| Agency Name: | Kansas Department of Children and Families |
| Type: | Department |
| Seal: | Seal of Kansas.svg |
| Formed: | 1973 |
| Preceding1: | Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services |
| Jurisdiction: | State of Kansas |
| Headquarters: | 555 S. Kansas Avenue Topeka, Kansas 66603 |
| Employees: | 2,500 [1] |
| Budget: | $684 million [2] |
| Chief1 Name: | Laura Howard[3] |
| Chief1 Position: | Secretary of Children and Families |
The Kansas Department for Children and Families (formerly the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services) is a state agency in Kansas, responsible for the delivery of social services to those in need of them.[4]
The agency was founded in 1973, and it is currently headed by Laura Howard.
The 1859 Wyandotte Constitution mandated that the state create and support institutions for “the benefit of the insane, blind, deaf and dumb, and such other benevolent institutions as the public good may require.”[5] As a result, the Kansas Insane Asylum was established in 1866 in Osawatomie. Due to overcrowding, an additional asylum was approved by Governor Osborn; the Topeka State Hospital opened in 1879. Another asylum was opened in 1881, the State Asylum for Idiotic and Imbecile Youth in Lawrence which was moved to Winfield in 1887. It was renamed the State Home for the Feeble-Minded in 1909 and then renamed again to the State Training School in 1920. In 1903 the legislation to create the State Hospital for Epileptics in Parsons passed with the hospital being renamed the Parsons State Training School in 1953. The Larned State Hospital opened in 1914 which took on additional responsibilities with the opening of the State Security Hospital in 1939. In 1960 the Kansas Neurological Institute opened in Topeka and tuberculosis hospitals where opened in Norton in 1914 and Chanute in 1963. And lastly, the Rainbow Mental Health Facility was established in Osawatomie in 1973.[6]
Prior to Executive Reorganization Order No. 1, all of these hospitals, as well as all social service programs where overseen by counties with very little state oversight. The only exception being state social security which, due to the 1937 Kansas Welfare Act had a state board oversee how to most efficiently spread federal funding. By 1949 this board became the state board for social welfare, however counties retained primary administrative control over welfare.
The agency was first established in 1973 from then-Governor Docking's Executive Reorganization Order No. 1, which created the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services.[7] Governor Docking then appointed Dr. Robert Harder as the first secretary of the agency. In that same year, legislation was passed to transfer all social welfare programs from the various counties to the new agency. The time it took to transfer the programs to the new umbrella agency was about nine months.
| No. | Name | Governor(s) | Term | Party | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Robert Harder | Robert Docking Robert Bennett John Carlin | 1973-1987 | Democrat | Received a doctorate in Theology, state representative, longest-serving cabinet secretary in Kansas history | [8] |
| 2. | Winston Barton | Mike Hayden | 1987-1990 | Previously worked for the Health Care Finance Administration | [9] | |
| 3. | Dennis Taylor | Mike Hayden | 1990-1991 | [10] | ||
| - | Robert Harder | Joan Finney | 1991-1991 | Democrat | Dr Harder briefly returned as interim Secretary | |
| 4. | Donna Whiteman | Joan Finney | 1991-1995 | |||
| 5. | Rochelle Chronister | Bill Graves | 1995-1999 | Republican | Former Chairwoman of the Kansas Republican Party | [11] |
| 6. | Janet Schalansky | Bill Graves Kathleen Sebelius | 1999-2004 | |||
| 7. | Gary Daniels | Kathleen Sebelius | 2004-2006 | [12] | ||
| 8. | Don Jordan | Kathleen Sebelius Mark Parkinson | 2006-2011 | |||
| 9. | Rob Siedlecki | Sam Brownback | 2011-2011 | Former chief of staff in the Florida Department of Health | [13] | |
| 10. | Phyllis Gilmore | Sam Brownback | 2011-2017 | Republican | Targeted in an administrative shakeup | |
| 11. | Gina Meier-Hummel | Sam Brownback Jeff Colyer | 2017-2019 | Executive Director of various charitable organizations | ||
| 12. | Laura Howard | Laura Kelly | 2019-Present | Originally interim Secretary for four months. | ||