By MADELINE FOX

The number of children in foster care in Kansas went down in May and June, the first such two-month drop in more than a year.

The Department for Children and Families reported 7,588 children in its custody at the end of June. Though the number of kids in care has dipped several times in the last year, it usually bumps back up. This is the first time DCF has had a two-month drop since December 2016.

University of Kansas economist Donna Ginther said that foster care numbers are headed in the right direction, that but it’s too early to tell if that indicates real change in Kansas child welfare.

“The fact that they’re removing fewer kids two months in a row is a good thing,” she said. “I don’t think it’s a trend yet.”

Ginther, who’s been leading a study examining the effect of Kansas welfare policies on foster care numbers, said she’d look for six months or more of consistent drops to indicate a turnaround at the agency — though she said DCF’s recent leadership change and the increased scrutiny from lawmakers could be making a dent in the state’s skyrocketing child welfare caseload.

Agency officials take a more optimistic view.

“We have been working diligently to change the landscape of child welfare in Kansas,” DCF spokeswoman Taylor Forrest said in an email.

Forrest said DCF credits the drop to a renewed focus on getting kids to permanency — usually reintegration with their families, adoption by another family, or, if they’re older, a transition to independent living — and opening up some DCF positions to people who aren’t licensed as social workers.

Casting a wider net for people to fill open positions “has allowed staff to spend more time focusing on prevention, keeping youth in their homes when safely possible,” she said.

The number of kids in DCF custody hit 7,048 in March 2017, and hasn’t dropped below 7,000 since.

DCF’s two contractors, St. Francis Community Services and KVC Kansas, have also been working to push down other numbers that indicate the system is overloaded. In September 2017, lawmakers were horrified to learn children in custody were spending the night in the contractors’ offices because beds couldn’t be found.

After hitting a high of 85 children sleeping in offices in April, the two contractors have driven that number down to almost zero. KVC, which handles the eastern half of the state, hasn’t had any children stay overnight in offices since May. St. Francis, in the west, kept the number of overnight stays in the single digits in June and July.

Children end up in offices overnight when there aren’t enough homes for those who are hard to place — often kids who need psychiatric help, children with behavioral issues, or older children.

Both contractors have been actively recruiting foster parents and opening up new group homes for kids needing round-the-clock supervision as they cope with the psychological symptoms of trauma.

Additionally, 85 children in DCF custody are missing or have run away. That puts DCF right around the 2016 national average with 1 percent of the kids in its custody unaccounted for. Forrest said the number of runaways is often higher in the summer because of the warmer weather and time off school.

Madeline Fox is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @maddycfox. 

JACKSON COUNTY. — One person died in an accident just after 11:30p.m. Saturday in Jackson County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2007 Toyota Camry driven by Lyndee M. Scott, 43, Topeka, was eastbound on 158th Road two miles south of Mayetta.

The driver lost control of the vehicle. It left the roadway into the south ditch, went airborne and flipped on its top.

Scott was pronounced dead at the scene and transported to Frontier Forensics. She was not wearing a seat belt, according to the KHP.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — A second Overland Park teenager has been charged with firing a flare gun into several occupied apartments earlier this year.

18-year-old Luis Fernando Samano was charged Friday with four counts of felony aggravated arson and one misdemeanor theft charge. His bond was set at $500,000.

Police say flares were fired into four apartments Overland Park in April.

All four apartments were occupied at the time, but no one was injured. One fire ignited but it was quickly put out by firefighters.

A 17-year-old was charged in June with four aggravated arson counts in the court’s juvenile division.

Samano’s first court appearance is scheduled for Monday.

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — A man who fled from a Kansas prison and through Missouri has been given an additional 10-plus years in prison by a Kansas court.

Allen Hurst is already serving 20 years in Missouri for the 2013 escape, as well as a term for burglary and theft in Kansas. His new sentence of 130 months in Leavenworth County will run consecutive to his other sentences.

Hurst and two other men escaped from the Lansing prison on May 10, 2013. Hurst and one of the other escapees, Scott Gilbert, stole a pickup truck and led officers on a 100 mph chase on Interstate 29 and along rural highways. During the chase, Gilbert fired at officers with a shotgun.

No one was injured. Gilbert was sentenced to 128 years for the shooting and 10 years for escape.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas woman who’s representing herself in a double-homicide case says she’s missing thousands of pages and more than 100 CDs of evidence.

A status conference was held Thursday to determine scheduling the retrial of Dana Chandler. Chandler faces charges of first-degree murder in the 2002 slayings of her ex-husband, Michael Sisco, and his fiancee, Karen Harkness.

Chandler says she wants the missing evidence from the prosecution before moving forward.

The Kansas Supreme Court vacated Chandler’s 2012 conviction in April on the basis of prosecutorial misconduct by former Shawnee County Deputy District Attorney Jacqie Spradling. District Attorney Mike Kagay inherited the case, and decided in May that he would retry Chandler on the charges.

A tentative trial date has been scheduled for Oct. 1.

LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) — The University of Kansas has developed a new mandatory training program for student-athletes designed to help prevent sexual violence.

The university’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Education Center has worked with KU Athletics to launch the Gender Based Violence Prevention Seminar this fall.

“Kansas Athletics was that first group to step up and say, ‘This is important, and we recognize that and we want to be a part of it,'” said Jen Brockman, who leads the center. “They could see the application. They could see the worth and how this would improve the lives of their students.”

Brockman said many institutions just train student-athletes in sexual violence prevention for 10 or 20 minutes. The university’s training will provide evidence-based instruction over four years, giving student-athletes 45 hours of direct education on gender-based violence prevention through their time at the school.

“We like quick and easy fixes, so we think, ‘If I just tell people not to do this bad thing, then they won’t do this band thing anymore'” Brockman said. “But that’s not how changing attitudes, behaviors and beliefs works, because the messaging that our students are getting surrounding gender-based violence, they are inundated with daily.”

The program will focus on four areas over the course of its installments: individual, relationships, community and societal. The seminar is based on the four-level model for understanding violence and the potential effects of violence prevention methods.

It will take time and research to determine how effective the training is, Brockman said. But seeing the program come to fruition has been the center’s “dream” since the free-standing facility’s founding more than two years ago.

SEDGWICK COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating pair of fatal shooting incidents.

Just before 8 p.m. Friday, police responded to a shooting call in the 2200 block of north Grove in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

First responders found a 51-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the head.  He was pronounced dead at the scene.  The investigation revealed the victim was involved in a physical disturbance with an unknown suspect when the suspect shot the victim, killing him, according to Davidson.

Just after 3 a.m. Saturday, police responded to a shooting call at a residence in the 2100 block of south Palisade in Wichita, according to officer Charley Davidson.

Upon arrival, Officers located a 27-year-old male victim with a gunshot wound to the neck.  The victim was transported to an area hospital where he died from his injuries.

The investigation revealed an unknown suspect shot into the residence from the outside striking the victim. The suspect then fled the scene.  These are not believed to be a random incidents, according to police