How Can DCF Help Me?
The Kansas Department for Children and Families is available to assist with child care and child support, employment education and training, food and cash assistance, support for youth who have experienced foster care and more.
The following is a high-level overview of DCF services, not all programs and offerings are included, and local and federal programs are subject to change. Availability of services may be subject to eligibility. Find a DCF office and Resource Agent near you for additional support.
Applying for services can be completed using the DCF’s Self-Service Portal. Kansans may also check their eligibility and access benefits on the Self-Service Portal.
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FINANCIAL SUPPORT:
DCF administers a number of income-based programs to help individuals or families meet household needs.
- Do you need help paying a heating bill? The Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP) helps qualifying households pay winter heating bills. The program is active January through March of each year.
- Do you need help paying for child care?
- Do you need help paying for food? Learn about the Food Assistance program.
- Do you need help finding work or better work, pregnant and/or have children under age 18, AND need cash assistance? Learn about DCF’s Successful Families program and TANF supports.
If you answered yes to any of these questions, Economic and Employment Services may be able to help, call DCF at 1-888-369-4777 or check eligibility on the Self-Service Portal.
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SUPPORTING YOUR FAMILY:
- Is a child 20 or younger in your home experiencing a behavioral or mental health crisis? Call the 24/7 Family Crisis Response Helpline at 1-833-441-2240 to speak with experts who can help at no cost.
- Are you or a loved one struggling with a child that has severe behavioral issues?
- Are you a parent or caregiver who is overwhelmed and need support?
- Call 1-800-CHILDREN or visit 1800childrenks.org, anytime day or night to be connected with resources to help support your family.
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EMPLOYMENT, EDUCATION & TRAINING:
Do you want to work and have any of the following that apply to you?
- Do you have any type of permanent physical, intellectual, or mental disability that creates a barrier in reaching your employment goals?
- Have you ever had an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) or attended special education classes while in school?
- Are you a veteran with a disability?
- Are you needing reasonable accommodations to be able to return to work?
- Do you need training or education to obtain or maximize your employment, and your disability creates barriers?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, Rehabilitation Services may be able to help at no cost. Call DCF at 1-833-765-2003.- Are you receiving food or cash assistance and need help finding a job, keeping your job, or finding a better job?
- Are you receiving food or cash assistance and need help finishing high school, obtaining your G.E.D, or pursuing education and training related to a job?
If you answered yes to either of these questions, learn if you are eligible for food or cash assistance (TANF) benefits. Call DCF at 1-888-369-4777 or check eligibility on the Self-Service Portal.
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CHILD SUPPORT:
The Kansas Child Support Services area helps children receive the financial support necessary for their growth and development. Do any of the following apply to you or a child in your care?
- Are you a parent or caretaker and need help getting child support or need a current order enforced?
- Do you need help legally identifying the child’s father?
- Do you need help locating your child’s other parent?
- Do you owe the state child support and need help paying it back?
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FOSTERING and ADOPTION:
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SUPPORT FOR YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULTS WHO EXPERIENCED FOSTER CARE AS A TEENAGER:
DCF’s Independent Living program is focused on providing services and supports to youth ages 14 to 27 placed in foster care or in state custody (Kansas Department for Children and Families, Kansas Department of Corrections-Juvenile Services, or Tribal Authority). Learn about assistance with medical, dental, and vision coverages, financial support, education opportunities, and more!
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ADULT PROTECTIVE SERVICES:
Learn more about services and resources available to adults who are at the highest risk of abuse, neglect and financial exploitation. If you suspect a vulnerable adult is a victim, contact the Kansas Protection Report Center at 1-800-922- 5330 day or night.
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The DCF Self-Service Portal is available to Kansans to apply for services, check eligibility and access benefits. Visit the Self-Service Portal.
A complete list of services offered by DCF is available here.
