TOPEKA — Kansas Supreme Court Justice Melissa Standridge on Tuesday announced plans for a two-day summit next year to brainstorm innovative solutions for problems surrounding child welfare in Kansas.
Standridge said the summit would be a collaboration among the three branches of government, the legal community, child welfare partners and experts, and families and children with lived experience within the foster care system.
…
Masterson said he hoped to set aside the dynamics of the 2024 election year and find bipartisan solutions.
The Andover Republican made Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s failure to fix the foster care system a talking point during last year’s gubernatorial campaign. But on Tuesday, he blamed “the media” for using foster care “as a political football.”
“The tragedy we have is these things become politically engaged,” Masterson said. “It really is a tragedy, because these kids, they don’t care if you’re Republican or Democrat, or if your title is senator, governor, chief, it doesn’t matter. They need help. That’s where the focus needs to be.”