A bill designed to open state records pertaining to children who die or almost die while in foster care has passed the Kansas House and Senate.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita. “But that’s all it is: a step.”

The bill is not expected to shed light on the circumstances surrounding the death of Dominic Matz, a 19-month-old boy who died in February while in the care of a Lawrence foster family.

“It’s our understanding that if the bill is signed by the governor, its effective date will be July 1. So it wouldn’t apply to the (Matz case),” said Kyle Kessler, spokesman for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.

The bill applies only to records of children who die while in foster care or whose medical condition becomes serious or critical. It does not apply to children in the state’s juvenile justice system or those who’ve been adopted.

“We’ll have to get to those at some other time,” said Landwehr, chairwoman of the subcommittee that oversees the SRS budget.

About six children, most of them medically fragile, die in Kansas foster care each year. Since July 1997, one child has died while in the state juvenile justice system.

First proposed by Sen. David Adkins, R-Leawood, in the aftermath of the December 2002 death of 9-year-old Brian Edgar, a former foster child killed by his adoptive parents in Overland Park, the bill stalled last year after Adkins and Landwehr deadlocked about the types of records to be covered by the bill.

This year, Adkins proposed having the state’s Child Death Review Board investigate all foster-care deaths within 60 days, after which all relevant records would be made public.

Landwehr countered with a bill that would have put a committee of legislators, rather than the death review board, in charge of deciding which records would be made public.

Also, Kansas Atty. Gen. Phill Kline proposed adding to his budget so that his office could investigate each foster child’s death.

Kline proposes investigation into foster care deaths (3-1-04) Lawmakers mull changes in reviews of child deaths (2-21-04) Accusations fly in foster child’s death (2-22-04) Mother: Foster care killed son (2-18-04)

But on Friday, both chambers cast unanimous votes in favor of Adkins’ initial bill after language was added that kept adoption records confidential.

“The main concerns that came up last year were that we didn’t want to do anything to discourage natural parents from giving up a child for adoption out of fear that their records would somehow be made public, and in the (Brian Edgar) case we didn’t want potential adoptive parents to be reluctant out of fear that their records might somehow be released,” said Rep. Janice Pauls, D-Hutchinson. “Once those two things were cleared up, no one had a problem with it.”

The bill passed the House, 124-0; the Senate, 40-0.

Adkins said he regretted the bill did not address the Edgar case.

“I just wish it was a little broader,” he said. “But at this point in the session, I’m not going to complain.”

The bill gives SRS officials leeway to go to court if they think a record should not be made public. Such a motion would have to be entered within seven days of a child’s death. The court, in turn, would rule whether the records in question would be released.

“But the legal assumption will be that they should be released,” Adkins said. “That’s the opposite of the way it is now — that it should be kept confidential.”