KansasHB 25572025–2026 Regular SessionHouse

Enacting and joining with other states in the interstate compact for the placement of children and authorizing the administration and implementation of the compact.

Sponsored By: Committee on Child Welfare and Foster Care

Signed by Governor

senate committee on public health and welfarehouse committee on child welfare and foster care

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

10 provisions identified: 3 benefits, 2 costs, 5 mixed.

Agencies must fund and supervise placements

For public-agency or court placements, the sending agency generally pays ongoing child support and maintenance unless provided in the receiving state. It also pays for extra services it determines are needed beyond those available to the child there. The receiving state pays for its assessment and agreed supervision, and must arrange timely assessments, supervision, services, and reports. Agencies can use licensed local providers for this work. For private placements before adoption, the private agency pays unless a contract says otherwise and remains legally responsible until finalization.

Tribal families get placement law safeguards

Before covered placements, the sending state's public agency must oversee compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act. The interstate commission can also issue guidelines allowing tribes to use some or all compact processes. It must make reasonable efforts to consult tribes and account for their different circumstances when writing those guidelines. Tribal use depends on the commission's guidelines.

States coordinate interstate child placement oversight

Each member state must maintain a central compact office and coordinate government participation through an advisory council or existing board. The compact creates a joint commission with one voting commissioner per member state, appointed by its responsible human-services leader. The commission can set rules, collect placement data, issue reports, and coordinate training. It must adopt bylaws within 12 months of its first meeting and meet at least once each calendar year. Meetings follow public-notice and open-meeting requirements, with specified exceptions for closed sessions.

Kansas pays child placement compact costs

The commission can charge member states annual assessments to fund its approved budget, including staff. A binding rule sets each state's share; the law sets no dollar amount. Kansas's compact administrator can arrange payments for compact obligations and supplementary agreements, with approval from the state director of accounts and reports. Agreements cannot commit state institutions, facilities, or services without approval from the responsible department or agency head.

Paid adoption professionals face criminal penalties

People paid or compensated for adoption-placement services must follow the interstate child-placement compact. Failure to comply is a Class C misdemeanor. This provision does not state a fine amount or jail term.

Courts keep authority over placed children

The sending state generally keeps custody authority over covered children and can order their return. Courts can end that authority for adoption, adulthood, legal independence, qualifying reunification or guardianship, tribal jurisdiction, or receiving-agency agreement. Reunification involving abuse or neglect allegations against the receiving-state parent requires that state's agency agreement; guardianship requires sending-court agreement. Adoption law generally comes from the state finalizing the adoption, and the filing court handles adoption issues. Exceptions preserve earlier court authority and sending-state public-agency custody; no final adoption decree is allowed without receiving-state placement approval.

Kansas sets interstate child placement coverage

Kansas adopts a new interstate child-placement compact for children under 18 and repeals its six prior compact statutes. It covers specified court-supervised abuse, neglect, deprivation, delinquency, and unmanageable-child cases, plus agency placements before possible adoption. Some parent- or relative-arranged placements, foreign-country adoption placements, and agency visits are excluded. A noncustodial-parent placement is excluded only with proof of a substantial relationship and a written court finding supporting placement. When a public agency is a party, that exclusion also requires the court to dismiss its jurisdiction. The Kansas act takes effect upon publication in the statute book; the compact has a separate activation threshold.

Safety checks and limits for placements

Covered placements generally need the receiving state's written approval after a safety review; public agencies must first request an assessment. Private adoption requests require child, birth-parent, placement-parent, and supervising-agency details, consent records, legal certification, a home study, and parents' acknowledgment of legal risk. The sending state cannot demand extra private-placement home-study requirements unless the adoption is finalized there. After both states review required adoption materials, requests for more information cannot delay prospective parents' travel. Relative placements can receive provisional consideration at the sending agency's request. A denial cannot be challenged in the sending state's courts, but interested parties can seek administrative review in the receiving state. An overturned denial becomes approval after administrative appeals end or their deadlines pass.

Placement commission staff get liability protections

Covered commission staff receive liability limits tied to the state where their official acts occur. Coverage also applies when staff reasonably believe their actions fall within their duties. The commission must defend covered staff and can defend state commissioners with required state legal approval. The commission or member state must cover qualifying settlements or judgments not otherwise covered by the state. These protections exclude criminal conduct and intentional or willful and wanton misconduct.

States face binding child placement rules

The compact becomes binding on the later of July 1, 2007, or enactment by the 35th state. Within its first 12 months, the commission must adopt binding rules covering placement procedures, deadlines, supervision, confidentiality, financing, and appeals. Emergency rules require a majority finding of an imminent threat to children, threatened funding loss, or a federal rulemaking deadline. Regular rulemaking must follow as soon as reasonably possible, within 90 days after an emergency rule takes effect. State governments, including Kansas courts and agencies, must enforce the compact within their authority. At a member state's request, the commission must try to resolve covered disputes through processes including mediation and binding resolution; disputing parties pay. For state violations, the commission can provide help, demand corrections, or bring a federal court enforcement action.

Sponsors & Cosponsors

Sponsor

Committee on Child Welfare and Foster Care
Affiliation unavailable

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

All Roll Calls

Yes: 314 • No: 4

House vote • 4/23/2026

Yea: 39 Nay: 1

Yes: 39 • No: 1