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To narrow your results, choose from the options below. | Service: | | Office of Background Investigations | | About: | DCF processes Child Abuse and Neglect Central Registry requests for foster and adoptive parents as a result of the 2006 Adam Walsh legislation. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Prevention Protection Services | | About: | Adoption assistance is available to help adoptive families meet the special needs of the children they adopt. To apply for adoption assistance through DCF, please visit any of the DCF Service Centers. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Prevention Protection Services | | About: | Adoption services are provided to children who are in foster care and waiting to be adopted. KCSL maintains the Adoption Exchange website that lists children available and the families who are interested in adopting. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Prevention Protection Services | | About: | DCF conducts adoption searches for adoptees and birth parents for private and DCF adoptions that were finalized in the State of Kansas. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Prevention and Protection Services | | About: | Adult Protective Services (APS) investigates allegations of abuse, neglect, exploitation, or fiduciary abuse of vulnerable adults 18 years of age or older and if needed, provides protective services. | | Contact: | Customer Service 1-800-922-5330 |
| Service: | | Rehabilitation Services | | About: | DCF provides a variety of employment and independent living services for Kansans who are blind or visually impaired. Vocational Rehabilitation provides services to help individuals achieve or maintain competitive integrated employment. The Business Enterprise Program provides career opportunities in food service facilities, snack shops and vending machine routes. Independent Living services are available for persons who are age 55 or older. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Economic and Employment Services | | About: | Cash assistance, also known as TANF, helps adults with their problems in getting a job, provides support services for work, training, work activities, and education and helps families learn new skills, build on their current abilities, and keep children in their homes. | | Contact: | Customer Service 1-888-369-4777 |
| Service: | | Rehabilitation Services | | About: | The purpose of independent living is to maximize the leadership, empowerment, independence and productivity of individuals with disabilities, and to augment their integration and full inclusion into the mainstream of society. This mission is carried out through a statewide network of 10 Centers for Independent Living (CILs). CILs are not residential facilities. Instead they offer the following core services: information and referral, individual and systems advocacy, peer support, independent living skills training, and services to support deinstitutionalization. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Economic and Employment Services | | About: | The CICP provides United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) commodity foods for congregate meal preparation to eligible nonprofit institutions such as the state hospitals. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Office of Background Investigations | | About: | In accordance with Kansas law any person listed in the Child Abuse and Neglect Registry is prohibited from working, residing, or volunteering in a child care home or facility regulated by DCF or the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Economic and Employment Services | | About: | The CCDF State Plan for 2016-2018 is available in final form. The Plan describes policies and operations as they currently exist. Based upon public input and administrative review, the Plan is subject to change. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Economic and Employment Services | | About: | DCF enrolls child care providers who are interested in providing child care to children of families who are issued Child Care Subsidy benefits. Enrolled providers can receive payments electronically from eligible families who would transfer their Child Care Subsidy benefits issued by DCF to pay for their services. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Economic and Employment Services | | About: | DCF provides help in paying for child care costs through the child care subsidy program. | | Contact: | Customer Service 1-888-369-4777 |
| Service: | | | | About: | Kansas Child Support Services (CSS) helps children receive the financial support necessary for their growth and development. The program assists by establishing parentage and orders for child and medical support, locating noncustodial parents, enforcing child and medical support orders, and modifying support orders as appropriate. CSS automatically serves families receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), foster care, medical assistance, and child care assistance. Assistance from CSS is also available to any family, regardless of income or residency, who applies for our services. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Economic and Employment Services | | About: | The Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) provides USDA foods and nutrition education to income eligible pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women, infants, children and seniors. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Rehabilitation Services | | About: | This program determines disability status for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) claims filed in Kansas. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Economic and Employment Services | | About: | Work program activities help TANF recipients to recognize their strengths, learn new skills, build on their existing abilities and achieve self-sufficiency. The goal of this program is to stabilize families, keep children in their homes and reduce family dependency on government subsidies. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Economic and Employment Services | | About: | TEFAP provides free USDA commodity foods to low income households throughout Kansas. TEFAP food is shipped five to six times per year to participating organizations for distribution. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Economic and Employment Assistance | | About: | Assistance is available for TANF and food assistance recipients for preparing for employment, locating employment, and maintaining employment. Vocational Rehabilitation services are available to anyone with employment limitations who are trying to become employed or to be trained for employment. TANF applicants and recipients must pursue unemployment compensation as a condition of eligibility.
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| Service: | | Economic and Employment Services | | About: | The Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIEAP) is a federally funded program that helps eligible households pay a portion of their home energy costs by providing a one-time per year benefit. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Economic and Employment Services | | About: | The Food Assistance Program serves as the first line of defense against hunger. It provides crucial support to elderly households, low-income working households, other low income households including those unemployed or disabled, and to households transitioning from welfare to work.
