WICHITA – A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just after 11:30 p.m. on Friday in Sedgwick County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2008 Lexus driven by Bianca G. Dasilva, 27, Andover, was eastbound on Kansas 96 on the ramp to go eastbound on U.S.54.

The vehicle left the roadway to the right, struck an embankment, a fence and a manmade hill.

Dasilva was transported to Wesley Medical Center.

She was properly restrained at the time of the accident according to the KHP.

By Dave Ranney

Less than three weeks after signing a bill that’s expected to drop 700 youngsters from the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, Gov. Sam Brownback this week urged more Kansas families to open their homes to abused and neglected children.

“Being a foster parent is one of the most selfless things a person can do,” Brownback said in a prepared statement. “We have too many children coming from homes where their parents cannot or choose not to care for their sons and daughters. We are fortunate to have foster parents ready and willing to provide them a safe and loving home.”

In recent months, the number of children in the state’s foster care system has reached all-time highs. Brownback was scheduled to address a Kansas Department for Children and Families-coordinated celebration of National Foster Care Month on Tuesday at the Statehouse but was unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict.

Lifetime TANF limit

The governor last month garnered national attention by signing into law a bill that forbids TANF recipients — mothers and young children, mostly — from spending their cash assistance on alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, pornography, lingerie, tattoos, body piercings, fortune-telling sessions or cruises.

Included in Senate Substitute for House Bill 2258 was a provision that lowered low-income families’ lifetime eligibility for TANF from 48 months to 36 months, effective July 1. DCF officials have said they expect to drop approximately 350 “cases” from the program’s rolls on July 1 because they have been on TANF for 36 to 47 months. These cases, according to DCF estimates, are likely to include 350 parents and 700 children.

After July, the department expects an additional 40 cases — 40 adults, 80 children — to reach the 36-month threshold each month. They, too, will be dropped from the rolls.

It’s not yet known how many children in these families will end up in foster care. But Jake Howard, a former DCF worker who’s now in charge of the East Central Kansas Community Action program’s food distribution efforts, said it’s safe to assume that more — rather than fewer — children will enter the system.

“The people who are eligible for TANF are the poorest of the poor,” Howard said. “It’s already really difficult for these families to maintain any kind of housing. If they lose (TANF), there’s nowhere else for them to go; they have no one else to fall back on.

“At some point there’s going be a correlation between the level of poverty that these families are living in and the number of kids going into foster care,” he said. “I don’t know what it’ll be, but it’ll be there. I don’t see how it can’t be.”

No ‘direct correlation’

Theresa Freed, a DCF spokesperson, disagreed. The TANF and foster care systems, she said, are independent of one another. TANF eligibility is tied to family income, while foster care relates to children living in unsafe environments. “We don’t see that there’s a direct correlation,” she said.

Still, she said, DCF is “working on a communications plan” for alerting the state’s food pantries and homeless programs to the likelihood of more families turning to them for assistance. The increased numbers of children in foster care, Freed said, appear to be driven by fewer children exiting the system rather than more children entering state custody.

“The removal rate has been steady,” she said. “It’s the discharges that aren’t increasing.” Freed said the “most prevalent” reasons for children being removed from their homes are physical abuse and parental drug use. According to DCF reports, Kansas had a record-setting 6,159 foster children living in out-of-home placements one year ago. Since then, the record has been broken four times, peaking in March 2015 with 6,337 children in out-of-home placements.

The numbers for April are not yet available. The reports show that in March 2015 there were 318 more children in foster care there were in March 2014, 679 more than in March 2013 and 1,218 more than in March 2012. Approximately one-third of these placements involve children living with relatives.

The numbers of licensed foster homes have not kept pace. Today, the state has access to about 300 more licensed foster home settings than it did three years ago.

“This is shaping up to be a nightmare for all the social service providers because this (new law) is going to put these families under so much stress — even more than they’re going through now,” said Wendy Flickenger, who runs Family Advisory Council, a Hutchinson-based program that counsels parents whose children are in foster care.

“Because the parents are going to have to do whatever they can to make money when they can’t afford child care, there’ll be more complaints about children being left unsupervised,” she said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt you’re going to see more kids in foster care.”

Janette Meis, state director for the Kansas Court Appointed Special Advocates Association, said she, too, expects the state’s foster care numbers to continue inching upward. “I’m sure there are a lot of factors at play,” she said. “But the biggest concern is that the poverty level for these families is high, and they really don’t have access to the level of services they need because there just isn’t enough money in the system. And that’s unfortunate, because the state is not equipped to raise children.”

