Where Are They Kansas?
I cannot seem to wrap my mind around how more than 70 children went missing from the Kansas foster care system. Not one person seems to know where they’ve gone. Lawmakers have no idea what has happened and when Kansas State Senator Laura Kelly asked the Department of Children & Families, they knew nothing of it.
The outrage began in late last year in 2017, most of the children missing are young girls.
Two of the specific contractors are KVC & Saint Francis Community Services. Kansas is the first state in the country to privatize its child welfare system in 1996. Is this the reason for this happening because it is privatized? Or merely incompetent workers and leadership to protect children?
There are 7,000 foster children in the state of Kansas alone. It’s not rare that children run away from foster homes, it’s common, but according to a KVC spokesperson, “it’s the case in every state.” This may be a fact, but it’s not the answer to the problem nor the solution.
The National Center For Missing & Exploited Children reported there were 25,000 runaways in 2017, that’s just to them. The NCMEC says, “one in seven were likely victims of child sex trafficking. Of those, 88 percent were in the care of social services when they went missing.”
In 2016 there were 8.2 million cases reported to the NCMEC tipline regarding sexual abuse images, child sex trafficking, sexual molestation & extortion. Over the years the amount of missing children has risen. KVC reports it is missing 38 children while Saint Francis Community Services 36 children respectively.
There are 27 million people who are victims of human trafficking in the World. 83% of that number are sex trafficked. 80% are women, 50% are children from that 80%. 800,000 are moved and traded over borders yearly.
The average age of victims is 12 years old. Each person is forced to sleep with up to 40 people a night at $90 each time. They are estimated to make at least $250,000 a year. California is king of the top 3 States for trafficking, following are Utah and Washington. 1-2% are rescued. 30,000 will die annually.
74 children don’t just disappear.