Craig Gabel, a Wichita Conservative who recently stood on the stage providing Pat Roberts with the tea party endorsement once summed up the role of DCF (Department of Children and Families) and the way it should handle reports of child abuse:
http://cjonline.com/...
"In my opinion, the worst family in the world is better for a child than the best foster home," Gabel said at the time.
During the 2014 session a member of Gabel's group teamed up with other disaffected parents to lobby for changing the state law that instructs courts to act "in the best interests of the child" to one that instructs them to choose the "least detrimental alternative for the child."
In Wellington, Kansas, a 10 year old boy lies stabbed to death. His burial before Christmas is the result of a terrible set of circumstances.
http://www.kansas.com/...
It looks like the stabbing death of a 10-year-old Wellington boy, allegedly at the hands of his mother, five days after the Kansas Department for Children and Families had received a report of non-abuse neglect with regard to the family.
(TRIGGER WARNING, This is the 9-11 call)
The DCF in Kansas has been dealt blow after blow. Attacks from conservative groups and the state have left the DCF in a no win situation. In Wellington, Kansas, a 10 year old boy lies dead.
The mother, in her actions will find herself life long in prison. But the policies of the current Brownback led government put the dominoes in motion. Pressures from conservative groups, including threats to keep cutting the funding of DCF have resulted in one of the largest cuts yet, another $3.9M taken from DCF:
http://cjonline.com/...
Among the cuts announced Tuesday: $3.9 million from the Department for Children and Families, $599,235 from the Department for Aging and Disability Services, and $290,582 from the Department of Revenue.
Overworked. Understaffed. Policies that put their workers in a no win situation.
http://cjonline.com/...
As part of a series of reports on child abuse, the Wichita Eagle in June outlined a court case in which a 14-year-old girl who weighed 66 pounds was removed from her home after nine reports of neglect and abuse, eight of which were determined unsubstantiated.
A prosecutor in Sedgwick County, where reports of child abuse and neglect have risen by more than 25 percent in the past five years to over 12,000 a year, told the Eagle his office is sometimes shocked by the number of unsubstantiated complaints in a child's past by the time a case is referred.
The level of claims submitted to DCF in Kansas result in the overwhelming majority being 'non-substantiated', in part due to the high standard - which we want - and in part due to the inability to get to spaces in a timely fashion.
Speaking with a Wichita Foster mother last week, we were informed, "Inspections should happen every month, they tell me.. but it's been at least three months. They just don't have the people who can make the inspection"
The loss of an additional $3.9M from their budget will not help with their cause to help protect women, children & families.
The Wichita Eagle pointed out in it's moving "In Need of Care" series that the problems DCF faces are internal and external - and that they grow as a matter of policy.
http://www.kansas.com/...
The girl, the petition says, "reported she is chained to the bed when the bed is clean and she forgets to take a bath because her parents do not want her to get the bed dirty. (She) said she sleeps on the concrete floor when this happens but parents make sure that (she) has enough room to lie down."
The DCF's budget cut is significant, but it falls in line with the current governor's belief that a struggle builds character.
While we look at the disasters this year, so much of it began long beforehand.
http://www.khi.org/...
TOPEKA — State officials on Monday encouraged a task force charged with finding ways to reduce childhood poverty to endorse a plan for making working, low-income parents pay more for government-subsidized child care.
Increasing the co-pays, they said, would encourage parents – single mothers, mostly – to work longer hours and pursue workplace promotions rather than becoming dependent on public assistance.
But task force members Mary Wilkenson, a retired nurse from Wichita who is active in a faith-based program for young mothers, and Robert DeLeon, who runs the Salvation Army Community Center in Garden City, each said they knew single women who weren’t abusing their assistance and whose best chance for achieving self-sufficiency was earning a degree.
"In the real world," Wilkenson said, it would be unrealistic to expect many single mothers to better themselves without public assistance given that they might be working one or two low-wage jobs, caring for small children and struggling to find time to study.
But task force member Joyce Crumton, a retired nurse from Kansas City, said single mothers needed to realize that the cost of public assistance programs were "unsustainable" and that government was not responsible for rectifying their poor choices.
“She might have to postpone her education,” Crumpton said, referring to Wilkenson’s example.
When we fail the least of our own, when we continuously cut our ability to help those in need - then we are a society that simply doesn't value life.