TOPEKA ? A Kansas legislative task force on child welfare is meeting this week after several legislators raised concerns about how state policies are affecting families.

The Child Welfare Task Force is scheduled to meet Tuesday at the Statehouse. Its agenda includes a look at the court system’s role in protecting abused and neglected children.

The task force’s meeting comes after a joint legislative budget committee reviewed data from showing that 44,000 people have become ineligible for cash assistance under policies that include work requirements for able-bodied adults.

Meanwhile, the number of children in foster care has grown in recent years, and critics of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback are linking the two trends. The Department for Children and Families contends the social services policies help make welfare recipients self-sufficient.