Revised Kansas Code for Care of Children – 2026
Kansas child-in-need-of-care practice, 104 sections. 38-2201 gives the citation, the construction of the code and the policy of the state; 38-2203 the jurisdiction, including the application of the Indian Child Welfare Act. 38-2205 provides the right to counsel and the guardian ad litem. A case runs from 38-2231 and 38-2232, when a law enforcement or court services officer shall take a child into custody and what the officer must then do, through ex parte orders of protective custody at 38-2242 and orders of temporary custody at 38-2243, to adjudication at 38-2251 and the dispositional hearing at 38-2253. Permanency is the spine of the rest: planning at disposition (38-2257), permanency planning (38-2263) and the permanency hearing (38-2264), the request for termination of parental rights or appointment of a permanent custodian (38-2266), the factors to be considered in terminating parental rights (38-2269), custody for adoption (38-2270), and the appointment of a permanent custodian or establishment of SOUL family legal permanency (38-2272, 38-2272a). Also here: changes of placement and emergency changes, qualified residential treatment program placement, the prohibition on detaining a child in jail at 38-2276, child support, and appeals at 38-2273. This is the CURRENT code; the superseded Kansas Code for Care of Children in article 15 is not included.
Browse all 104 rules of the 2026 edition organized by section below. Each rule includes the full text, a plain-English summary, committee notes, amendment history, and cross-references to related rules. Use the search box to find rules by keyword or number.