ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Access to foster homes is a critical need, and Kansas has officially joined a new initiative to help.

Thursday, Gov. Laura Kelly announced Kansas has joined the United States Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF) ‘A Home for Every Child’ initiative to improve the ratio of foster homes to children in Kansas and across the country.

Gov. Kelly made the announcement alongside federal officials from ACF and the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF). Kansas is also the first state to receive ACF approval for its ‘A Home for Every Child’ plan.

Special to the Leader & Times

The Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) wants to remind utility customers that there are two important dates coming up next week.  First, the Cold Weather Rule ends Tuesday.

The Cold Weather Rule protects residential customers, served by KCC regulated utilities, from disconnection when temperatures are forecast to drop below 35 degrees.

When the Cold Weather Rule is in effect, regulated utilities are required to offer a 12-month payment plan upon request, even if a previous payment plan has been broken.

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Area governing entities are working on renewing insurance policies, and the City of Liberal did just that at its most recent meeting Tuesday.

“The City of Liberal’s total premium for this year is $1,116,569, which is an increase of approximately 3.5 percent over last year. This is a very favorable result, most cities and municipalities are seeing increases of 5 to even 15 percent, particularly with liability and worker’s compensation,” Finance Director Kristyn Reust said. “Staff took a proactive approach this year by conducting a detailed line-by-line review of all of our insured assets – we removed items we no longer own or no longer need insured, which helped offset costs and ensure we’re only paying for absolutely necessary coverage. While there were some increases in areas like liability and worker’s compensation, those were consistent with broader market trends. At the same time, we achieved reductions in a few different areas and kept property essentially flat. Overall, this reflects a balanced approach to maintaining strong coverage while actively managing costs. This is a strong renewal, below-market increase with proactive steps taken to help control costs while maintaining appropriate coverage.”

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

USD 480 uses many federal programs and Monday evening, the USD 480 school board got to hear an update on some of them.

“As the board might be aware, one of our strategic goals for this year had to do with federal programs, and this seemed like a great time to talk about how all of that work is going,” Superintendent Dane Richardson said. “One of the overall goals was to align USD 480 federal program funds to be used efficiently and be 100 percent compliant with federal guidelines. We want to make sure USD 480 aligns and monitors each expenditure to meet all federal guidelines, we want to make sure we align every expenditure based on the needs of each building according to the student population of eligible students and the schedule amounts assigned to the buildings according to the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) in the USD 480 Learning Continuity Plan (LCP) application. That was a tough task we needed to learn a lot about as we went through it. Another major part of that goal was to make sure USD 480 assigns expenditures to be used for salaries, improve instruction for students to the maximum extent possible, and we also want to be sure and submit all documentation and LCP assurances by June 5. Another major goal is for USD 480 to have an approved plan in place to meet all federal requirements by this past February and for USD 480 to use federal reports, audits and artifacts to measure these goals, which will be achieved by June 30.”