Many children in foster care are not victims of abuse or neglect.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius recently announced that the child abuse and neglect hot line was being brought “in-house” starting Aug. 19. This is good news for children who are victims of abuse or neglect. But what if the “house” is full? That is, what if there are not enough foster homes to provide a safe home for these children because the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services uses so many of these homes for children who are not victims of abuse or neglect?

SRS data show that 45 percent of children placed into foster care during the first six months of this state fiscal year were not victims of abuse or neglect. How does this happen? Child welfare is an important public endeavor that deserves our concern and understanding but is very complicated. As someone who has devoted 25 years to studying public child welfare, I would like to try to explain two aspects of the current situation.

First, why the change in the abuse and neglect hot line news? Our response to child abuse and neglect starts when someone reports what they believe to be abuse or neglect and SRS investigates. Kansas did have an abuse and neglect hot line for many years. However, last February the status of the hot line was changed due to the state fiscal crisis. It was turned over to a group that provides information to people who call for many different reasons.

But taking child abuse reports is more complicated than it first appears and requires specially trained staff answering the phone. Not to get technical, child abuse and neglect are defined by state law, and not all situations that people report should be investigated by the state. For example, some people harass others by repeatedly reporting suspected abuse or neglect. Once it is determined that someone is using the hot line to harass another person, it is a waste of precious resources to investigate the situation. This is just one of many situations where it takes considerable expertise to determine if a call is, in fact, a child abuse or neglect situation under state law.

Second, why are so many children who are not abused or neglected entering foster care? Kansas law specifies a judge can award SRS custody of a “child in need of care,” who can then be placed into foster care. The judge also exerts considerable influence over where the child is to be placed.

One key to understanding this situation is the legal definition of a child in need of care. In Kansas, such a child is defined by state statute as a person less than 18 years of age who has been physically, mentally or emotionally abused or neglected or sexually abused. But this is just one of 12 parts of the definition. Our Legislature has also seen fit to include such situations as truancy, a child being willfully and voluntarily absent from the home without the consent of a parent or other custodian, or a child residing in a home where another child has been abused or neglected. These are not clearly situations were the child is a victim of abuse or neglect.

Don’t all of these children need help? Perhaps, but most experts would agree that what a victim of child abuse needs to be protected is very different from that of a child who is truant or a runaway. In this complex world of vulnerable children, some children are truant or run away from home because of abuse or neglect. However, some of these children are mentally ill or have other problems totally unrelated to child abuse or neglect.

Is it reasonable to expect our child welfare system to solve the child and family problems of every child that we as a community worry about? Some experts argue that it is so difficult to protect children who are victims of abuse or neglect and assure them a safe and permanent home that we, the public, should expect our public child welfare agencies to achieve this single goal.

Then there is the initial question of having sufficient foster homes. If half of the foster homes in Kansas are taken by children who are not abused or neglected, will there be sufficient homes to protect children who need a safe family? Foster families provide a valuable service to our community and I for one want to preserve this resource for children who need the safety they provide.

— John Poertner, a retired Lawrence resident, has studied child welfare for 25 years and served on the faculty of Kansas University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.