Kansas foster care contractor investigated before 2022 death of teen who ran from care

Nearly two years before a Kansas foster child was found dead last year in Wyandotte County, the contractor in charge of the teen’s care was investigated by the state.

Officials won’t confirm that the licensing complaint against Cornerstones of Care involved the care of Ace Scott, 15, who ran away from a child welfare office on April 11, 2022, and whose body was found in an empty lot four days later.

But details from the investigation mirror descriptions of the teen’s case, which are outlined in two lawsuits filed on behalf of Scott’s family and estate. Those suits, one filed in October and the other more than a month ago, name Cornerstones and the Kansas Department for Children and Families as defendants.

Both the lawsuits and DCF records of the complaint describe a teen who had “diabetic ketoacidosis,” a complication associated with Type 1 diabetes; was issued a judge’s “no run order” in September 2020 and had attempted self harm. And each contended that the teen’s safety and well-being were constantly jeopardized because the youth didn’t have stable placements in foster care and was able to run away many times.

Records obtained by The Star show that DCF’s licensing unit found Cornerstones “noncompliant” after it investigated a complaint regarding the care of a 13-year-old foster child who was a repeat runaway. The findings, which did not name the child involved, detailed how the teen had been in many one-night placements or at times, when no foster home or facility could be found, slept in a child welfare office.

According to the complaint, which was dated Oct. 23, 2020, the teen had been “moved, hospitalized, or listed as a runaway approximately 20 times since 8/21/2020.” Ultimately, Cornerstones — one of four contractors that handle foster care in Kansas — was found non compliant due to its “failure to secure appropriate placement” based on the foster child’s needs.

“Pertinent information pertaining to drug use, multiple runs, intensive medical needs, and self-harm concerns,” the survey finding said, “was not provided to multiple foster homes placing the foster child (age 13) in life-threatening situations.”

DCF and Cornerstones would not discuss the licensing investigation or say whether it pertained to Scott. But the lawsuits filed by an attorney representing Scott’s family and estate include the same details, dates of events, and similar concerns about inappropriate placements and an existing medical condition.

One of those lawsuits — filed in late June on behalf of Scott’s estate — also revealed new allegations that when Scott ran from foster care on numerous occasions the teen was victimized.

“In addition to suffering repeated episodes of diabetic ketoacidosis, the placements of Annika Scott in undersecured situations allowed her to escape and be sexually abused, raped, become a confirmed victim of sex trafficking and to use drugs.”

After Scott was found dead, DCF said the teen was a transgender male and went by the name Ace Scott. The lawsuit on behalf of her estate, however, refers to the teen as Annika Scott, a female.

Learning from a tragedy

After the licensing investigation, DCF required Cornerstones to complete a Compliance Action Plan to address the concerns identified in the case.

In response to questions from The Star regarding the complaint and investigation, DCF provided some details of that plan.

“The CAP included a requirement to identify appropriate resources, including a PRTF (psychiatric residential treatment facility) bed hold if necessary,” DCF said in an email, “ensuring placement providers have access to medical information to ensure the child’s needs are met, and working with the state’s special response team to identify reasons for run behavior.”

In the days after Scott ran away from a Cornerstones of Care office on April 11, 2022, a Special Response Team for DCF began searching for the teen, the child welfare agency said last year. Scott’s body was found in an empty lot near 9th Street and Central Avenue in KCK on April 15 by a neighbor in the area, police said.

The autopsy report, the lawsuits said, stated the principal cause of death was ketoacidosis, a metabolic process which occurs when someone with Type 1 diabetes is not treated with insulin.

Earlier this year, a DCF spokesman said the agency “has done a thorough investigation into this case.”

“By law, anytime there is a death involving a child, DCF must do an investigation,” said Mike Deines, a DCF spokesman. “However, by law, due to privacy concerns, we cannot provide any additional information on this case.”

