Court documents show Kansas agencies knew not to place 18-year-old with children
WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - A court settlement will require the Kansas foster care system to pay $1.25 million after a child sleeping in a contractor’s office was sexually assaulted in 2018.
The foster child spent a month sleeping in the office of foster care contractor KVC Health Systems before the assault. The child, who was 13 years old at the time, had been removed from their home as the state investigated allegations of child abuse.
An 18-year-old with a history of sexually abusing others was put at the same office. KVC was understaffed and didn’t have enough people to watch all of the children at once, and the sexual assault happened while the 13-year-old was left unattended.
KVC and the Department for Children and Families knew of the 18-year-old’s past and were warned by family not to put the juvenile with other children, according to court documents.
The assault happened in 2018 and a separate lawsuit settlement in 2020 was supposed to end the practice of putting children in offices, but it hasn’t stopped. One higher needs child spent a month in state offices because there was no home to put them in.
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