Kansas Foster Kids Spent 870 Nights With No Placement in 2025, Monitor Finds

Topeka, Kan. — Kansas foster children spent 870 nights without a placement in 2025 — nearly triple the year before — according to the court-appointed neutral monitoring the state’s foster care settlement. The new annual report on the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) found the number of children the state took into custody and then had nowhere to put rose 36%, and the agency again missed most of the outcomes it promised a federal court it would meet.

The Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), the neutral third party in the McIntyre v. Howard class action settlement, released its fifth annual report in September, covering the state’s 2025 performance.

Kansas DCF ‘Failure to Place’: 870 Nights, Mostly in Sedgwick County

The report tracks what Kansas calls “failure to place” — nights when a child in state custody has no placement at all. The numbers moved sharply in the wrong direction:

• 2025: 136 children, 348 episodes, 870 nights without placement.
• 2024: 100 children, 216 episodes, 316 nights.
• Children affected rose 36%, episodes rose 61%, and nights without placement rose 175%.

Where do those children sleep? The report says children without a placement “typically sleep in CMP offices or unlicensed drop-in centers” — meaning the offices of the private case management providers Kansas pays to run foster care.

The problem is concentrated. About 94% of failure-to-place incidents occurred in Area 7, Sedgwick County, according to WIBW’s summary of the report. Sedgwick County accounts for about 28% of the children in Kansas foster care.

Kids Moved Night to Night

Even children who had somewhere to go often did not stay. In 2025, 665 children experienced 1,391 night-to-night placements, and 1,155 children experienced 2,916 short-term placements. Those counts fell from 2024 — 824 children and 2,006 night-to-night placements, and 1,282 children and 3,577 short-term placements — but the settlement outcome was still not met.

Overall placement stability also fell short. Kansas recorded 6.75 placement moves per 1,000 days in care against a target of 4.44, and 84% of children had one or fewer moves in 12 months against a 90% target. Every one of those moves is a new bed, new adults, often a new school — for children the state has already separated from their parents.

Mental Health Needs Unmet After Removal

The report found that “almost two-thirds (63%) of children with an identified mental health need received appropriate services,” down from 66% in 2024 and far below the 90% target. In 13% of cases with an identified need, children faced a delay or no services because of placement instability — up from 11% the year before.

Put plainly: Kansas removes children, screens them, identifies the trauma — and then a third of them do not get the help the screening said they needed. The state met its target for initial mental health and trauma screens (96%), but a screen is not care.

DCF Claims Progress; Families Pay the Price

DCF pointed to the four commitments it has met and exited, including placement stability at year-end and crisis intervention services. Secretary Laura Howard told WIBW:

We have remained focused and accountable in delivering on the commitments outlined in the settlement agreement

Kansas DCF Secretary Laura Howard, via WIBW

On Sedgwick County, Howard said “there are no easy fixes,” according to WIBW. The Kansas Reflector’s headline summed up the report differently: Kansas fails to meet housing and mental health needs of vulnerable children in foster care.

For FAN, the takeaway is not that Kansas needs a bigger system. It is that the system Kansas already runs takes custody of children it cannot house, moves them night to night, and leaves a third of those with mental health needs without proper care. Every child sleeping in a contractor’s office was removed from somebody — a parent, a grandparent, a relative. The report raises a question the state rarely answers: how many of these children could have stayed safely with family if the help had gone to the home instead of the placement?

Key facts

• Agency: Kansas Department for Children and Families
• Report: CSSP neutral’s fifth annual McIntyre v. Howard progress report, covering 2025
• Failure to place: 136 children, 348 episodes, 870 nights in 2025 (up from 316 nights)
• Location: about 94% of incidents in Sedgwick County (Area 7)
• Mental health: 63% of children with identified needs received appropriate services vs. 90% target
• Placement moves: 6.75 per 1,000 days vs. 4.44 target

Sources

• Center for the Study of Social Policy — Neutral’s Annual McIntyre v. Howard Progress Report (2025 performance) (2026-09-22)
• WIBW — Report outlines, updates DCF’s latest commitments to reform child welfare system (2026-09-22)
• Kansas Reflector — Report: Kansas fails to meet housing, mental health needs of vulnerable children in foster care (2026-09-22)

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