Photo Credit: JE Dunn

Legislative Update - March 2021

Hello Legislator ,

Wishing you a happy start to Spring! Thank you for your public service to the State of Kansas and your district. Please let us know if we can help you in any way or answer any of your questions. We greatly appreciate your time and review of KVC's March 2021 Kansas Legislative Update.

Kansas Improved its Child Welfare Outcomes in 2020

Child Welfare Improved in 2020 in the State of Kansas:

• As of the end of 2020, 40.2% of Kansas children in foster care are living with approved relatives and kinship caregivers. In KVC's two catchment areas, the rate is even higher at 49.6% of children in kinship placements. When safely possible, placing children in foster care with kin is shown to be best for children's stability and well-being.
  
  

• From July 2019 to December 2020, the number of placement moves experienced by Kansas children in foster care dropped from an average of 10.1 moves per 1,000 days in care to an average of 5.2 moves per 1,000 days in care. The federal standard is 4.4. Kansas has made significant strides to return to expected stability outcomes over the last year.

KVC is encouraged by these outcomes and has worked hard with Kansas leaders to make them a reality. We look forward to continuing to work with the state and the legislature to continue to improve child welfare outcomes moving forward through 2021 and beyond.

Kansas House And Senate Committees Support Key Items For Children and Families

Maintaining and increasing funding levels for child welfare services are crucial to Kansas' future success. Increasing funding of the successful Family First Prevention Act, as well as enhancing support for youth in foster care and mobile crisis response centers for adolescents, will pay dividends moving forward.

Additionally, providing funding for children's acute services, including reestablishing a psychiatric hospital in Hays, is very important.

Lastly, improvements in the Kansas FY 2022 budget for community mental health, substance abuse services and prevention are pivotal.

KVC supports these decisions by House and Senate committees in Kansas, and are hopeful that they continue to move forward through the important appropriations and budgeting processes.

Legislator Spotlight - Rep. Troy Waymaster

Photo Credit:The Capital-Journal

This month’s legislator spotlight will shine a light on the work of Representative Troy Waymaster (R-Bunker Hill), who represents District 109 in the Kansas House.

Rep. Waymaster is in his fifth term and has served the State of Kansas in the House of Representatives since 2013. He serves as the Chairman of the House Legislative Budget Committee and the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. He prides himself as a fiscal watchdog of government dollars.
 
Rep. Waymaster is a native Kansan from Russell who graduated from Russell High School and from the University of Kansas with a Bachelors Degree in Political Science. He spent a lot of time growing up on a family farm and working with his father and uncle. Today, in addition to his legislative duties, he remains active in that same family farm in its farming operations. He spent over a decade in the banking and financial world. Rep. Waymaster has been active on various Board of Directors including the Russell Area Chamber of Commerce and the Russell Main Street Association.

Rep. Waymaster is married and has one son.

 
Thank you to Rep. Waymaster for supporting Kansas children and families, for his hard work on the Budget and Appropriations Committees and for the work he does each and every day for his constituents and the State of Kansas.
 
For more information on Rep. Waymaster click here.

Photo Credit: Kansas News Service

10 Things You Didn't Know About Social Workers

March is National Social Work Month

March is National Social Work Month and KVC is joining the National Association of Social Workers to recognize the powerful, positive impact social workers have on their clients and their communities in Kansas!

Social workers provide crucial support to children and families in need. Social work is not an easy field to work in, but the job is extremely rewarding and full of meaning.

Here are 10 things you didn’t know about social workers:

• Social workers do more than just help people
• Social workers are in it for the outcome, not the income
• Social workers do NOT remove children from their homes
• Social workers contribute at all levels of society
• Social workers provide a majority of America's mental health services
• The job is not a typical 8-hour workday
• Social workers have to make hard decisions
• Self-care is an important part of the job
• There are male social workers
• The United States needs more social workers

Learn more about each of these ten things and the incredible role social workers play in Kansas by clicking here.

If you have any questions or comments, we'd love to talk with you.

Please contact: 
- Dr. Linda Bass, President of KVC Kansas - lbbass@kvc.org or (913) 499-8100
- Bobby Eklofe, President of KVC Hospitals - beklofe@kvc.org or (913) 890-4701

Learn more at kvckansas.org or kvchospitals.org.

2021 Legislative Priorities / Past Legislative Updates

• KVC’s 2021 Legislative Priorities in Kansas

• Past Kansas Legislative Updates and Legislator Spotlights

Visit the KVC Health Systems Blog
Visit the KVC Kansas Blog
Visit the KVC Hospitals Blog