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Young people with intellectual disabilities often get placed in foster care because their challenges are more than their families can handle. Kansas lawmakers and foster agencies hope they can help keep some of those kids in their original homes. Plus: Teachers at Kansas City Public Schools will soon be paid the highest starting salaries in the region.
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Children with intellectual disabilities and behavioral problems sometimes have more serious problems than families can handle. And the results can be tragic.
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Former members of Kansas City addiction treatment groups for teenagers allege the programs isolated them from friends and family and pushed them into unsafe behavior. Plus: a "foster care bill of rights" is moving through the Kansas Legislature.
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The bills of rights would give 40 total rights to both foster kids and foster parents.
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A recent high-profile case has again highlighted the difficulty of choosing between maintaining biological kinship or keeping a child with the foster parents they already know.
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The Division of the Child Advocate was established in October 2021 as an ombudsman's office with special attention to the cases of foster children. The office started investigating complaints last year.
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The bill would bring back some penalties that were cast aside six years ago when Senate Bill 367 was passed.
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Cities like St. Louis and Kansas City are gaining national attention for starting the process of reparations for Black residents, but rural areas in Missouri are taking their own steps toward righting historic wrongs. Plus: What is Kansas doing to fix the problem of runaway foster children?
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More than 50 foster kids are missing in Kansas at a given time. The state said it is making progress to fix the problem, but critics say it could do more.
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The Division of the Child Advocate was created in 2021 to oversee the child welfare system. Its most recent annual report is the most detailed case breakdown in the young agency's existence.
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At least 12 states, including Kansas, allow children to be removed from their parents if they fail to pay the cost of foster care. But that can be hundreds of dollars a month, and it's often the poorest families who must pay.
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Shayla Curts was pregnant with her third child when she was shot and killed in December. Her family says this might not have happened if Jackson County's child welfare system had worked like it was supposed to. Plus: The plan to conserve water in western Kansas and save the region from drying up altogether.