Mother of dead toddler blames foster care system

Eleven days before a 12-year-old foster child was taken to the Lawrence Memorial Hospital emergency room, Tonya Jones’ 19-month-old son, Dominic Matz, died while in the care of a Lawrence-area foster family.

Though no one accused the foster family of intentional wrongdoing, Jones claimed her medically fragile son still would be alive if he had not been taken from her.

Jones, as did the mother of the 12-year-old, questioned the foster care system’s ability to keep children safe.

Currently, Kansas legislators are considering a bill to create a panel to investigate all deaths and serious injuries to children in state custody. The proposed panel would have the authority to decide which, if any, records would be made public.

Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services records show that less than 3 percent of the 4,200 children in state’s privatized foster care system are mistreated while in state custody.

In child welfare circles, 3 percent is not an alarming figure.

“Compared to what’s going on in other states, my sense is that kids in foster care in Kansas are generally pretty safe,” said Gary Brunk, executive director at Kansas Action for Children, a Topeka-based advocacy group.

“But, still, what happened in this instance raises questions about the investigation process and the outcome of those processes,” Brunk said. “The goal now should be to learn from this.”