DCF Secretary to Announce Efforts to Improve Child Welfare System
Policy, procedure, training changes and new foster care contracts
TOPEKA – Since her appointment as Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) Secretary, Gina Meier-Hummel has spent the last four months carefully reviewing the child welfare system and exploring ways to improve foster care services, licensing, training, family preservation services, adoption support and more.
Although her top-to-bottom review continues, with the assistance of national experts, she is pleased to announce an exciting move forward, with new foster care contracts for Kansas’ privatized child welfare system.
The new contracts will be designed to, among other things, streamline services, promote safety and permanency, increase accountability and prioritize keeping families safely together.
As the Request for Proposal is prepared to solicit bids, the Secretary is seeking the public’s suggestions for improvement that should be included in the new contracts. A Request for Information (RFI) process begins today.
For one week, DCF will offer the public the ability to provide suggestions for the new contracts through an online submission form, available at www.dcf.ks.gov.
A public comment meeting is also planned, from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday, April 24, at the DCF Administration Building, 555 S. Kansas Ave.
Further details, along with information about recent improvements to the child welfare system, will be announced during a news conference on Monday, April 23, in Topeka.