After years of fighting to help kids and parents who feel mistreated by a troubled Kansas child welfare system, one lawmaker and several advocates thought their work was finally paying off.
Rep. Jarrod Ousley, D-Merriam, had compromised early and changed parts of his bill to garner more bipartisan support for an Office of Child Advocate. Rather than house the advocate in the Office of Administration, he agreed it would be governed by the Legislature.
Seventeen sponsors joined him, 11 of them Republicans. And his legislation, which would give Kansas its first ombudsman to handle child welfare complaints, passed unanimously last month out of the House Children and Seniors committee. It was an opportunity, supporters said, to build on improvements the system had been making over the last two years.
And then, House leaders shut it all down.
The bill wouldn’t get a debate on the House floor this legislative session, and Ousley said no one would tell him why.
“There was a lot of confusion about the overreach, the Governor’s office all the way down had concerns with that bill,” Speaker of the House Ron Ryckman told The Star. “The bill just needs some more work and more discussions.”
Weeks later, Senate Republicans rolled out a new proposal for the ombudsman with several differences, including one big one — the advocate would be governed by the office of the Kansas Attorney General, an elected position currently occupied by gubernatorial candidate Derek Schmidt.
“I was shocked,” said Ousley, referring to leadership’s decision not to give a floor vote to his bill this session. “I’ve not felt more defeated in this building than having four years of work to better protect the lives of children in state care not be blessed. I was disheartened to say the least.”
Though the Senate bill keeps the concept of a child advocate alive, Ousley said it removes key protections he’d worked to create and lacks independence under the Attorney General. He said last week that he’d rather see the proposal fail yet again than support the Senate’s proposal.
But the Senate legislation came with strong support of Senate Republican leaders who insisted the office would be less political under the Attorney General.
On Wednesday, Ryckman said he had yet to review the Senate version but hoped the chambers could come together on an option.
Mike Fonkert of Kansas Appleseed said House Bill 2345 Ousley’s bill, was already the viable option, one with broad support across parents, foster kids and their advocates.
“There are a lot of bills that come through that have big issues that I would understand not getting a vote,” Fonkert said. “I would challenge the speaker to show me legislation that has been crafted in a more thoughtful, more bipartisan manner than HB 2345.
“You don’t get Republicans and Democrats to sign on to bills like this very often.”
An independent voice
Rep. Susan Concannon, a Beloit Republican, didn’t think an office of the child advocate was necessary until recently. As chair of the House committee overseeing the proposal, she had allowed hearings on the issue in previous years but it didn’t move forward.
Her position changed after a summer on the Foster Care Oversight Committee.
“I started getting phone calls from a lot of foster parents and I realized the system had a lot of gaps,” she said. “Nobody’s standing up for these kids and I have a notepad of 15 or 16 stories of foster parents and therapists who were calling me and telling me all of the areas where the ball was being dropped.”
While most states contract out some portion of child welfare services, Kansas is one of only two fully privatized systems in the country. That’s why lawmakers and advocates see the addition of a child advocate even more crucial.
“They are fighting for kids but they have a hard time fighting against the contractors,” Concannon said.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), about 22 states — including Missouri — have an office of child advocate or a children’s ombudsman. Another five states have a state ombudsman who can also work on child welfare cases, the NCSL has found.
“It’s important, particularly given our privatized system, but in any child welfare system, that there is rigorous and robust oversight of everybody in the system and that doesn’t exist in Kansas right now,” Fonkert said. “It’s unreasonable to think the contractors or DCF (Department for Children and Families) is truly capable of overseeing itself without letting their interest potentially get in the way of what’s best for kids. “
Concannon’s support was a major factor in passage of the proposal out of committee, further than it has ever made it in the legislative process.
Under the House bill, the advocate would have the ability to receive and address complaints made by or on behalf of children related to state services. After investigating those complaints, the advocate could recommend action or policy changes to state agencies.
After the measure died in the House, Sen. Molly Baumgardner, a Louisburg Republican, drafted and proposed the new bill. It expanded the scope of the office and placed it under the direction of the Attorney General, because that office investigates child deaths in Kansas.
