After public waited 2 weeks for DCF summary on Zoey Felix death, new law addresses delay

When homeless Topeka child Zoey Felix was killed in October, state child welfare authorities provided little immediate information on what they knew.

It took just more than two weeks before the Kansas Department for Children and Families released a summary of reports in response to a records request from The Topeka Capital-Journal.

A new Kansas law is intended to cut down on that wait time and increase government transparency in future child death cases.

DCF said it needed legislative change to allow for limited release of info

Gov. Laura Kelly signed House Bill 2628 into law on Friday but didn't comment on it. The bill, which passed unanimously in both the House and Senate, was proposed by DCF.

"This is a very limited change that supports transparency in the system while still maintaining important confidentiality safeguards," DCF secretary Laura Howard told lawmakers last month while testifying in support of the new law. "Child fatalities are obviously very serious events that we all grapple with, communities grapple with, and I think it's important to allow the public access to this limited information to understand what contact my agency has had with that child or their family in these circumstances."

While DCF has backed similar legislation in the past, it gained traction this year in the wake of Zoey's death.

Zoey, a 5-year-old homeless girl, was allegedly raped and killed by a homeless man in southeast Topeka on Oct. 2. The next day, DCF said it was aware of her death and was working with law enforcement to investigate.

At the time, little else came from the agency, aside from Howard calling it "tragic" but telling lawmakers she legally could not talk publicly about the case.

"Under the terms of Kansas law, there are protections in terms of the release of information within the child in need of care code," Howard said in October. "So I actually do not have the legal ability to say anything in a public setting until certain additional things happen related to making a finding of abuse or neglect."

Under the old state law and the new version, if a child dies as a result of child abuse or neglect, DCF is required to release a summary in response to an open records request. The response must include a summary of any previous reports filed with DCF involving the child, along with the findings of those reports and whether any department-recommended services were provided.

New law enables DCF summary release when criminal charges are filed

What changes in the new law is the timeline for DCF releasing that summary.

In the old law, before that summary information could be released, DCF first had to determine that the child's death resulted from abuse or neglect, and then the agency got seven business days to release the summary. That determination could take longer than the initial police investigation, leading to situations where prosecutors charged a suspect before DCF finished its review.

That's what happened in Zoey's case. Police quickly identified and arrested a suspect, Mickel Cherry, whom prosecutors charged with capital murder three days after Zoey's death.

"Sometimes we have delays in being able to do that investigation and make that finding," Howard said, explaining that DCF sometimes pauses its investigation to get out of the way of law enforcement. "What this bill would allow us to do, in the event that that action by law enforcement results in the filing of criminal charges, at that point DCF would be able to release that very same information."

The new law would make it so that in a situation where criminal charges have been filed alleging someone caused a child fatality, DCF could release the summary before making its own determination.

However, the new law only changes provisions related to releasing the summary of reports. It doesn't amend provisions on releasing the full reports. DCF has denied a records request for those full reports because the agency doesn't consider Zoey to have been a child in need of care, or alleged to be one.

Jason Alatidd is a Statehouse reporter for the Topeka Capital-Journal. He can be reached by email at jalatidd@gannett.com. Follow him on X @Jason_Alatidd.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: New Kansas law addresses delay of DCF summary in child death cases