Kansas foster children’s voices muted as court advocates take on hundreds of cases each

Kerrie Lonard, the child advocate for the state of Kansas appears at a hearing on Jan. 24, 2024 in Topeka. She testified in January 2026 to the dire problems within Kansas' guardian ad litem system, where children in foster care often have no say in court. (Photo by Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)

TOPEKA — Kansas foster children rarely interact with their court-appointed advocates, and their voices have become muted, a statewide report said.

Chief Judge Amy Harth of the state’s sixth judicial district said the challenges facing Kansas children’s court-appointed advocates are “eerily similar” to the challenges reported 25 years ago. The last time a statewide report evaluating the court-appointed advocate system was conducted was in 2001.

At the root are caseload levels much higher than the national average, inadequate training and paltry compensation, Harth said at a Thursday hearing before the House child welfare committee.

The system is not working, an advisory committee found after an 18-month review of Kansas’ guardian ad litem, or child in need of care, system. In a 2025 report, the committee decided a comprehensive shift is needed to ensure children receive high-quality legal representation.

Kansas has no universal cap on caseloads, and the majority of advocates who responded to a survey from the advisory committee handle volumes above national best practices. Those best practices recommend full-time advocates limit caseloads to 40-60 children and part-time to 20-30 children.

Twelve part-time advocates in Kansas reported handling between 125-305 cases each, the report said.

Excessive caseloads make it nearly impossible for advocates, who are attorneys, to build relationships with children and investigate each case, the report said.

Inadequate compensation for advocates exacerbates caseload issues, especially in Sedgwick and Shawnee counties, the report said.

From 2022-2024, Sedgwick County averaged 585 open cases per year and contracts with eight part-time advocates who took on more than five times the recommended 30-case limit and were paid a $44,400 annual salary, according to the report.

Shawnee County averaged 380 open cases, and to meet the county’s 30-case limit, it would have to contract with 13 part-time advocates. Instead, it contracts with five part-time advocates who are paid $50,400 annually while taking on more than six times the recommended caseload limit.

Kerrie Lonard, the state child advocate, said advocates need to see decreased caseloads and increased competency and performance expectations, “so that we’re not having the same conversation in 2050.”

Each county has the discretion to create its own rules around compensation, training and caseloads for advocates. But the report concluded that the state’s current decentralized system without significant oversight cannot fix caseload, training and competency problems.

Legislators were fiscally skeptical, questioning the practicality of increasing compensation and reducing caseloads simultaneously.

The report put forth options for system-wide change that ranged in levels of local control, including placing oversight in a central state office, creating a regional contracting system or charging local courts with managing contracts and uniform standards.

The solutions sound great, said Democratic Rep. Wanda Brownlee Paige, but the issues are funding and convincing an electorate that has been driven by a push to cut costs to centralize resources.

Budgets reflect what lawmakers care about, said Brownlee Paige, a retired teacher from Kansas City.

“Even though in this society we say we care about children, I don’t see it because the money’s not there,” she said.

Harth, the chief judge, said funding for a central system would largely come from state general fund dollars and county contributions, but Brownlee Paige worried counties like hers — Wyandotte County — wouldn’t be able to bear the weight.

“I mean, I’m dumbfounded,” said Brownlee Paige. “All that sounds good, but is it really real?”