The Department for Children and Families secretly withheld millions in payments to private operators of the state foster care system, propelling them toward financial ruin and directly contributing to the suffering of kids in state custody #ksleg cjonline.com/news/20200516/…
Through documents and interviews over the past six months, I learned the state delayed more than $21M in payments to Saint Francis Ministries and KVC Kansas and never paid for at least $1.8 million in services from FY 2017 #ksleg cjonline.com/news/20200516/…
The private contractors couldn't say anything at the time, or now, because they were bound by state-imposed nondisclosure agreements. The indication is that the actual losses were much worse than DCF acknowledges #ksleg cjonline.com/news/20200516/…
Both contractors were prepared to surrender their contracts, placing the well-being of 7,500 children in jeopardy. Then, three days after Kelly won election, DCF made a final round of hush payments to prevent the foster care system from failing #ksleg cjonline.com/news/20200516/…
“You could see the stress of the system ... organizations were put in an awful position," said @ChristieAppel. "They weren’t able to talk about it because of what was in the contracts and perhaps because of threats.” #ksleg
cjonline.com/news/20200516/…
cjonline.com/news/20200516/…
Rep. Jarrod Ousley: "We had the secretary for (DCF) come and say everything was fine and, as a matter of fact, they didn’t need any more funding. ... not only are things not fine but we need to add resources, and we need to do better" #ksleg cjonline.com/news/20200516/…
“That is the difference between catching something that keeps a kid alive or making sure that children have their medicine when they move from placement to placement,” said @JoeyHentzler #ksleg cjonline.com/news/20200516/…
“It infuriates me that that was our mode of operation instead of doing what’s right," said @Hilderbrand4KS. "The kids are in such a traumatic state anyway, and then we put them through that. We’re negotiating the well-being of our kids" #ksleg cjonline.com/news/20200516/…
Linda Bass, president of KVC Kansas: “What happened in the 2010s must never be repeated. ... We went from one of the country’s best child welfare systems to one of the most stressed. What changed were state policies and funding." #ksleg cjonline.com/news/20200516/…
