photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas Statehouse in Topeka, February 2014.

Topeka ? A bill that would expand public access to records about children who die from abuse or neglect, as well as audio and video recordings of fatal shootings by law enforcement officers, is now on its way to Gov. Jeff Colyer.

The Kansas Senate on Tuesday gave its final approval to a bill dealing with the Kansas Open Records Act that contains both of those provisions.

“Once again, House Substitute for Senate Bill 336 is just putting more sunshine on the state of Kansas,” Sen. Molly Baumgardner, R-Louisburg, said during a speech on the floor of the Senate.

Pressure on lawmakers to allow more public access to records of children who die from abuse or neglect has been building in recent years in the wake of several high-profile cases of children who died, either while they were in the custody of the state foster care program, or while they were not in state custody, even though reports of suspected abuse and neglect had previously been filed with the Department for Children and Families.

Under the bill, in cases involving a child’s death from abuse or neglect, DCF would be required, upon request, to release within seven days information about the age and sex of the child, the date of the fatality, a summary of any previous reports the agency had received about the child, and a list of any services the agency had recommended.

Similar provisions would apply to children who die while in custody of the state foster care system, regardless of the cause of death.

Colyer issued a statement expressing his support for the measure.

“I want to thank the Legislature for supporting this much-needed measure that will add another layer of transparency to State government,” he said in a statement emailed to news outlets. “Kansans should quickly have access to this information following these unthinkable tragedies.”

The same bill also contains language that had been considered in separate legislation giving attorneys and heirs of people who are killed by law enforcement officers access to audio and video recordings of those incidents that are captured on police body or dashboard cameras.

That provision came largely in response to the shooting by Topeka police officers in September 2017 of 30-year-old Dominique White.

Relatives of White told lawmakers during committee hearings they had to hire their own attorney and fight for months to gain access to the video from that incident.

That shooting was investigated by the Lawrence Police Department. The Shawnee County District Attorney’s office later declined to file charges against the two officers involved in the shooting.

Under current law, anyone who is an “heir at law” to a person killed in such an incident may request to view such video. But the law does not specify how long a law enforcement agency can wait before honoring such a request.

The bill would require disclosure to those heirs within 20 days after a request is made. It would also add an attorney for the heir at law to the list of people authorized to make the request.