PEOPLE, POLICY & POLITICS | 13
Natalie Zarate recalls being slammed to the ground by five people while living at a group home in Newton. [EVERT NELSON/THE CAPITALJOURNAL]
other foster kids know they aren’t alone and to add to the voices calling for change. “Sharing my story is going to touch the most people,” Zarate said. “They don’t really understand what happens behind closed doors.” Lawmakers have intensified their interest in addressing the failings of a child welfare system in crisis, and many are frustrated that Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration hasn’t shown more progress in her first year in office. Kelly said there is no one better suited to the task than Laura Howard, her secretary for the Department for Children and Families, and that a funding boost authorized by the Legislature in 2019 will make a difference. “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 their end of the bargain.” An investigation by The Topeka Capital-Journal and KCUR highlighted the severe instability in the foster care system. Kansas added thousands of children to the system as the Legislature adopted policies through the Hope Act that reduced aid to struggling families. The result was a spike in runaways. At any time, up to 80 children are missing from state custody. Children on the street are vulnerable to human trafficking, and the 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 prostitutionrelated crimes. Zeferjohn asked Kelly for a pardon, and child advocates have proposed legislation that would offer a path for victims of human trafficking to clear their criminal record. It remains unclear whether the Legislature will show an appetite for restoring food assistance to lowincome families or other provisions of the Hope Act. “We know there’s a direct correlation between that and the number of kids in our welfare system,” Kelly said, “because we’re already talking about some pretty vulnerable families. You