Bypassing Legislative fights, Kelly creates Kansas child welfare oversight office
Kansas is establishing a new office to investigate complaints about the state child welfare system and to ensure that the agency governing the system complies with state and federal law.
Gov. Laura Kelly established the Division of Child Advocate in an executive order Monday — taking into her own hands an issue hotly debated in the state Legislature for years amid reports of poor conditions and mistreatment of the state’s most vulnerable children.
“(Lawmakers) never gave up searching for a solution to a very big problem,” Kelly said. “As often happens, however, during the legislative process reaching consensus was difficult and time ran out.”
Kelly said the action would ensure that the state would “never again let our child welfare services fail our children so badly.”
Lawmakers have been split over how to create the office and who should control it. Senate President Ty Masterson said he would continue to call for an advocate overseen by the Attorney General.
“The biggest thing is that it’s Office of Administration (executive branch) ... that gives me the biggest pause,” said Rep. Susan Humphries, a Wichita Republican who sponsored a House Bill that placed the office under the direction of the Legislature.
Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a Louisburg Republican who sponsored the bill giving oversight to the Attorney General, said Kelly had failed to create a truly independent office by giving herself the power to appoint the advocate.
“It is total disregard of the Legislative process,” she said.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), about 21 states — including Missouri — have an office of child advocate or a children’s ombudsman. Another seven states have a state ombudsman who can also work on child welfare cases, the NCSL has found.
The Kansas office will receive complaints and investigate complaints on behalf of the children in the state system.
It will have access to records normally closed to the public.
Each year, the office of child advocate will deliver a “nonpartisan, independent” report to the governor, the Legislature and judicial branches, Kelly said. Those reports will detail complaints and make recommendations on how to improve the system.
In addition to investigating complaints, the office will monitor development and implementation of federal, state and local laws regarding child welfare and recommend changes to law and policy in Kansas.
The office of child advocate, according to the executive order, will be a part of the newly established Office of Public Advocates and housed in the Department of Administration.
But, according to the order, the Secretary of the Department of Administration and that agency will have no authority over the advocate.
“This is about as independent as you can get,” Kelly said.
The Office of Public Advocates will also include existing Ombudsmans for KanCare and Long Term Care Facilities. The KanCare ombudsman was previously under the Department of Aging and Disability — moving it from that agency has long been a goal of advocates, said Sean Gatewood, a lobbyist and former state representative.
Child advocates, who have spoken out about the troubled Kansas system for years, see this as a win.
In 2020 the state implemented major reforms as part of a lawsuit settlement. The settlement mandated DCF no longer allow children to sleep overnight in offices or be shuttled from home to home. It mandated each child receive a mental health screening when they entered the state’s care.
Even with these changes, advocates felt an independent office was still needed to provide oversight and advocate for children.
“I applaud Governor Kelly for taking action to ensure that kids and families who are impacted by the child welfare system have an opportunity to request and access a truly independent oversight process,” said Lori Ross, founder of FosterAdopt Connect and a long-time child advocate in Kansas and Missouri. “Even when things operate as they should, child welfare is always complicated and difficult.
“The lives and futures of Kansas’ most vulnerable children and their families deserve the additional scrutiny that this office will provide.”
Beginning in 2017, The Star spent months covering child tragedies and identified numerous missteps by DCF and the state system meant to protect children. In the series, “Why so secret, Kansas?” the Star found a pervasive effort inside DCF to hide behind privacy laws and internal procedures to keep the public from knowing how it operates.
Rep. Jarrod Ousley, a Merriam Democrat, has been pushing for the Ombudsman office since then. Even Kelly mentioned the lawmaker Monday. “Jarrod never let this issue go,” she said.
The executive order created a program similar to what Ousley envisioned but placed it under the office of Administration rather than the Legislature and made the advocate a gubernatorial appointee.
“I’d rather see House Bill 2345 being signed into law right here today but if leadership in the Legislature is going to play politics with the kids I’m glad to see the Governor taking charge and putting the kids first,” Ousley said.
This past session, Ousley thought the office of child advocate was finally going to happen. A bipartisan group of lawmakers sponsored the bill and passed it out of committee. But House leadership didn’t allow the measure to get a debate on the floor.
At that time, Ousley said no one could explain to him why. Then a Senate version of the bill was introduced that would have the ombudsman governed by the Kansas Attorney General, an elected position currently occupied by gubernatorial candidate Derek Schmidt.
While Senate Republicans argued the placement would remove politics from the office, opponents said Schmidt’s ambition for higher office would make the ombudsman a political tool. Schmidt is now considered the presumptive nominee for the Republican nomination to take on Kelly next year after former Gov. Jeff Colyer left the race last month.
In a statement Masterson, the Senate President, said he would continue to pursue that version of the bill.
“Though I appreciate the governor following the Senate’s lead on recognizing the need for an Office of Child Advocate, it is important that the office be independent and provide real oversight,” Masterson said.
The Senate version of the bill passed the Senate this year but was not brought up for a vote in the House.
Kansas Appleseed has worked with Ousley for the past four years to get an office of child advocate in the state. Mike Fonkert said he and others at the non-profit were “very sad that the Legislature didn’t get a bill across the finish line last session.”
But he, as well as advocates and lawmakers, said Kelly’s order is a crucial step forward in getting that independent accountability that Kansas’s child welfare system has needed for years.
“I think the message is that people do care,” said Fonkert, Kansas Appleseed’s Just Campaign Director. “There are lots of state leaders and lawmakers that are invested in making sure that kids and families get the accountability, the oversight and ultimately the services that they deserve.”
The goal this next session, Fonkert said, is to work with lawmakers to make the office even stronger and permanent even if a different Governor repealed the executive order.
“The governor did a lot of the heavy lifting today,” Fonkert said. “We look forward to working with the Legislature to put a bow on this.”
This story was originally published October 4, 2021 at 5:19 PM with the headline "Bypassing Legislative fights, Kelly creates Kansas child welfare oversight office."
