According to the Kansas City Star, the company picked by the Kansas child welfare agency to handle family preservation services across most of the state wasn’t the most qualified for the job. We get more from Madeline Fox, of the Kansas News Service.
(AP version)
Documents Raise Questions About Kansas Child Welfare Grants
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas awarded $38 million in grants to a troubled Florida agency to provide child welfare services even though the agency earned low scores in an internal review and didn't apply for $17 million of the work, according to newly released documents. Eckerd Connects was selected last year through a grant process to provide family preservation services in the state's east, west and Wichita regions over a four-year span. In the past, child welfare funds were typically distributed through contracts that were overseen by the state Department of Administration, The Kansas City Star reports.
Eckerd Connects didn't initially apply for the work in the western region for which it was awarded $17 million. And more than 13,000 pages of records released to The Star this week by Department of Children and Families show that in the other two areas, the agency's bids and review scores were considerably lower than the agencies the review panel recommended. "This is certainly disturbing and quite frankly bizarre," said Benet Magnuson, executive director of Kansas Appleseed, a nonprofit justice center serving vulnerable Kansas residents. "This process raises a lot of red flags, and frankly doesn't make a lot of sense." The concerns were so great that days before taking office, Governor Laura Kelly requested that the child welfare grants be put on hold and asked providers not to spend any money until the controversial process was reviewed. Kelly planned to examine the grants with newly appointed DCF secretary Laura Howard. Updates about that review are expected soon. "It is vital that we determine whether these grants are in the best interest of Kansas kids and families," DCF said in a statement Wednesday.
The discovery about the grant process at DCF comes as Kelly is promising to crack down on no-bid contracts across state government. No-bid contracts proliferated under former Governor Sam Brownback's administration, and the state now has about 7,300 such contracts. Documents show the only review team recommendation that was followed was awarding a contract for the Kansas City region to Cornerstones of Care. The team also recommended Cornerstones for the east region, and St. Francis Ministries for the west and Wichita regions. But all three were awarded to Eckerd, even though the review team gave it a score of 37 on a 100-point scale, compared to 97 for Cornerstones and 88 for St. Francis.
Eckerd came under fire last year in Florida after it was discovered that foster children in the Tampa Bay area were sleeping in offices, a problem that has plagued the Kansas system for about two years. An Eckerd spokeswoman on Wednesday referred questions about the grant process to DCF. "The procurement of family preservation services in Kansas was administered by the Department of Children and Families and as such they are best suited to answer questions as it pertains to their processes and procedures," said Ellen Standlee, operations director for Eckerd programs in Kansas.
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