Nykia Gatson, a former foster kid, is helping to inform Kansas’ first-in-the-nation permanency option that allows youth in foster care who are 16 years or older to choose a trusted adult, regardless of blood relation, to guide them into adulthood. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — As Kansas officials, foster care service providers and advocates work to improve a system with a checkered past, new initiatives bring optimism for kids who have historically been left behind.
The fewest number of children entered the state’s foster care system in 2023 since 2006, according to data from the Kansas Department for Children and Families. But older and disabled youths in the system have been left without a permanent place to live at a higher rate than their peers. The state and foster care service providers are seeking to remedy the disparity in several ways, and two solutions are in their early stages.
In 2023, lawmakers directed $6 million from the state general fund toward developing a more comprehensive cache of therapeutic family foster homes. In March, DCF began to disperse about $4.7 million of that across seven agencies.