KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Kansas welfare officials rarely release details after a child’s death or serious injury despite a decade-old law designed to provide more transparency, a newspaper investigation found.
The Kansas City Star (https://bit.ly/2jcpFXe ) reports that it has made numerous requests for documents to see how officials with the Kansas Department for Children and Families were complying with the 2004 law. It found that of 15 requests from the media, covering 10 cases, the department released information about the department’s involvement in only one instance.
“The law is there to protect children,” said Rep. Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat and attorney who has worked in family court. “But the current DCF administration is using it as a shield right now to prevent people from investigating or shining the light on what’s going on there.”
Phyllis Gilmore, head of the Department for Children and Families, insisted the agency is “constantly striving to make sure children in Kansas are safe.”
Child welfare systems are meant to be private to protect intimate information about a child and his or her siblings. But when tragedies occur, reviewing what workers and the system did can be vital to making improvements and creating best practices, say advocates of releasing information.
Kansas is among more than 30 states that have adopted laws allowing some disclosure after a child dies or is seriously injured. Lawmakers pushed for the Kansas legislation after the 2002 death of Brian Edgar, a 9-year-old who suffocated in his Overland Park home after his adoptive parents wrapped him in duct tape from his ankles to the top of his head.
Former Republican Sen. David Adkins, who sponsored the legislation, said the goal was to allow for full disclosure after a death or serious injury. But after child welfare officials pushed back, a provision was included that says any “affected individual” should be notified when a request for records is received. Within seven days, those individuals can ask the court to keep the records sealed. A judge then rules on the motion.
Under the law, prosecutors, law enforcement officers and the department secretary all can ask the court to keep records closed, as can the parent who allegedly abused or neglected the child or knew what was going on.
“My intention was no exemption,” said Adkins, now in Kentucky, where he is CEO and executive director of the Council of State Governments. “That if something tragic happens to one of our most vulnerable citizens, you have to embrace that tragedy as a teachable moment - find out what happened and why. But we did what we had to do to get the law passed.”
Ward said he thinks the law has “too many loopholes” and that a new one should be crafted.
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Information from: The Kansas City Star, https://www.kcstar.com
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