2024 Kansas Child Welfare Summit

About the summit

The 2024 Child Welfare Summit was a call to state and local leaders and child welfare justice partners to assemble for the purpose of working together to create lasting improvement in child welfare.

Child Welfare Summit agenda
Child Welfare Summit flyer
Child Welfare Summit photographs
2024 Child Welfare Summit: 700+ members attend to better Kansas child welfare system

Justice Melissa Standridge previewed the summit in an article published in the Kansas Bar Journal, which is shared here with the Kansas Bar Association's permission: Fostering Hope in Child Welfare: Working Together to Create Lasting Improvements for Children and Families in Kansas.
 
The summit featured presenters with expert knowledge who focused on practical steps child welfare partners can take to improve the current permanency process and empower Kansas families, youth, and young adults involved in state custody. It also featured voices with lived expertise with the child welfare system. 
 
The summit’s success was due to the wholehearted participation by people committed to working together toward this shared goal. 
 

Who attended

The summit was open to anyone invested in child welfare. Judicial districts assembled local teams to represent Kansas communities. Team members represented various child welfare roles, including:

• child in need of care judges

• guardians ad litem

• parent attorneys

• prosecutors

• Department for Children and Families staff

• contracted case management providers (Cornerstones of Care, KVC, St. Francis, and TFI)

• Court Appointed Special Advocates staff and volunteers

• citizen review board staff and volunteers

• law enforcement

• legislators

• tribes

• Department on Aging and Disability Services
   

When and where

Agenda
Tools, Presentations, and Resources

Day 1
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday
April 15

Day 2
8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Tuesday
April 16

Day 2: Legal ethics sessions
2 to 2:50 p.m.
3:05 to 3:55 p.m.
Tuesday
April 16
 

Questions

Trial Court Services
tcs@kscourts.org
785-296-2256
 

Summit organizers

Organizers included the three branches of state government with representation from the following: 

• Kansas judicial branch

• Kansas legislative branch

• Kansas Department for Children and Families and their grantees

• Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services

• Court Appointed Special Advocates

• Kansas State Department of Education