<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/1/1578580601116.jpeg" alt="At EmbedHope Youthville in Newton, Kansas, a group home for the child welfare system, Natalie Zarate said she was poorly treated. The operators defend their care.&nbsp;The Newton Kansan" />
 <figcaption>At EmbedHope Youthville in Newton, Kansas, a group home for the child welfare system, Natalie Zarate said she was poorly treated. The operators defend their care.&nbsp;The Newton Kansan</figcaption>
 </figure>By SHERMAN SMITH <a href="https://www.kcur.org/post/pressure-mounts-fix-chronically-troubled-foster-care-system-kansas#stream/0">Topeka Capital-Journal, for Kansas News Service</a>TOPEKA — Natalie Zarate entered state 
custody when she was 11 years old, removed from a physically abusive 
mother and placed in a group home for foster children.Now 23, she trembles when she thinks about her time at EmberHope Youthville in Newton.Physicians
 placed Zarate on “crazy,” sometimes hallucinatory medications she later
 learned were unnecessary. She was confined to her room most of the 
time.If she acted out, she was sent to the “timeout room,” a 
small space behind a metal door used to tame kids who were out of 
control. Sometimes, workers banished her to the timeout room for trying 
to defend herself from older kids.“I remember one time being 
crushed and slammed by five different people,” Zarate said. “I’m 12 
years old at the time. I weigh about 97 pounds solid. That’s a lot for a
 child to have to deal with, just being slammed and tossed around.”Nickaila
 Sandate, president and CEO of EmberHope Youthville, said the safety and
 well-being of children “is at the forefront of everything we do” and 
that the center takes all reported incidents seriously.When 
Zarate left Youthville, she bounced for six years among foster parents 
and a series of temporary homes within the state’s child welfare system.
 Zarate, who lives in the Kansas City area, now volunteers with Kansas 
Appleseed and other child advocacy groups.“Sharing my story is 
going to touch the most people,” Zarate said. “They don’t really 
understand what happens behind closed doors.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/1/1578580476925.jpeg" alt="Natalie Zarate entered foster care when she was 11. Now she's an advocate for kids in the system.&nbsp;Credit Evert Nelson / The Topeka Capital-Journal" />
 <figcaption>Natalie Zarate entered foster care when she was 11. Now she's an advocate for kids in the system.&nbsp;Credit Evert Nelson / The Topeka Capital-Journal</figcaption>
 </figure>Lawmakers have intensified their interest in addressing the failings 
of a child welfare system in crisis, and many are frustrated that 
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration hasn’t shown more progress 
since taking office a year ago.Kelly said she’s installed a new 
secretary for the Department for Children and Families and wrangled a 
funding boost from the Legislature.“There were just no social 
workers to do anything on family preservation or anything on 
reintegration, so kids were going into the foster care system and not 
able to get out because we just didn’t have the resources,” Kelly said. 
“The state just wasn’t holding up (its) end of the bargain.”An <a href="https://www.cjonline.com/news/20191014/kansas-made-this-sex-trafficking-survivor-criminal-she-wants-another-chance">investigation by The Topeka Capital-Journal and KCUR</a> highlighted the <a href="https://www.cjonline.com/news/20191015/kansas-foster-care-instability-led-to-surge-in-runaways-left-children-vulnerable-to-sex-traffickers">severe instability in the foster care system</a>.
 Kansas added thousands of children to the system as the Legislature 
adopted policies through the Hope Act that reduced aid to poor families.
 Republican then-Gov. Sam Brownback championed the changes as a way to 
encourage parents into the workforce and break families from a cycle of 
government dependency.But the welfare cuts were followed by a 
rising foster care caseload and a spike in runaways from the system. At 
any time, up to 80 children are missing from state custody.Children
 on the street can fall prey to human trafficking. The 
Capital-Journal/KCUR investigation highlighted the case of Hope 
Zeferjohn, a Topeka native who is one of 13 known cases in which a girl 
fled state custody, was trafficked for sex and sent to prison for 
prostitution-related crimes.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/1/1578580498612.jpeg" alt="Hope Zeferjohn, a native of Topeka, was pulled into sex trafficking after she was placed in the Kansas foster care system.&nbsp;Credit The Topeka Capital-Journal&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>Hope Zeferjohn, a native of Topeka, was pulled into sex trafficking after she was placed in the Kansas foster care system.&nbsp;Credit The Topeka Capital-Journal&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure><a href="https://www.cjonline.com/news/20191120/prison-board-to-kansas-governor-dont-pardon-sex-trafficked-teen">Zeferjohn asked Kelly for a pardo</a>n,
 and child advocates have proposed legislation that would offer a path 
for victims of human trafficking to clear their criminal records.It’s unclear whether the Legislature will restore food assistance or increase other benefits to low-income families.“You
 take what little safety net we’re providing out from underneath them, 
they crumble — the kids go in the system,” the governor said. “So I hope
 that the Legislature will recognize that and do what they need to do.”On
 Wednesday, Kelly proposed formation of a new Department of Human 
Services that would streamline services to children and families by 
combining DCF, the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services 
and the juvenile services division of the Department of Corrections.Sen.
 Molly Baumgardner, a Republican from Louisburg, said lawmakers may be 
willing to invest more in family members who take care of children who 
are removed from a home instead of placing them in foster care. 
Currently, the state pays $10 per day to the family member who takes 
care of the child.“When a child arrives with what may be just a 
backpack full of items, $10 a day isn’t enough to make sure that child 
has clothing and shoes and personal items that they’re going to need and
 the food they’re going to need,” Baumgardner said. “If the goal through
 the Hope Act was to keep a child within the family, we have to do more 
to address what is going to that family member until the issues at home 
get addressed.”Kansas Appleseed, which sued the state over the 
instability of the foster care system, is pursuing legislation that 
would create an office for an independent child advocate run by 
appointees from the governor and the Kansas Supreme Court.The 
child advocate’s office would monitor the foster care system and look at
 systemic problems, such as children not being screened quickly, 
problems with home visits or a lack of mental health services.“It’s
 going to take a long time to fix the Kansas foster care system,” said 
Joey Hentzler, director of advocacy with Kansas Appleseed. "Not one 
session, not two sessions, but maybe five to 10 years of work.”The
 two nonprofit contractors who handle child placement services for the 
state — Saint Francis Ministries and KVC Kansas — have outlined 
priorities for the Legislature that focus on prevention efforts through a
 wide range of programs and services.Examples include programs 
that provide early childhood education, mental health services, 
substance use treatment, and housing and transportation.Other 
initiatives include the implementation of juvenile crisis intervention 
centers and reducing the waitlist for psychiatric residential treatment 
facilities.Christie Appelhanz, executive director of the 
Children's Alliance, said it remains critical that the Legislature adopt
 the two dozen recommendations made a year ago by the Kansas Child 
Welfare Task Force.Some of those ideas, like investing in social workers and participation in the federal<a href="https://www.ncsl.org/research/human-services/family-first-prevention-services-act-ffpsa.aspx"> Families First Prevention Services Act</a>,
 already were addressed by the Legislature. Appelhanz said maximizing 
investments in Family First is a top priority for this session, along 
with increasing administrative rates for child placement agencies so 
they, too, can hire more social workers.“We can’t afford to 
allocate any more resources to feel-good ideas that have little basis in
 fact or quantifiable results for children and families,” Appelhanz 
said. “When the combined knowledge of the experts in the state have come
 up with a plan, emotional responses should be ignored until we 
implement that plan.”Sherman Smith is a reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He’s on Twitter at&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/sherman_news">@sherman_news</a>.

Pressure mounts to fix chronically troubled Kan. foster care system