Bauer, Laura

Laura Bauer has been at The Kansas City Star since January 2005. She arrived in Kansas City after reporting stints at the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky. and The News-Leader in Springfield, Mo.

She spent several years reporting in Kansas, developing enterprise and investigative stories about crime and child welfare. Her stories on a young Kansas boy with Down syndrome who was abused and starved by his mother and eventually rescued from an attic led to the National Headliner Award, first place for feature writing.

In 2009, Laura was one of three reporters on a 5-day series detailing Human Trafficking in the US and how the government had not done enough to help victims. That series won the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and a top prize from Investigative Reporters and Editors.

Laura and Reporter Judy L. Thomas were the lead reporters in 2017 on “Why so secret, Kansas?”, a six-part series that revealed how Kansas’ state government had become one of the least transparent and most secretive in the nation. The series led to new transparency laws and helped transform how state government operates. The project received nine national honors, including finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

In 2019, Laura and Judy teamed up for the investigative series, “Throwaway Kids,” a six-part series that examined the dismal outcomes for many children who grow up in the troubled foster care system. Several former foster children interviewed for the project grew up in the care of the state of Kansas. The series led to legislative changes in several states and prompted a call for action from attorneys and state agencies and has been used in the training of advocates across the country. It received national recognition, including a National Headliner Award for public service; an Eppy Award for best community service; and a McClatchy President’s Award for Journalism Excellence.

The pair teamed up again in 2020 for what became a lengthy series of stories on alleged abuse inside Missouri’s unlicensed boarding schools. Their reporting led to an Attorney General’s investigation and multiple charges against owners and key staffers at several schools. Ultimately, five boarding schools in southern Missouri shut down. Their coverage was awarded the Fred M. Hechinger Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting in 2022, the top prize in the Education Writers Association National Awards for Education Reporting.

Laura is married and has two sons, ages 17 and 27. Her family resides in Olathe, Kansas.