After veto, frustrated Kansas advocates want Kelly to order foster care report card
Despite Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto last week, a proposal calling for the state to issue an annual report card to track Kansas foster children’s progress in school still has a chance.
Kelly is looking into using her authority to require the state to issue the report on education outcomes and progress for kids in foster care without waiting for a new bill to go through the Legislature in the 2021 session.
“We are exploring administrative options for instituting similar requirements,” the governor’s spokeswoman, Lauren Fitzgerald, said in an email to The Star when asked if Kelly was considering an executive order or some kind of directive to implement the report card.
The measure was part of a package of educational proposals bundled into one bill in the waning hours of the 2020 legislative session. The bill passed the House on a 110-3 vote, and the Senate approved it 36-3.
But Kelly vetoed the bill last week, saying the state couldn’t afford the cost associated with a portion of the legislation that established the Kansas Promise Scholarship Act. The program would have provided scholarships to attend a two-year associate program or technical college for students who are in grade 12, have graduated from high school within the past 12 months or have been in foster care in any of grades 6 through 12.
“I did not anticipate that the governor would veto this bill,” said Quinn Ried, policy research analyst for Kansas Appleseed, which worked with Sen. Molly Baumgardner, R-Louisburg, on the legislation. “The thing that was so disappointing is it was made as a fiscal decision.
“It’s just frustrating that foster kids are being told to wait, that they’re told to wait their turn. And their turn should have been yesterday not tomorrow.”
Education is one of the key hurdles facing children in foster care, who graduate at a rate that is just a fraction of their peers.
After the veto, however, Kelly said she would sign the report card legislation if lawmakers presented her with a standalone bill on that issue.
The measure would require a report each year detailing the academic progress and classroom struggles of kids in state care. The state Department of Education would work with the Department for Children and Families to prepare the report and submit it each January to education committees in both legislative chambers.
The report card would contain graduation rates of Kansas foster kids, suspension rates and standardized test scores. Each category also would include race and ethnicity data.
Last week, the Senate Education Committee tried to resurrect the proposal during a special session called by Kelly to address her veto of a bill designed to greatly limit her authority to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. The committee introduced a foster care bill similar to the one Kelly rejected, but instead of funding the program in Fiscal Year 2021, the proposal would have delayed the funding until FY 2022 in an attempt to address Kelly’s concerns about the cost.
The education committee recommended the new bill for passage, but Senate leaders did not take it up for debate on the Senate floor, and the measure died. The special session ended on Thursday.
Kelly’s rejection of a bill with such strong bipartisan support infuriated many legislators and child advocates.
“I do think that the voting record shows that there is support for this,” Ried said. “If the session hadn’t been cut short by COVID this would be law.”
What’s disappointing, Baumgardner said, is that lawmakers came together for a solution only to be defeated at the end. Then, during the special session, she and others tried again.
“It was clear to everyone that the bill that she vetoed did not have a fiscal imprint for this year or next year,” she said. “The executive branch did turn their back on education.”
Rep. Jim Ward, a longtime child welfare advocate, said while the scholarship program was a good idea, he understood Kelly’s concerns about the cost.
“Everybody’s trying to find a way to make college cheaper, but I’m not sure the state can take on that kind of burden,” said the Wichita Democrat. “We have a hard enough time funding K-12.”
But vetoing the foster care report card, Ward said, was a big letdown.
“Kids bounce around from placement to placement, and it’s virtually impossible to educate kids when they’re not in the classroom on a consistent basis,” he said. “So I was really looking forward to that report card.”
Kansas’ current high school graduation rate of 35 percent for foster youth “is incredibly disappointing,” Ward said.
“I think the first step is to track, and to see if there’s a correlation between the length of time in one placement and graduation rate,” he said. “We should try to get more data.”
Ward said Kelly doesn’t have to wait for lawmakers to come back next year with another bill.
“The governor has the power to tell the (DCF) Secretary to do it,” he said. “She doesn’t have to issue any formal directive; she can just have a meeting and say, ‘We’re going to do this. Bring me back your proposal for August when they go back to school.’”
Rep. Jarrod Ousley, D-Merriam, said the state must track the academic progress and outcomes for foster children and make improvements.
“I think we know enough to know we have to do something,” Ousley said. “If the governor would tell DCF to do it, I don’t see why they couldn’t do it.”
What worries Baumgardner is if Kelly doesn’t go far enough in what would be required. The Senate education committee, which she chairs, proposed measures after getting input from Kansas Appleseed, school districts and DCF.
“If she (Gov. Kelly) is sincere in her support, she has the power of the executive branch to move it forward,” the senator said. ““What we don’t want is watered down requirements, where it’s just the essence of placating people. We need to get the real data so we can craft real solutions.”
Ried said if Kelly issues an order for a report card, it would be a step in the right direction. But it wouldn’t be enough, he said. The state needs legislation.
“Putting that into law is important,” he said. “That’s going to make sure that it stays, no matter who the governor is.”
Kelly’s spokeswoman told The Star the governor strongly supports the report card measure.
“There’s no doubt that the foster care report card would help Kansas’ vulnerable families — and hold leaders accountable,” Fitzgerald said in her email on Monday. “Governor Kelly has worked to improve the health and safety of children in foster care since her early days in the Senate — and it remains one of the Governor’s top priorities.”
This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 11:43 AM with the headline "After veto, frustrated Kansas advocates want Kelly to order foster care report card."
