2024 Kansas Child Welfare Summit

About the summit

The 2024 Child Welfare Summit is a call to state and local leaders and child welfare justice partners to assemble for the purpose of working together to create lasting improvement in child welfare.

Child Welfare Summit agenda
Child Welfare Summit flyer
Child Welfare Summit photographs

Justice Melissa Standridge wrote about the summit in an article published in the Kansas Bar Journal, which is shared here with the Kansas Bar Association's permission: Fostering Hope in Child Welfare: Working Together to Create Lasting Improvements for Children and Families in Kansas.
 
The summit will feature presenters with expert knowledge who will focus on practical steps child welfare partners can take to improve the current permanency process and empower Kansas families, youth, and young adults involved in state custody. It will also feature voices with lived expertise with the child welfare system. 
 
The summit’s success depends on wholehearted participation by people committed to working together toward this shared goal. We will have capacity for local teams and partners to attend in person. We also have capacity for up to 1,000 people to participate virtually.
 

Who should attend

The summit is open to anyone invested in child welfare. Judicial districts are assembling local teams to represent Kansas communities. Team members will represent various child welfare roles, including:

• child in need of care judges

• guardians ad litem

• parent attorneys

• prosecutors

• Department for Children and Families staff

• contracted case management providers (Cornerstones of Care, KVC, St. Francis, and TFI)

• Court Appointed Special Advocates staff and volunteers

• citizen review board staff and volunteers

• law enforcement

• legislators

• tribes

• Department on Aging and Disability Services
   

When and where

Agenda with Zoom registration by session
Tools, Presentations, and Resources

Day 1
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday
April 15

Day 2
8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Tuesday
April 16

Day 2: Legal ethics sessions
2 to 2:50 p.m.
3:05 to 3:55 p.m.
Tuesday
April 16

Location
Townsite Avenue Ballroom
Townsite Tower, First Floor
534 Kansas Ave.
Topeka, KS 66603
 

Continuing education

Continuing education and continuing legal education units are approved for the summit. It includes 9.5 hours of continuing education plus 2 hours of legal ethics.

Continuing education credit is awarded by session. Virtual participants must participate by videoconference for the entire session and answer poll questions. You do not earn credit if you connect only by audio.
 

Questions

Trial Court Services
tcs@kscourts.org
785-296-2256
 

ADA accommodation  

Any person with a disability who requires accommodation to participate in this event should notify the judicial branch ADA coordinator as early as possible, preferably 10 working days before the meeting date:   
 
ADA Coordinator  
ADA@kscourts.org    
785-296-2256   
TTY at 711  
 

Summit organizers

Organizers include the three branches of state government with representation from the following: 

• Kansas judicial branch

• Kansas legislative branch

• Kansas Department for Children and Families and their grantees

• Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services

• Court Appointed Special Advocates

• Kansas State Department of Education