“We can’t just keep collecting data,” said Baumgardner, referring to the numerous studies of the Kansas system. “We can’t just keep having on average 7,000 kids in foster care. We can’t keep having these child deaths and not take steps to bring about change.”.
The office, she said, can be amended and provided with more oversight once it’s created. The key is getting it started, she said.
But many question the office being placed under the Attorney General, who would have the power to monitor and fire the advocate.
“It lacks an independent structure,” Fonkert said about Senate Bill 301. “There’s nothing in this that would prevent a partisan-elected official from skewing the work of the office for some political advantage.”
Added Ousley: “It’s putting all the power of the child advocate in one politician’s hands.”
Sen. Ethan Corson, a Prairie Village Democrat, said Kansans may not trust the office to be independent if it is under the control of a Republican Attorney General who is running for Governor.
In the past several months, Schmidt has intensely criticized Gov. Laura Kelly while obtaining more power to act as a check on her office.
But the support of Schmidt and Senate President Ty Masterson signals a strong likelihood that the measure will be approved by the Senate.
“The key is to create that independent voice to protect the vulnerable,” Masterson said during a rare committee testimony, Tuesday. He said the legislature and the governor’s office were too political.
While testifying in favor of the policy, Schmidt said clear direction would be needed for the role of the office “or else you wind up with real disconnect.”
Baumgardner offered amendments Monday to give a legislative committee a voice in who is chosen for the role and to require Senate confirmation.
The independent nature of the position, she said, is crucial and will be protected because it would be “political suicide” for an attorney general to improperly use the office.
‘We can always negotiate’
Corson sought Monday to replace the Senate Bill with the House version before it left committee.
But that effort failed.
“The Senate version (appointment process) is far superior and it will be done in open light,” Baumgardner said. “I do not want the fox overseeing the chicken coup I want this to be a real oversight office.”
But after requests for changes during a hearing last week, Baumgardner suggested several revisions that she said would ease the concerns of advocates who testified.
Rather than grant the advocate subpoena power as originally proposed, Baumgardner amended the bill to allow the advocate to request subpoena power from a judge.
Additionally, she expanded the amount of time an advocate would have in office and narrowed the scope of what children the Office of the Child Advocate could serve.
Ousley was on the House floor when the Senate version was being worked on Monday. He heard a summary of what was amended.
“It was my understanding it was a step in the right direction but not near enough,” Ousley said. “We’ve already done the work in (House Bill) 2345, we had overwhelming support.”
If the new version clears the Senate, it will need approval in the House. And it’s unclear what leadership will say this time.
“It just compounds (leadership’s) concerns,” Concannon said. “Their concerns are you’re handing out a lot of power to one person and theirs does the same thing without any of the guardrails.”
In closing his testimony last Tuesday, Fonkert encouraged the Senate committee to keep pushing.
“You all now have the potential to make this bill a good bill,” he said.
On Monday, Fonkert said changes made to the Senate measure were improvements, “but there were many concerns raised that I don’t think were addressed at all.”
Despite concerns about the Senate version, Concannon viewed the introduction of the bill as a positive.
“Even though I’m not crazy about the bill we can always negotiate,” Concannon said. “Just keeping the conversation alive I think is important for the issue.”
Changes and concerns, she said, could be worked out in a conference committee between the two chambers.
Ousley said he’s not giving up now. Though, he said, it does at times feel like an “uphill battle.”
“These people have been calling me for years, desperate to keep their families together,” Ousley said. “I want to give them somewhere to go and someone who has the ability to help them.
“… I think it’s important for the public to realize (Senate Bill) 301 is not the result of years’ worth of work,” Ousley said. “That work resides in (House Bill) 2345 on the House side.”
Laura Bauer came to The Star in 2005 after spending much of her life in southwest Missouri. She’s a member of the investigative team focusing on watchdog journalism. In her 25-year career, Laura’s stories on child welfare, human trafficking, crime and Kansas secrecy have been nationally recognized.
Katie Bernard covers the Kansas Legislature and state government for the Kansas City Star. She joined the Star as a breaking news reporter in May of 2019 before moving to the politics team in December 2020. Katie studied journalism and political science at the University of Kansas.
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