Kansas agency files appeal in adoption of JoCo girl who judge ordered sent to new home

The Kansas Department for Children and Families has appealed the recent ruling by a Wyandotte County judge to remove a 3-year-old foster child from the only home she’s known.

Mike Deines, a DCF spokesman, said the agency filed the appeal Monday.

The state has had custody of the little girl since she was born, but the judge’s ruling on Friday “rescinds” the order that put her in DCF’s care.

The child is now set to be moved from her Johnson County foster home and taken to a family in Manhattan, Kansas, to be with three biological siblings who she has spent limited time with and never lived with.

Laura Howard, the leader of DCF, recommended that the girl stay with John and Nicole DeHaven, who have raised her since she was three days old.

As the appeal winds through court, the Dehavens fear the little girl they nicknamed Meeps because of a phase where she kept saying “Me, me, me,” will be taken from their Gardner home. When cars now pass by their house, Nicole says she “panics” wondering if it’s someone coming to pick up the little girl.

“I don’t want to spend the day thinking, you know, looking at the clock, wondering,” Nicole told The Star Tuesday morning. “I want to try to keep things as normal as possible, but like right now, it’s like, how do you do that?”

For many months, the DeHavens had been at the center of an emotional battle with the state after being told they would not be able to adopt their foster daughter. Instead, Cornerstones of Care, one of four contractors that handle foster care in Kansas, planned to place her in an adoptive home in Manhattan with three of her biological siblings.

The DeHavens’ story has become an intense battle of what may look good on paper — adopting four biological siblings together — versus what is best for a little girl who could be taken from the only family she’s known.

In late October, the story seemed to be headed toward a happy ending for the DeHavens. That’s when the couple learned on Halloween — the third anniversary of when they first brought the days’ old girl into their home — that Laura Howard, the secretary of DCF, had changed course and was recommending the girl stay with them.

The couple knew the case would still have to go through court and a judge would have to sign off before the adoption would be final. At that point, though, it appeared to be a formality because Howard had said the girl should stay in Gardner.

They didn’t anticipate Friday’s ruling.

When announcing her decision, Wyandotte County Judge Jane A. Wilson said that Howard wasn’t looking out for the “best interest” of the foster child when she recommended that she stay with the DeHavens.

“Secretary Howard’s decision in this case, to overturn the decision made by agency workers, and, instead of allowing her to be adopted with her siblings, directly place (the little girl) in a home separate from her siblings and in a home that would, by all accounts, cut off all ties to (her) biological siblings, was not in (her) best interest,” Wilson ruled.

The DeHavens had said they are willing to keep up a relationship between the girl and her siblings.

Cornerstones of Care has told The Star it also cannot comment on a specific case but provided general information on the policy aimed at keeping siblings together.

Through a spokesman, Cornerstones has said its recommendations to keep siblings together “are based on multiple research studies and evidence that siblings raised together experience better long-term, healthy outcomes.”

But lawmakers who got involved after hearing about the situation asked why, in this case, that wasn’t done sooner, before the girl had bonded with the family.

Before the ruling and while the judge heard a motion filed by Manhattan family, DCF provided written testimony.

“Kansas law grants the Secretary the sole authority to consent to an adoption and that consent is beyond the reach of judicial review,” DCF wrote in its testimony. “The few Kansas courts that have examined this issue have come to the same conclusion.”

DCF went on to say that “there is nothing in Kansas statute that requires the placement of siblings together.”

“Instead, (the Manhattan family) focuses on DCF policy that favors the placement of siblings together,” DCF said. “These policies, like all policies, are not absolute.”

The DeHavens say their lives have been “turned upside down” since Friday’s ruling.

“Yesterday I went to go get something to eat,” for the little girl and the DeHavens’ adoptive son who is a month younger than his foster sister, Nicole said. “And I was afraid to come back to the house because I thought, ‘What if they’re sitting at the house? Even before I got out of the car, I looked around to see if there was any suspicious-looking vehicles like they’re doing a stakeout?

She said she prays that “the right thing will happen.”

“I don’t think this is the end of her story and the end of our story.”