Different systems

DCF records show that over the last five years, the number of Kansas families enrolled in TANF has fallen by almost 60 percent, from 14,200 in March 2010 to 6,200 in March 2015.

Brownback and DCF Secretary Phyllis Gilmore have characterized the reduction as proof that the administration’s efforts to strengthen families by helping parents find living-wage jobs and lessen their dependence on government-funded programs are working. Freed said DCF is unable to track the numbers of children whose families once were on TANF and are now in foster care. “Those are two different systems,” she said, “so we can’t compare them.”

In addition to Gilmore, those speaking at Tuesday’s ceremony were Gene and Joy Rothfuss, a foster parent couple who’ve care for approximately 60 children since 2011, and Jaime Schwandt, a former foster child from Kensington.

Schwandt, who’s now a captain in the U.S. Army Reserves, has written a book, “Succeeding as a Foster Child: A Roadmap to Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Success.” “Foster care saved my life, in little Kensington, Kansas,” he said. “I can’t thank all the people of that town enough. If it wasn’t for foster care, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

Foster care in Kansas should be a model to the nation.” Schwandt, his wife and infant daughter now live in Cheney.

Dave Ranney is a reporter for Heartland Health Monitor, a news collaboration focusing on health issues and their impact in Missouri and Kansas.

DAVE COLLINS, Associated Press

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A powerful and potentially harmful chemical compound has been found in synthetic marijuana tested in several states that saw a huge spike in the number of people hospitalized because of the drug last month.

Recent tests have turned up a synthetic cannabinoid that mimics the effects of the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. Officials say it’s one of several cannabinoids that can cause severe health problems including seizures, elevated blood pressure and death.

Dr. Steven Marcus of the New Jersey Poison Information and Education System has been monitoring the recent hospitalizations spike. He tells The Associated Press that the same compound has been found recently in synthetic marijuana seized in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other states.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Court of Appeals has sworn in Kathryn Gardner as its newest judge.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports Gardner was sworn in Friday in the Supreme Court courtroom in the Kansas Judicial Center in Topeka.

Gov. Sam Brownback nominated Gardner in January and she was confirmed by the Kansas Senate in March.

Gardner served as the law clerk for U.S. District Judge Sam Crow since 2000 after spending 12 years as a practicing lawyer in Wichita and two years as an assistant state attorney general.

She disclosed in documents provided to the Senate that she taught and studied at seminars organized by the conservative law group Alliance Defending Freedom. She also is a member of the Christian Legal Society.

HOUSTON (AP) — Oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. says the number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. declined by 11 this week to 894.

Houston-based Baker Hughes said Friday that 668 rigs were seeking oil and 221 explored for natural gas. Five were listed as miscellaneous. A year ago, with oil prices nearly double the current price, 1,855 rigs were active.

Among major oil- and gas-producing states, Oklahoma lost six rigs, Louisiana was down three, New Mexico declined by two and Arkansas, California, Kansas, Ohio, Texas, Utah and West Virginia were off one each.

Colorado gained two rigs and North Dakota increased by one. Alaska, Pennsylvania and Wyoming were unchanged.

The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981 and bottomed at 488 in 1999.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — An attorney for the state has responded to legal attacks on a new Kansas school funding law by saying in court that the state constitution doesn’t require the best system or a perfect one.

Arthur Chalmers made the remark Friday at the end of a two-day hearing in Shawnee County District Court. A three-judge panel is considering a request from four school districts to block the new that took effect in April.

Hutchinson Superintendent Shelly Kiblinger testified that the new school funding law forced her district into staff cuts.

The law trimmed aid during the current school year by $54 million and scrapped a per-student funding formula in favor of predictable “block grants.”

Chalmers noted that state aid still is higher than during the 2013-14 school year.

WICHITA – A Kansas woman was injured in an accident just before 12:30 p.m. on Friday in Sedgwick County.

The Kansas Highway reported a 2002 Volkswagen Jetta driven by Amy Badiaa Aoun, 26, Wichita, was southbound on Interstate 235 and took the eastbound exit for Kellogg.

The driver misjudged the exit ramp and hit the crash barrel.

Aoun was transported to St. Francis Medical Center.

The KHP reported she was properly restrained at the time of the accident.