KC Star: [Title not included due to content]

9/17/18
Content warning: The article below concerns rape.

"A Johnson County teenager has been charged with raping a 13-year-old at an Olathe child welfare office where children have been kept overnight because of a shortage of foster care beds...The incident was reported May 5 at the KVC Behavioral Healthcare office, according to police records obtained by The Star.

[...]

The youths were at the office that evening awaiting placement in available foster homes or facilities, said Taylor Forrest, a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department for Children and Families, which oversees KVC’s foster care contract with the state. One staff member was supervising the two teens and another youth, Forrest said.

[...]

Lawmakers learned last fall that because of a shortage of foster homes and residential beds, contractors had resorted to having kids — many of them with extreme needs and hard to place — sleep in offices overnight when needed.

Lori Burns-Bucklew, a Kansas City attorney and accredited child welfare law specialist, said she has worried for months about the well being of those kids. 'They talked about those kids being difficult to place,' she said. But 'you’re not going to improve behavior by putting them in an unstable living place. Nobody deserves that.'"  

Read More: KC Star