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TOPEKA — The surest way to improve the state’s foster care system is to prevent children from needing to be in the system, a pair of juvenile court judges said Wednesday.

“You’ve got to fund prevention programs to keep the numbers down,” said Douglas County District Court Judge Jean Shepherd, testifying before the House Federal and State Affairs Committee. “When the numbers go down, caseload numbers go down and when caseload numbers go down you have the time to work with the kids who are in the system and get them the services they need.”

It’s shortsighted, she said, to overload the system and then wonder why children fall through the cracks.

Sedgwick County District Court Judge James Burgess said the option of placing a child in foster care will “never be as good as preventing” a child from entering the system.

“Until we get good at prevention, we will always be dealing in crisis,” Burgess said.

The judges’ comments opened the second of four days of committee hearings on child welfare issues.

Burgess and Shepherd were asked to share their thoughts on the state's privatization of most child protection responsibilities in 1996. Both, initially, had criticized the decision.

Shepherd said privatization, at first, “hurt” Douglas County because it had more services than most counties before the changes were made. Some of those services, she said, were lost when the region’s contractor, Kaw Valley Center, now known as KVC Behavioral Health, took over.

“I was not a supporter...to put it mildly,” she said.

But in recent years, Shepherd said, services in Douglas County “are back to where they were and I’m not screaming.”

Still, she said, the change was poorly planned, rushed, disruptive, and added another layer of costly bureaucracy “at a time when money for kids was already tight.”

Burgess said he resisted privatization because judges were left out of the planning process.

“I agree,” he said, “implementation was really rough.”

United Methodist Youthville, which was awarded the first foster care contract for Sedgwick County, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001. It has since reorganized and still has the contract.

“I love my contractor,” Burgess said, praising the agency's recovery and present performance.

Minutes later, Jean Ann Uvodich, an Olathe attorney who often represents parents whose children are in foster care, criticized Burgess for having what she called a “buddy-buddy relationship” with Youthville.

Uvodich said she’s convinced that, oftentimes, judges’ decisions on whether a child should be in foster care are driven by their knowing the contractors can’t make money without children.

This relationship, she said, helps explain why the courts often ride roughshod over parents.

Privatization, she said, “created a financial incentive to get children into the system.”

Burgess objected to Uvodich’s characterization, saying he “loved” Youthville workers because they do good work and respond to criticism.

“I have expectations,” he said, “and when those expectations aren’t met, we talk, and things change.”

The hearing closed with Frankie Summers, who now lives in Garden City, telling the committee how Burgess had unjustly placed her granddaughter in foster care in 2004.

Summers read a four-and-a-half page, single-spaceed statement that found fault with every police officer, social worker, counselor, attorney and court worker who had dealt with her granddaughter and daughter.

After 15 minutes, the committee chairman, Rep. Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, asked Summers to finish. Summer said she wasn’t finished and continued reading.

After a few seconds, Neufeld said the hearing was over and got up to leave. Summers objected, saying it wasn't right that Neufeld had listened to Burgess and not to her.

Neufeld, a key player in the privatization initiative, smiled and left the room.

More parents and grandparents are expected to testify Thursday.