Grey Endres is an associate professor of social work at Missouri Western State University and director of the school’s master’s program. Like other child welfare experts and advocates, Endres has said it’s critical to know the stories of children who die in foster care to make sure the state did what it could to protect them.

And if it didn’t, he said the goal must be to fix what went wrong to help other children in care.

“There’s a lack of transparency, that’s nestled in this,” Endres said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, they’re kids, we have to protect them. So you know, it has to be all confidential.’ When, in retrospect, that’s not really the case.

“I really believe until we see the kids and families as experts, these things will just continue.”

This past April, Endres said he thought about Scott.

“A year has come and gone,” he said. “Does anybody even remember or even care? If we don’t learn from these things, does anybody even care?”

Years in state care

Scott had been in foster care from 2017 until the teen’s death last year.

During those five years in the state system, the child’s “permanency goal” was adoption, the state agency said last year after the teen’s death.

“While in care, he experienced placement instability, including run episodes,” according to information released by DCF back then. “(Scott) was on the run March 25 and 26, 2022.”

When located on March 26, the teen was admitted to the hospital for “concerns related to a known medical condition,” DCF said last year. “He was discharged from the hospital on April 11, 2022.”

The lawsuit filed in late June stated that Scott had been “hospitalized at Marillac Hospital for psychological and mental disorders from April 5, 2022, to April 11, 2022.”

Then on the 11th, the teen was transported by a Cornerstones employee to the child welfare office where Scott “was allowed to escape from an unsecured area, again without insulin.”

The wrongful death lawsuit filed last fall said that Scott (identified as A.S.) had run away from foster home placements “numerous times” before being placed with Cornerstones.

“And had run away numerous times after A.S.’s placement with the Defendant Cornerstones,” the suit said. “Minor A.S. had been under a ‘no run’ order since September of 2020.

“Both Defendants were aware of A.S.’s history of running away and of the ‘no run’ orders, but continued to place the Minor A.S. in unsecured placements, providing continued opportunities to run away.”

A “no run order” in Kansas can be placed on children who have a history of running away. If an allegation is made that the child violated the court order, the court must hold a hearing to determine probable cause. At that hearing the court will hear evidence and determine if placement in a secure facility is necessary, according to information from DCF.

If the court orders placement in a secure facility, the initial authorization lasts no longer than 60 days.

Another line in the suit was nearly identical to words in the complaint investigation from October 2020.

“Pertinent information regarding the health, run history and medical information of Minor A.S. was not disclosed or provided by DCF or Defendant Cornerstones to multiple foster homes, putting A.S. in life threatening situations,” the wrongful death lawsuit said.

Steven Ediger, a Kansas City attorney representing Scott’s biological grandmother and estate, said he could not comment on specifics in the case because of a confidentiality agreement. But he did say that Cornerstones of Care and DCF “knew about (Scott’s) condition.”

“And for (Scott’s) particular case, it was really a life threatening situation every time she ran, because she never took her medication,” Ediger said. “We’re confident that the allegations of the petition are true. And are going to be proven true.”

In late June, Ediger filed the second lawsuit on behalf of Scott’s estate. That suit focuses on “personal injury damages” suffered by Scott prior to the teen’s death “because of the negligence of one or both of the Defendants.”

“... Because the Defendants had a practice of placing Annika Scott in an unsecured area despite her history of escaping,” the lawsuit said, “the Defendants realized or should have realized that this practice created an unreasonable risk of harm of sexual abuse, rape, sex trafficking and drug use for Annika Scott, thereby failing to use reasonable care to prevent those risks from taking effect.”

Scott had “engaged in numerous acts of self harm,” the lawsuit also alleges. That included deliberately not taking her insulin or running away without taking it along.

Ediger said in general he knows the risks and dangers involved when kids run from state care.

“I’ve had calls from parents whose children have run away a number of times, and several times, they got pregnant,” he said. “Several times they were on drugs. One girl had an overdose while in foster care, and died.

“And so I would say that I’ve seen complaints that were involving sex trafficking and drugs and sex among foster kids while in foster care.”