Kansas foster child runaway dies after crashing stolen truck. DCF is investigating.

The Kansas Department for Children and Families said Friday it is investigating the death of a Parsons foster youth who died in late October in a vehicle accident after running away from a qualified residential treatment program.

The 13-year-old boy died Oct. 29 after a two-vehicle, head-on crash two days earlier after returning from a Halloween carnival in Independence. The boy was in state custody in the foster care system staying at Successful Dreams, a qualified residential treatment program in Parsons.

The child, whom The Capital-Journal is not identifying, is at least the second foster care youth to die in the custody of the state this year.

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DCF provided a summary of facts under a state law mandating relatively quick turnaround of open records requests related to children who die in DCF custody.

The agency reported that the child returned with a group from a carnival in Independence, before stealing a truck from an auto dealership and crashing into a semi. He was stabilized at a local hospital before being flown to a Tulsa hospital, where he died from his injuries.

He died after medical staff advised the family to take him off life support, state troopers reported. An obituary shows a celebration of life was scheduled for Friday.

"The Department for Children and Families is investigating the incident and is reviewing the facility to determine if there were any regulatory violations," the report said.

Successful Dreams officials didn't immediately return a request for comment.

The incident was first reported Monday by Parsons police. The agency reported that a juvenile runaway had stolen a 2022 GMC Sierra pickup from Tom Davis Auto Group before colliding with a tractor-trailer on U.S. 400 just west of the U.S. 59 junction.

The Kansas Highway Patrol led the investigation.

Successful Dreams coordinator called police when child went missing

A KHP crash report states that investigators spoke with child's foster care coordinator with Successful Dreams. The coordinator said that after coming home from the Neewollah carnival, they noticed about seven minutes later that the child didn't go inside the residence. They called police to report him as a runaway about 16 minutes later.

The report does not indicate why he ran away.

The program reported the child to police as a runaway at around 7:48 p.m.. Security footage shows him trying to get into the dealership at around 8:58 p.m. The crash happened at around 9:12 p.m.

A witness recorded the truck on his phone when he saw it traveling erratically. Investigators determined the semi driver tried to avoid the wreck.

Parsons Police Chief Robert Spinks said such crashes are never easy for emergency responders or the community.

"This hit our community hard," Spinks said in a statement. "My sympathies go out to everyone involved. I only hope that this terrible incident is learned from to avoid another senseless loss of life.”

Under DCF policies, a child isn't immediately considered a youth on run. A DCF report shows 58 youths are currently on the run.

The incident comes after the April death of Ace Scott, a teenage foster child who was forced to spend a night in a contractor office, ran away and was found dead days later in a vacant Kansas City, Kan., lot.

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Kansas legislator slams DCF after child's death

Sen. Molly Baumgardner, R-Louisburg, and a top lawmaker on foster care matters, called the death "appalling" and called on Gov. Laura Kelly to remove DCF Secretary Laura Howard over what she believes to be mounting issues within the foster care system.

Baumgardner said she had consulted with Senate Republican leadership before demanding Howard's resignation.

"To have two young teenagers run away and die, that were supposed to be in the care of the state is absolutely unacceptable," Baumgardner said.

In a statement, Brianna Johnson, a spokesperson for Kelly, reiterated that DCF was investigating the matter but that "any request for action before we know the full facts of the case is premature."

It comes as foster care issues have received increased scrutiny after years of struggles, with the issue even becoming an area of focus in the governor's race between Kelly and her Republican challenger, Attorney General Derek Schmidt ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

A federal report released last year found 2,274 instances of missing children in a 30-month period, accounting for 7% of all foster youth. That figure is one of the highest of any states in the country, though DCF has pushed back on the data used by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas DCF investigating after foster child runaway dies in crash