Schwabs say Court is allowing children to return home

The couple who staged a hunger strike on the steps of the Kansas Capitol to protest the state taking their children is getting their kids back.

Raymond and Amelia Schwab tell 13 NEWS a Riley County judge ruled Monday that the family should be re-integrated. They'll have unsupervised weekend visits while they arrange for schooling and medical care in Colorado, where the couple now lives, with four of the children permanently going home over Christmas break. The fifth will remain with his grandmother in Kansas to finish high school.

The Schwabs say Thanksgiving will be the first holiday they've spent together in nearly three years.

"We're glad to be able to spend the holiday with our children," Raymond Schwab said. "We'll still keep a watchful eye on the progress (of our case)."

Raymond Schwab says the couple had a December 19th hearing to confirm all arrangements are in place for the children to come home.

The Kansas Dept. for Children and Families removed the children from the home in April 2015. Court documents show what the Schwabs say were false allegations of drug use and neglect.

Their case gained national attention for the Schwabs discussions about medical marijuana, along with their protests, first at the Kansas Statehouse and later in Washington, D.C. The Schwabs claimed the state was kidnapping children to make a profit.

An advocate for the family, Jennifer Winn, says she will use this case to continue to fight for all families involved in a system that she says is currently set up to allow "false accusations to run rampant."

Winn says she intends pursue legislation that would end anonymous reporting of abuse allegations, along with the "secret social file." She says not giving families knowledge of their accusers allows the system to become a tool for revenge, and keeps case workers from focusing on children who truly need to be protected.