$1.25 Million Settlement for Foster Child Assaulted While Unsupervised in Kansas Contractor's Office
After trial: The settlement was approved by the court on June 30, 2022, and no appeal was found. The sources describe the payment as owed by the state of Kansas.
Won by The Popham Law Firm.
A 13-year-old girl in Kansas foster care was sexually assaulted in 2018 while left unattended in the office of state contractor KVC Kansas, where an 18-year-old with a known history of sexually abusing others had also been placed. The Kansas Department for Children and Families and KVC each pointed at the other. A Wyandotte County District Court settlement requires the Kansas foster care system to pay $1.25 million.
What happened
In 2018, a 13-year-old girl was removed from her home while Kansas investigated allegations of abuse that were later unsubstantiated. With no foster home available, she spent about a month sleeping in an office run by KVC Kansas, the private contractor that manages foster care for the state. During that month she was sexually assaulted.
The office was also housing an 18-year-old with a documented history of sexually abusing other people. Court documents showed that KVC and the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) both knew that history. Relatives of the 18-year-old had warned them not to place him with other children. He was placed in the same office anyway.
The assault happened when the girl was left unattended. KVC was understaffed and did not have enough people to watch every child at once. Her case was brought in Wyandotte County District Court under her initials, as is standard when a minor is the victim of a sexual assault.
The defendants did not agree on who was responsible. KVC said DCF had been unprepared to place children and had left it without workable options. DCF said the failures were KVC's operational ones. Mark Schloegel, a partner at The Popham Law Firm, represented the girl. Her attorneys argued that DCF and KVC were both responsible for the assault, calling it 'a failure of the most basic legal responsibility under federal and state laws and rules.'
In June 2022 the court approved a settlement under which the Kansas foster care system will pay $1.25 million. Schloegel said he hoped the financial consequence would change how the agencies behave. 'If you can hit them in the pocketbook, they're going to change their behaviors,' he told KCUR.
The case came after an earlier 2020 lawsuit settlement that was supposed to end the practice of housing foster children in offices. Reporting at the time of the 2022 approval said the practice had continued, and that another child with higher needs had since spent a month in state offices because no homes were available.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.KCUR, 'Kansas foster care will pay $1.25 million after a child was sexually assaulted in a contractor's office', June 30, 2022·Archived copy
- 2.Kansas Public Radio, 'Kansas Will Pay $1.25 Million After Child in Foster Care Was Sexually Assaulted', June 30, 2022·Archived copy
- 3.KWCH, 'Court documents show Kansas agencies knew not to place 18-year-old with children', July 2, 2022·Archived copy
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