Despite being responsible for keeping the foster children of Kansas safe, the Department for Children and Families managed to fail an astounding 16 safety standards in the past year alone. This is why we, Kathleen and Robert Raskin of Las Vegas, are dedicated to raising awareness of the need for a system of checks and balances within our woefully inept and corrupt child protection agencies.

The DCF is tracked using a reporting system that is rated based upon 30 measurements of performance. That means more than half of these measures were not up to standard, and that is completely unacceptable. The troubled agency has implemented new initiatives they claim will lead to improvements, but this remains to be seen. So far changes in leadership have not led to marked improvements for these vulnerable children.

Here are some sobering facts about what children in Kansas’s foster care system can expect, according to a July 2017 through June 2018 report:

• Children stayed in an average of 8.9 foster homes per 1,000 days in foster care. This number is more than double of the expected standard of just 4.12 days.
• The agency is far from reaching their goal of having children adopted in less than two years. In fact, they only reached their goal 17.6% of the time, compared to a standard of 26.8%.
• Children were only able to remain in the same school 15.7% of the time, compared to a standard of at least 25%.
• The agency aims to assess the needs and strengths of families within a 30-day window, but they have only managed to hit their target 66% of the time.

Kansas DCF clearly has a long way to go, but they have a duty to these children they are obligated to fulfill. With 4,200 children placed in foster care in the state in the last year alone, these improvements are imperative.