Kansas now has a fourth permanency pathway for foster children aging out of the system.
Governor Laura Kelly has signed House Bill 2536 to officially set up the Support, Opportunity, Unity and Legal or SOUL Family option. It lets teenagers ages 16 and up pick a person or group of people they trust to raise them as they begin adulthood.
The SOUL Family option is now available alongside the three traditional pathways, adoption, reintegration and custodian appointment. Kansas is the first state in the country to have the SOUL Family option. Policy implementation is pending through the Kansas Department for Children and Families, but it should be available to children in foster case at some time this summer.
