In recent years, some Kansas children in foster care have ended up sleeping in child welfare offices overnight because there were no relatives, foster homes or care centers available. 

It’s not just Kansas; it’s happening in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Kentucky, Texas, New Mexico, Illinois, Colorado, and more. Across the U.S., children are also staying in hospital ERs, hotels, and even out-of-state places, and some are experiencing one night “emergency” placements in foster homes. These varied situations are happening in Michigan, Montana, Georgia, Washington, West Virginia, and other states. 

What’s behind this national crisis? Watch the short video below for Alex’s story, a fictional story based on the lives of real-life children and families we serve. 

Alex’s Family Experiences Stress Escalating to a Crisis 

Alex entered foster care six months ago. With no foster families or treatment centers available, Alex ended up spending the night in a child welfare office. Foster care was supposed to help Alex, but this is not what we’d want for our children. Where did the system go wrong? 

Let’s rewind. Alex’s journey began when his family faced many challenges: unmet mental health needs, financial stress, and housing problems.  

Big problems can lead to big emotions. Alex’s stress led to behavior challenges and school fights, eventually involving the juvenile justice system because Alex couldn’t access the help he needed. 

His parents were scared, overwhelmed and at a crisis point. 

With no other options, they turned to foster care, hoping it could help Alex. But this isn’t what foster care is for. 

Inadequate Mental Health Resources Lead to Falling Through Cracks 

Often, youth who end up sleeping in offices have complex mental, behavioral and physical health needs, and therefore they need specialized therapeutic foster homes or residential treatment. States and nonprofits are working to recruit more adults to provide this higher level of care, despite a nationwide decrease in foster homes overall. Another reality is that youth can refuse a foster care placement, and some older youth do. 

But the deeper reality is this: kids like Alex can end up sleeping in child welfare offices because the social safety net for working families is badly damaged. Due to inadequate foster care prevention spending on supports like family support and mental health services, Kansas has twice the national rate of children in foster care. 

As one example of low prevention spending, the latest Child Welfare Financing Survey from Child Trends shows that Kansas spends 2 percent of its state and local child welfare funds on prevention, whereas the average U.S. state spends 16 percent of its state and local child welfare funds on prevention. 

There’s been a positive national effort to shift both the foster care and juvenile justice systems from institutions to community settings. In fact, KVC has proudly been part of this national movement because we know children grow best in families – not group homes. However, this shift away from institutions only works if there are strong community services available like intensive mental health treatment and programs that strengthen families. 

The State of Kansas has made strides in increasing foster care prevention. It has implemented the Family First Prevention Services Act and funded many family strengthening programs. Kansas has also successfully reduced the number of children in foster care by 25 percent, from a high of 7,687 children in 2018 to appx. 5,800 children today. But more funding and work are needed to safely reduce the number of children in foster care by half, bringing the state in line with the national average. 

Alex’s example – when parents voluntarily relinquish their children to foster care due to the enormity of their mental and behavioral health needs – happens every month. But it’s just one of many reasons outside of physical and sexual abuse that children enter foster care. According to a recent report of fiscal year 2024 in Kansas: 

• 39% of children entered foster due to family needs like child behavior challenges (7%), caretaker’s inability to cope (16%), and substance use by caregiver (5%) 
• 11% of children entered due to physical neglect, which is often related to financial stress

Aside from low prevention spending, another factor that has contributed to youth sleeping in offices is a group of new federal restrictions on reimbursement for residential treatment. The federal government could make changes that would ease the problem being felt in states. One organization recommends “exempting Qualified Residential Treatment Programs (QRTPs) from classification as institutions for mental disease under Medicaid, amending the Family First Prevention Services Act to provide an exemption from QRTP standards for programs serving youth in the juvenile justice system, and significantly increasing federal investment in developing alternative placements to congregate care that can capably serve and support older youth and youth with higher levels of need.”

How We Can Stop Kids from Sleeping in Offices 

No child should sleep in an office – it’s wrong. In addition, no child should be removed from a safe, loving caregiver to access mental or behavioral health services. 

At KVC Kansas, we are accountable for how well we care for children and families. The performance of the state and its nonprofit providers is publicly available on the Kansas Department for Children and Families website, and we present our data to the legislature several times per year. However, until Kansas ensures youth with significant behavioral health needs can access treatment outside of foster care and safely reduces the number of children in foster care, it will be difficult for the system to ensure placement stability for children.  

So as states, communities, and a nation, let’s invest in child and family wellbeing and help families before crises occur. We can look to other states for examples of how they have safely reduced the number of children in foster care to rates that are far below the national average.  

Let’s be a national leader in foster care prevention by expanding mental health treatment access, concrete economic supports, and community-based services.  

With these changes, we’ll ensure families can access support. We’ll also ensure foster care is only used as a last resort when children experience abuse or neglect.

Every Child Deserves a Permanent Home and Loving Family 

At KVC, we are driven to make sure every child has a permanent home and a loving family. In fact, our core organizational value that originated with our past CEO of 35 years is continually asking ourselves: What would you want for your child? In this way, we bring empathy and the golden rule of “loving your neighbor as yourself” to our work daily, serving children in the way we would want our sons, daughters, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren served by a child and family wellbeing system. 

We are so thankful for the thousands of adults who have opened their homes to be kinship caregivers or foster families for children in need. 

But many more adults and families are needed! There are many ways you can get involved: 

• Advocate – Contact your state legislators and ask them to support increased investment in foster care prevention and mental health treatment. We must go “upstream” to strengthen families and prevent children from needing foster care. 

• Foster or Adopt – There’s a child or teen who needs someone just like YOU – and at KVC, we make sure the opportunity to foster is open to all people. You can foster a child at any stage of life, regardless of your relationship status, gender, income level or where you live. What matters most is how much you care. We have options that work in your life, right where you are – for exactly who you are. Learn about our free foster parent information sessions here. 

• Get Your Organization Involved – Are you part of a church or other faith-based community that wants to help? Is your employer or civic group looking for a way to give back to the community? We have many ways to get involved, from Holiday Hero gift donation drives to group volunteer days. Visit our Get Involved center. 

Further Reading

• PBS: High-needs foster kids sometimes have to sleep in hotels or offices. The pandemic made the problem worse 

• Newsweek: Foster Youth Are Sleeping in Jails, Offices and Hotels Thanks to Flawed Federal Reforms

• AEI: Why Foster Children Are Sleeping in Offices and What We Can Do About It 

• KVC Kansas (2019): We Can Safely Reduce the Number of Kansas Children in Foster Care by Half – Here’s How 

• Kansas Reflector: ‘It’s set up to fail’: Kansas youth justice leaders discuss state’s lack of progress 

• Kansas Department for Children and Families: Out-of-Home Services Reports

• KVC Health Systems: Addressing the Emergency Room Crisis: KVC’s Efforts to Improve Access to Mental Health Services

• KVC Kansas: Your Complete Guide to the 2024 Kansas Child Welfare System Changes