and claims there are dozens of loopholes in that bill that need addressing.

Kentucky is failing its foster kids.

That's how state Auditor Alison Ball's office introduced a new report detailing foster children sleeping in state offices.

The report was conducted by the Commonwealth Office of the Ombudsman over a 22 month period.

The report found more than 300 children were put into what's called a nontraditional placement, or ntpe.

That includes 269 kids staying in office buildings, 17 in hotels and 16 in state parks.

174 of those children were in Ntpe for an average of eight days.

The report identifies what it found to be systemic failures by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, including a lack of transparency and unreliable tracking of the care these children received.

The report also lists ten recommendations, including the implementation of 2024 Senate Bill 151.

The so-called Kinship Care Bill is meant to help people who care for a relative's child by allowing them access to financial aid.

SB 151 is currently tied up in litigation, with the Beshear administration saying it can't be implemented because state lawmakers failed to appropriate money for it.

Terry Brooks is the executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, which champions education, health and safety issues related to children and families.

He says funding SB 151 is a good start, but he'd like to see the state take a bigger, bolder approach.

>> We think that nibbling at the edges is not going to solve the problem.

Instead, we have to look at the entire continuum of care.

And the bad news is that's going to cost some money.

I'm not going to minimize that.

We're going to have to invest in these kids.

There may be some other solutions.

I'm not suggesting that the special session is the only solution, but I think it's a good one.

Now, that call to the special session had a prerequisite, which is that the governor works collaboratively with the Senate House, and I would even suggest the auditor to lay out the scope of the session, the pace of the session, the focus of the session, so that when those lawmakers come together, we can get real work done again.

I'd be the last person to suggest that that's the only solution, but it's one that I think bears consideration.

If our leaders in Frankfort agree that what we need is a revolution in child welfare, not just incremental improvement.

>> Now, it should be noted that only the governor can call a special session.

In Kentucky, state lawmakers are working on a proposed constitutional amendment that would let voters