What began as a truancy report on a homeschooling family ended up with a fourteen year old girl taken into custody and placed in a children’s home.  Not in Germany, but in Wichita, Kansas.

Bambi Baker-Hazen contends her daughter has been abused in the state’s child welfare system since authorities took the girl in a case that began with a mistaken truancy report.  wibw.com

Now I’m still thinking there is a lot between “what began as” and the mother’s arrest on Friday after she refused to testify as to the whereabouts of her daughter who ran away from the children’s home in October.  The first story I found was rather sketchy, but thankfully Tammy of Just Enough and Nothing More was still up when I posted it to Twitter and found another article with a bit more information.

The Kansas City Star had a key piece of information I was curious about:

Ashton ended up at the children’s home after a middle school that mistakenly had her on its rolls reported her as truant, even though her mother’s home was properly registered as a home school. Baker-Hazen has since enrolled her other three children in public schools.  KansasCity.com

And that really does appear to be where the case began.  The Star uses the case to highlight accusations that Sedgwick County is the “child removal capital of America,” which may be entirely accurate.  But what social workers found besides a properly registered homeschool is interesting and quite relevant.

Their problems escalated while the mother was out of town seeking substance abuse treatment and mental care services, claiming in her testimony that she was unaware of the state’s involvement.

Ashton was placed with Baker, her biological father, but police picked her up and put her in the children’s home when Ashton ran away from her father to go back to her mother.  USA Today

I don’t know what the time frame is, but it appears that officials went to check on a truancy report and found a fourteen year old girl home alone while her mother was in another town seeking treatment.  I commend the mother for seeking help, but depending on how long Ashton was alone, I can see why some level of involvement was considered warranted.  And if Ashton is used to this kind of freedom, it is understandable why she might have run from both her father and the children’s home:

But in court Friday, Henderson [the judge in the case] noted that the girl was out at 3 a.m. and had admitted to drinking alcohol.  USA Today

Curious where the other three children were and why the case only involves Ashton.  But they are all enrolled in public school, now.  The mom also claims she is protecting her child by not disclosing her whereabouts.

Baker-Hazen told Sedgwick County Juvenile Court Judge Tim Henderson that when she tried to return Ashton to the home, the girl threatened to jump out of the car. She said Ashton had lost a lot of weight and had burns on her arms allegedly inflicted by other children at the home.  USAToday

Without documentation, that allegation won’t get very far.  With documentation, it might get Ashton into another child care facility while the Wichita Children’s Home is investigated.  Either way, I cannot imagine what I would do in that situation.

Did the state act too quickly?

It is perhaps a little too easy to side with the famliy or the state in these kinds of cases with only the small amount of information which is released to and reported by the press.  But Sedgwick County does seem to have some issues.

Her allegations aren’t unusual in Sedgwick County. While the state agency says it complies with all federal rules, the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform claims that the department is evading requirements that reasonable efforts be made to keep children out of foster care and that it is underreporting cases to a central federal database. Critics contend officials in Sedgwick County are overreacting to some high-profile child abuse cases, such as a 2006 one involving two Wichita children allegedly starved, beaten and tortured by their father and stepmother.  Kansas City Star, emphasis mine

We had a similar case here in Nebraska while I worked with the foster system.  A child was found starved to death after multiple reports to CPS and no action.  The “reform” consisted of following every single call, anonymous or otherwise, with a home visit.  And our small agency was suddenly flooded with referrals for emergency placements because the modus operandi suddenly seemed to be to remove children, then investigate.

Advocacy groups and angry parents have pointed to comments from the head of the state agency, Don Jordan, who indicated in March that his case workers felt pressured by the Sedgwick County district attorney’s office to include false information in court documents to ensure children are removed from homes. Jordan has since retracted that statement and the district attorney’s office denies the allegation, but a complaint from local family advocacy group Citizens for Change Inc. led to an audit of the state agency by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  Ibid., emphasis mine

That is a truly frightening state of affairs. This may not be the case to highlight those concerns, but it is certainly a discussion that appears very needed in Sedgwick County and the state of Kansas.

homeschool homeschooling Ashton Baker CPS Sedgwick County