This story was updated to include comments from the most recent conversation between Kansas and USPS officials. Kansans should think twice before mailing their ballots this election, the state’s top election official said. The warning comes after Scott Schwab, the secretary of state, said the U.S. Postal Service likely won’t address problems that led to […]
Kansas State Government
Stories from The Wichita Beacon that cover issues from the Kansas state government.
Posted inElections
Kansas House Elections: Your guide to voting in Wichita and Sedgwick County
All 125 Kansas House seats are up for election this year, and Democrats are hoping to break the GOP’s veto-proof majority. Democrats need to flip two seats to break the supermajority, and voting in Wichita could make the difference. The Beacon asked candidates in the Sedgwick County election the same list of questions to see […]
Posted inKansas
One child overdosed and another cut his own neck at a Kansas foster office. What that says about the system
Paramedics had to rush a Kansas foster teen to the hospital because the 15-year-old girl was overdosing on muscle relaxants at a foster care contractor’s office. One month later, paramedics rushed back to that same Topeka office because a different foster child found glass and cut himself. “Child on (scene) cut up his arms and […]
Posted inKansas
Kansas foster care not ‘capable of making the changes,’ advocates warn
It’s hard for Kansas foster children to get adequate mental health care. And if they do, an audit of the state’s foster care system said, it may not come quickly. The report released this week concluded that caseloads run too high, children get moved to new homes too often and they still sleep in offices […]
Posted inState Government
Kansas settled a lawsuit by promising better foster care. The latest audit shows it’s failing
Kansas foster children are not getting proper mental health treatment, they’re moved between too many homes and caseworkers carry excessive workloads, a report released Monday auditing the state’s foster care system says. The court-mandated report paints a bleak picture of the Kansas foster care system — a system that is not only showing no improvement […]
Posted inEducation
How a Wichita State program could help solve Kansas’ teacher shortage
Raising five children and working as a teacher’s aide in Newton left Emily Crawford with too little time to take college classes to become a teacher. So she became an apprentice — earning a teacher’s salary ahead of schedule. All those hours tied up in the classroom helped pave her path to a college degree, […]
Posted inState Government
Johnson County opens a facility for kids in mental health crises
Pulling children out of a mental health crisis is tricky. Some have just run away from home while others are coming off a violent attack on a sibling or parent. They’re thinking impulsively, acting desperately and sometimes doing irrational things to change their situations. That can land them at the Johnson County Juvenile Intake and […]
Posted inState Government
Around 120 Kansas kids are abandoned by their families because their mental health needs are too high
An adoptive mother knew that caring for three children from the Kansas foster system meant nurturing those kids through some truly serious problems. Yet the mother dramatically underestimated what she was taking on. Particularly the danger. Two of the adopted children made shanks out of broken glass and damaged toys. They busted up the bedrooms […]
Posted inState Government
Kansas teen got handed over to the state to get him sober. Now he’s in foster care and missed months of school
A high school junior based in Salina regularly came home at night drunk. Sometimes he passed out in the front yard of his mother’s home. Other times, he’d sleep off a night of heavy drinking in the passenger’s seat of a car. The teen’s mother didn’t know what to do. She’d lost the boy’s father, […]
Posted inWichita
What Wichita-area parents need to know about riding the school bus
Parents waiting for the first time with their kids to board the school bus is a time-honored tradition, but policies vary on who can ride the bus and what it costs. Here’s what you need to know about school transportation options. Who in Kansas gets a guaranteed school bus ride? Kansas state law provides free […]