SRS Admits Too Many Children
Taken From Families.Seeks new powers to
SRS PRESS RELEASE: March 3, 2000 -
to "prevent"
its own further excesses.
"Legislation seeks remedy
for children and families
caught in a foster care system
not designed to serve them;
service collaboration is key"On or about March 3, 2000, the SRS posted this press release, concurrent with an attempt to get permission from the Legislature to expand its mission.
The SRS press release partially acknowledges and affirms what many SRS critics had been alleging about the Kansas child-protection system -- namely, that a very high percentage of the children taken by the state, and placed in foster care, were not victims of abuse and should not have been taken from their parents and placed in foster care.
SRS's key statements of admission were:
"Because other options have not been available, thousands of Kansas children have been taken from their homes and communities and inappropriately placed in state custody and foster care over the years..."'This initiative is designed to assist the young people of Kansas for whom we have not yet made the right decisions,' Secretary Schalansky said. 'We have failed these kids because we tried to address their problems outside of their family and community. We have served them by removing them from their homes and families when the very thing they needed was to be served with their family and within their community.'...
"SRS recently completed an analysis of foster care caseloads in Kansas. It showed that during state fiscal year 1999, one in every five children in foster care -- up to 1,800 children -- were placed there for reasons other than abuse or neglect. Most of these children were in foster care for reasons attributed to learning disorders, behavior disorders, or medical needs."
In the statement, SRS proposed creation of a new category of children, in whose lives it would be empowered (authorized and funded) to intervene, called "Youth In Need of Community Services" ("YINCS"). This press release claims that expanded authority and funding will reduce the numbers of children the SRS wrongly takes from their parents.
The press release implies that the current over-interventions are the fault of parties other than the SRS (particularly the courts), and the fault of existing legislation. It further indicates that the current situation may cause the state to flunk a pending federal audit of the state's use of federal child-protection funds, resulting in a massive loss of federal funding for the agency.
To go to the SRS website to view the official full text of the press release, click here, OR...
In case this link is terminated by SRS, the document is also viewable at an alternate location ( Click Here for the official full text ). It is an exact copy of the version posted online by SRS (March, 2000; downloaded to this site Sept. 8, 2002), and verification is available from alternate sources (including newspaper articles in early 2000 by the Wichita Eagle and the Topeka Capital Journal).NOTE: SRS personnel may eventually delete this embarassing press release from their official website (the SRS has a reputation for withholding embarrassing information and documents), especially since the former Commissioner of Children & Family Services who arranged it, Joyce Allegrucci, is no longer in office (she resigned to manage the campaign for the opposing political party's candidate for governor in the 2002 gubernatorial election).UPDATE, early 2004:
Joyce Allegrucci, who originally made this announcement as SRS Child-Protection boss, quit SRS to become Campaign Manager of the victorious gubernatorial campaign of Kathleen Sebelius, Democrat.
Immediately thereafter, Allegrucci served as Transition Team manager for Governor-elect Sibelius, playing a key role in selecting the governor's cabinet, including the Secretary of SRS.
Allegrucci is now the Governor’s Chief of Staff, manager of the governor's office, and the second most powerful person in the administration, after the governor herself. (Also, Allegrucci's husband, Donald, is now Chief Justice of the Kansas Supreme Court.)]