Lawsuit against Deval Patrick, Health and Human Services secretary, Department of Children and Families commissioner takes aim at foster care system
U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor
SPRINGFIELD - The state’s foster care system is a wrenching cycle of neglect, abuse and mismanagement for many children, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.
A New York-based child welfare advocacy group and a Boston law firm are suing Gov. Deval L. Patrick, Health and Human Services Secretary Judyann Bigby and Angelo McClain, the commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, on behalf of six children who allegedly suffered a host of horrors while in state custody.
Four of the six are from Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties while two are from eastern Massachusetts, according to the complaint. The lawsuit fleshes out each plaintiff’s personal story and shines a light on a foster care system their lawyers say is broken. However, lawyers for the state argue that although the system has yielded undeniable heartache for the six plaintiffs, there is no link to widespread flawed policies.
A New York-based child welfare advocacy group and a Boston law firm are suing Gov. Deval L. Patrick, Health and Human Services Secretary Judyann Bigby and Angelo McClain, the commissioner of the Department of Children and Families, on behalf of six children who allegedly suffered a host of horrors while in state custody.
Four of the six are from Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin counties while two are from eastern Massachusetts, according to the complaint. The lawsuit fleshes out each plaintiff’s personal story and shines a light on a foster care system their lawyers say is broken. However, lawyers for the state argue that although the system has yielded undeniable heartache for the six plaintiffs, there is no link to widespread flawed policies.
SHORT INTERMISSION FOR SOME SERIOUS ROFLMAO TO THAT LAST STATEMENT.
Moreover, lawyers for Patrick and his codefendants say the tragic and delicate world of reuniting families and finding new ones for neglected or abused children is the purview of the state juvenile courts.
Both sides made arguments before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor on Thursday, with state attorneys moving to dismiss the case and plaintiffs’ lawyers seeking to advance it as a class-action lawsuit, which would allow new plaintiffs to be added.
The lead plaintiff, 9-year-old “Connor B.,” went into foster care at age 6, according to the complaint. He has been moved six times to seven different placements – including to his first foster home where he was sexually abused multiple times by a 17-year-old boy previously known to be sexually aggressive. Since then, the boy has bounced around in various placements, including a locked psychiatric facility and a group home.
“Connor’s future remains uncertain. His current foster parents have indicated they do not plan to adopt him,” the complaint states.
Another plaintiff, “Adam S.,” 16, of Franklin County has lived nearly half his life in foster care after he was removed from his mother’s home and was adopted by a couple who physically abused him and his two adoptive sisters, according to the lawsuit. He, too, was transferred from hospital settings to foster homes and other facilities, including a residential treatment facility, where he was brutally beaten by a group of older residents, the complaint says.
At 16, he has no prospects for a permanent family.
Children’s Rights has brought about a dozen similar lawsuits against state-based child welfare departments coast-to-coast, largely with successful results, an attorney with the agency said.
“The goal is to see that systemic ills are fixed .¤.¤. We’d rather not see lawyers fight but come to the table and solve these problems. We’re hoping to get there a lot sooner than later until such time there’s a system here these children deserve,” said Sara M. Bartosz.
In addition to highlighting six children’s cases, the complaint alleges that according to federal statistics supplied by each state’s child welfare system:
Both sides made arguments before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor on Thursday, with state attorneys moving to dismiss the case and plaintiffs’ lawyers seeking to advance it as a class-action lawsuit, which would allow new plaintiffs to be added.
The lead plaintiff, 9-year-old “Connor B.,” went into foster care at age 6, according to the complaint. He has been moved six times to seven different placements – including to his first foster home where he was sexually abused multiple times by a 17-year-old boy previously known to be sexually aggressive. Since then, the boy has bounced around in various placements, including a locked psychiatric facility and a group home.
“Connor’s future remains uncertain. His current foster parents have indicated they do not plan to adopt him,” the complaint states.
Another plaintiff, “Adam S.,” 16, of Franklin County has lived nearly half his life in foster care after he was removed from his mother’s home and was adopted by a couple who physically abused him and his two adoptive sisters, according to the lawsuit. He, too, was transferred from hospital settings to foster homes and other facilities, including a residential treatment facility, where he was brutally beaten by a group of older residents, the complaint says.
At 16, he has no prospects for a permanent family.
Children’s Rights has brought about a dozen similar lawsuits against state-based child welfare departments coast-to-coast, largely with successful results, an attorney with the agency said.
“The goal is to see that systemic ills are fixed .¤.¤. We’d rather not see lawyers fight but come to the table and solve these problems. We’re hoping to get there a lot sooner than later until such time there’s a system here these children deserve,” said Sara M. Bartosz.
In addition to highlighting six children’s cases, the complaint alleges that according to federal statistics supplied by each state’s child welfare system:
- Massachusetts ranked fourth among 47 states for children who are abused and neglected while in its care;
- It ranked eighth for children shuffled between five or more different foster homes while in state care;
- It ranked the 13th worst on timeliness of adoptions;
- Approximately 900 children “age out” of foster care every year with no permanent family and are ill-prepared to live independently as adults; and
- One in six children reunified with their families returns to foster care due to further abuse or neglect.
However, lawyers for the state told Ponsor the data asserted in the complaint was at best flawed, and at worst, dishonest. Robert Quinan Jr., of the state attorney General’s office, also took issue with the plaintiff’s lawyers’ contention that DCF social workers had caseloads of 50 to 70 families.
“That’s simply a lie,” he told Ponsor, arguing that social workers for the department carry an average caseload of 15.7 families.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers are looking for injunctive relief in the federal courts that may include hiring more social workers, better monitoring of the safety of children in state care, improved case planning and higher reimbursement rates for foster parents.
Amy Spector, another lawyer defending the state’s interest, said the defendants all care deeply about children but that litigation may be a misguided way to protect them.
“What is the best way to achieve a goal that everybody shares? To make a child’s life better,” she told Ponsor.
Erik S. Pitchal, a child welfare expert and professor at Suffolk University Law School, said that such lawsuits are typically successful for a number of reasons.
“The system is hidden by this veil, and this type of litigation brings public attention and scrutiny and therefore the attention of government officials,” Pitchal said. “The federal courts are traditionally the place that you go when you don’t have political power but you have legal rights.”
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