8 June 2023
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — House Bill 2024 goes into effect July 1. A part of it codifies the Foster Care Bill of Rights and requires the Secretary for Children and Families to provide written and oral notification of the Bill of Rights.
“A lot of kids in foster care rights are always violated,” Founder of Culture Creations Inc. Alexandria Ware said.
Ware grew up in the foster care system.
“Now kids can be like, well, you have to do these things per law,” Ware said. “And so they really get to hold the system accountable, their foster parents accountable, their workers accountable.”
She says most of the time, kids have no idea what their rights are.
“There was kids who would age out of care that didn’t know they qualify, they may qualify for the tuition waiver, they qualify for health insurance until they’re 26 and qualify for educational training voucher,” Ware said.
Her concern is who is going to hold those people accountable. And she says there’s a lot more that needs to get done because kids are bouncing from bed to bed nightly.
Jerrold Finney has experienced that firsthand as a foster parent for eight years.
“Chloe had 108 placements when we got her when she was nine years old,” Finney said.
He says having rights spelled out in a document will help kids navigate the system.
“They aren’t fully aware that there are benefits and then people that are available to them,” Finney said.
The Bill is named the “Representative Gail Finney Memorial Foster Care Bill of Rights” after his wife, Gail Finney.