Food Assistance Employment & Training (FAE&T) is a mandatory program for recipients who are also able-bodied adults without dependents (ABAWDs) that improves employment skills or wage earning capabilities. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Prevention and Protection Services | | About: | Foster care services are provided to children and families when the court has found the child to be in need of care and the parents are not able to meet the safety and care needs of the child. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Office of the General Counsel | | About: | The Foster Care Licensing and Background Checks Division is responsible for licensure and regulation of all 24-hour-per-day, seven-day-per-week child care facilities in the State of Kansas. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Office of the General Counsel | | About: | The Fraud Investigations Unit is comprised of a Director, Chief Investigator, and Fraud Hotline Receptionists located in the Office of General Counsel and 16 Fraud Special Investigators and four benefits eligibility experts evenly assigned statewide.
The mission of the Fraud Investigations Unit is to aggressively investigate, detect, prevent, and prosecute welfare recipient fraud in all public assistance programs administered by the Department for Children and Families. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Economic and Employment Services | | About: | Kansas Early Head Start (KEHS) is a child development program intended for pregnant women and families with infants and toddlers who meet the Federal poverty guidelines. KEHS is modeled after the Federal Early Head Start program created by the U.S. Congress. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Rehabilitation Services | | About: | The mission of KCDHH is to advocate for and facilitate equal access to quality, coordinated and comprehensive services that enhance the life of Kansans who are deaf and hard of hearing. KCDHH offers technical assistance, advocacy, information and referral, sign language interpreter registration, coordination of interpreting services, and the Kansas Quality Assurance Screening (KQAS) for certification of sign language interpreters. | | Contact: | 785-368-8034 V/TDD
1-800-432-0698 V/TDD
785-246-5077 VP |
| Service: | | Children Support Service | | About: | The Kansas Payment Center (KPC) is the payment processing center for all Kansas child support and maintenance (spousal support) payments. All court order support must be paid through the KPC for proper crediting. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Rehabilitation Services | | About: | KQAS is a certification system for determining skill levels of sign language interpreters. The purpose is to help assure quality services and standards of professionalism among sign language interpreters. KQAS is administered by the Kansas Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. | | Contact: | 785-368-8034 V/TDD
1-800-432-0698 V/TDD
785-246-5077 VP |
| Service: | | Prevention and Protection Services | | About: | Youth who or have been involved in child welfare services in Kansas may participate in youth council activities. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | | | About: | These services are provided by the Department for Health and Environment, Division of Health Care Finance. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Prevention and Protection Services | | About: | The National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) is a data collection system that tracks independent living services provided to youth and helps Kansas measure success in preparing youth for transition from foster care to adult living. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Economic and Employment Services | | About: | NSIP provides United Stated Department of Agriculture (USDA) commodities to Area Agencies on Aging nutrition projects to help defer the costs of their food purchases. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Prevention and Protection Services | | About: | Permanent Custodianship Subsidy (PCS) was established to provide financial assistance to those who care for children who have been in DCF custody and for whom the permanency plans of reunification and adoption have been ruled out. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Prevention and Protection Services | | About: | The Kansas Protection Report Center (KPRC) receives statewide reports of child and adult abuse and/or neglect 24 hours per day/7 days per week, including holidays. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Economic and Employment Services | | About: | The Safe at Home Program is a confidential address program to benefit victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and/or human trafficking who have moved to a new location that is unknown to their abuser. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Economic and Employment Services | | About: | The SKFB program provides free USDA foods monthly to help organizations defer the cost of congregate meal preparations for the homeless. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Economic and Employment Services | | About: | The program helps families learn new skills, build on their current abilities, and keep children in their homes. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Economic and Employment Services | | About: | There are two United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) commodity programs available to low income Kansans to assist with their household food needs, and three programs to assist feeding organizations with their congregate meal preparation needs. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Rehabilitation Services | | About: | Services empower people with disabilities to achieve competitive, integrated employment. VR also serves students with disabilities transitioning from high school to employment and independent living. | | Contact: | |
| Service: | | Prevention and Protection Services | | About: | Young people between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one, who were in the foster care system, may be eligible for services and supports through the independent living program. | | Contact: | |
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