Laura Howard, secretary of the Kansas Department for Children and Families, faced questions from state senators about the death last year of a 5-year-old girl. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — A Republican state senator demanded answers Tuesday on deaths in Kansas’ foster system, asking if children are still slipping through the cracks after a 5-year-old girl was sexually assaulted and died last year after living in a homeless camp.
Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a member of the Senate committee that oversees public health and welfare, said she knew of two more foster care kids who had died this month, though she did not provide other details.
Baumgardner, R-Louisburg, asked Kansas Department for Children and Families secretary Laura Howard to give an estimate of how many foster children have died over the past year, as well as more details about the death of the 5-year-old, a case that sparked widespread outrage over system failures.
“When will we find out more information about the little five-year-old here in Topeka that was murdered, living in a tent home and that trail of contacted, not contacted, touched, not touched as far as with law enforcement or with DCF?” Baumgardner asked.