<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/6/1654204139509.png" alt="A lawsuit settlement said children need to be placed in foster homes rather than offices. Blaise Mesa / Kansas News Service " />
 <figcaption>A lawsuit settlement said children need to be placed in foster homes rather than offices. Blaise Mesa / Kansas News Service </figcaption>
 </figure>By BLAISE MESA <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2022-06-02/kansas-foster-children-are-still-sleeping-in-offices-years-after-promises-that-would-end">Kansas News Service</a>TOPEKA, Kansas — Foster children still regularly sleep in 
offices instead of homes despite the Kansas Department for Children and 
Families settling a lawsuit by agreeing to end the practice.In one case, an autistic child spent a month in an office because no foster home was available.<a href="https://www.hppr.org/hppr-health-education-welfare/2018-11-16/kansas-is-sued-over-foster-care-thats-bounced-several-children-between-100-homes" target="_blank">The state was sued</a>
 four years ago because advocates said children were moving from homes 
or offices so often it made them effectively homeless. Some children 
bounced from offices to different foster homes as many as 100 times.As part of <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2020-07-08/kansas-foster-care-advocates-settle-lawsuit-against-the-state" target="_blank">a settlement</a>
 with Kansas Appleseed, Children’s Rights and The National Center for 
Youth Law, DCF agreed to make a range of changes to bring more stability
 to the lives of foster children — kids who are ostensibly being rescued
 from chaotic lives.For starters, the state promised to stop 
placing children in offices unless there were “extraordinary 
circumstances.” Yet some children have nowhere to go because they refuse
 to get out of a car or “simply leave the facility through the front 
door.” The biggest barrier in placing, the agency says, is a shortage of
 foster homes that cater to children’s “extensive medical, mental health
 and behavioral needs.”The lawsuit settlement said “a lack of 
safe and/or appropriate placement options does not constitute 
Extraordinary Circumstances.”DCF said 79 children spent 214 total
 nights in offices from January 2021 through May 2022. In 2021 alone, 53
 children spent 167 total days in an office, Woody said. Children 
catching COVID or being removed from a home late at night could count as
 extraordinary reasons, but the department doesn’t know how often those 
two things happened nor did it say what foster care company failed to 
place the most children.Kansas’ foster system is run by a handful
 of private contractors who handle placement, case management and all 
other aspects of the system. No other state privatizes foster care as 
much. Woody says DCF needs to keep a closer eye on those companies.“Having
 a decentralized, privatized system does not help that situation at 
all,” she said. “The state just has things that are out of their hands 
(and) are out of sight out of mind.”Fewer children are sleeping in offices than a few years ago. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/4803a32bffbc4f4c943b97fc0176fca8" target="_blank">The Associated Press reported</a>
 in 2019 that more than 70 children slept in an office between January 
and May of that year. It reported that foster care contractors had four 
children stay overnight in January and February, 12 in March, 35 in 
April and 16 in the first 11 days of May.DCF said it has stronger
 youth engagement, more services for high-needs children and more 
partnerships to help with “emergency overnight traumatic disruptions.”The
 agency said after children sleep in offices, members of DCF staff meet 
within 48 hours to understand gaps in service and discuss what other 
assistance is needed. In those meetings, the staff goes over the issues 
with the placement and explores what can be improved for the next time. 
They also work to find family and understand what type of placement the 
child wants.Woody said DCF has made some improvements, but she is frustrated that children sleep in offices in the first place.“It
 is better, but it’s not enough,” she said. “There have to be facilities
 for kids who have mental health problems. There have to be placements 
for them.”Without adequate mental health treatment, those children may end up in detention facilities, <a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-12-27/death-of-wichita-teen-who-died-in-custody-ruled-a-homicide" target="_blank">like Cedric Lofton</a>.
 Lofton was a foster teen who died in a detention center after he was 
restrained and pinned to the floor. Teresa Woody of Kansas Appleseed 
said children are placed in those facilities because beds aren’t 
available elsewhere.DCF will soon roll out therapeutic foster 
homes that allow licensed foster families to take higher needs children.
 Caseworkers will check in daily during the early months of the new 
program, children will have therapists and the children’s families will 
be involved. Foster families would have a more collaborative role in the
 child’s treatment plan.Tanya Keys, deputy secretary for programs and services at DCF, said even one home in an area will make a difference.“We
 want to increase placement stability and increase options over time for
 youth,” Keys said. “It’s one of our tools that we would hope would 
reduce and ultimately eliminate the instances of failure to place.”The
 news of children sleeping in offices comes a month before a progress 
report on the lawsuit settlement is published. An independent 
organization is reviewing key metrics of the lawsuit to see if DCF is 
actually making the improvements promised when the case was settled.“We’re very anxious to get the report and to see what … is being done,” Woody said.Blaise
 Mesa reports on criminal justice and social services for the Kansas 
News Service in Topeka. You can follow him on Twitter @Blaise_Mesa or 
email him at blaise@kcur.org.

Years after settlement, Kan. foster children still sleeping in offices