented Team Decision Making in parts of the state that is aimed on better serving children. So far, the approach has allowed more children to stay in their homes.

Rep. Jarrod Ousley, D-Merriam, said the creation of the Department of Human Services would improve communication between agencies. And that could benefit children and their families.

Especially when it comes to family preservation.

“All the trauma, caused by entering the system, if we could keep the children out of the system that could be life-saving measures,” Ousley said.

This marks the third name and mission change for DCF since 2012. At that time, what was Kansas’ Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services became DCF. The switch created a new agency with the goal of greater focus on the well-being of children and families in Kansas.

But troubles continued, with growing numbers of children in foster care, children sometimes sleeping in offices and the agency at times losing track of some youth.

A legislative task force worked for more than a year to identify ways to improve the state’s child welfare system.

Lori Ross, a longtime child advocate in Kansas and Missouri, said all three systems -- DCF, KDADS and juvenile services -- share clients and that combining the agencies may reduce barriers to getting help. She also said the combined agency may be able to save money or allow funds to be shifted to priority areas.

It’s important for the administration to be transparent and publicly communicate as changes are made, she said.

“I would also anticipate with a change this big, there will be bumps in the road, and I would hope that the combined Department of Human Services will continue to work closely with the legislature and the taxpayers to address issues on every level during the transition,” Ross wrote in an email.

Howard, in her capacity of the leader of the child welfare agency and KDADS, is a defendant in the class action lawsuit filed in November 2018. Kelly was also named as a defendent.

The suit alleges that children have been treated so poorly that they’ve suffered mentally or run away from foster homes. In some cases, they have been trafficked for sex, sexually abused inside adoptive homes or in one instance reportedly raped inside a child welfare office, the suit says.

In their April 29 response to the original complaint, the defendants denied that they had caused injury to any of the plaintiffs.

Laura Bauer reported from Kansas City.

This story was originally published January 8, 2020 at 10:45 AM.