Global Courant 2023-05-25 22:18:46
A federal class action lawsuit on behalf of more than 5,800 youth alleges San Bernardino County Children and Family Services, an agency deemed “too broken to fix” by a civil grand jury, failed to protect the children in its care and sometimes placed them in danger.
The lawsuit filed Thursday morning alleges that overburdened case managers are unable to conduct required visits and inspections of foster homes, and that the agency fails to properly vet the homes and families where children are placed, sometimes with dire consequences.
“In extreme cases, CVS has even placed children with known, registered sex offenders,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit filed by A better childhood, a nonprofit that uses civil litigation to push for reforms in child welfare systems, is seeking judicial intervention to reduce caseloads and requiring the agency to establish procedures to keep foster children safe and make plans to find them permanent homes . The lawsuit also names the California Department of Social Services as a defendant.
“Child welfare systems don’t have to function as poorly as San Bernardino’s child welfare system,” said Marcia Lowry, director of A Better Childhood. “These children’s lives have been destroyed by what is happening in the system.”
officials with San Bernardino County Children and Family Services and the California Department of Social Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit comes five months after the San Bernardino County grand jury called for Children and Family Services demolished and replaced by a private centerwhich the agency called “too broken to fix”.
The damning December report pointed out that the number of children who were physically and sexually abused while in the system increased every year from 2019 to 2021.
“The revelations that there are significant amounts of substantiated cases of sexual abuse and physical abuse are eye-openers,” the grand jury wrote. “There are a significant and alarming number of cases involving already traumatized children who come into the care of CFS and who have been further physically or sexually abused by a system put in place to protect them.”
In 2019, according to the report, 34 children under the agency’s care were physically assaulted and 14 sexually assaulted.
In 2020, 35 children were physically abused and 27 were victims of sexual abuse, and in 2021 the number rose to 55 substantiated cases of physical abuse and 34 cases of sexual abuse, the grand jury said.
San Bernardino Children and Family Services has experienced high staff turnover and a workload that is up to six times greater than recommended, Lowry said.
The Child Welfare League of America recommends a caseload of 12 to 15 foster children per employee, but by 2022, San Bernardino social workers were working with as many as 70 to 90 children, according to the indictment.
Children spend an average of 551 days in the custody of the San Bernardino County Bureau, the lawsuit alleges, about 104 days longer than the national average. Foster homes have not been properly vetted, and required meetings and inspections are instead “duty” and “fly-by” visits, according to the suit.
The lawsuit also alleges that children have been placed in homes where they do not speak the language of the foster family where they are placed.
“Whether or not a child ends up in a good foster home is a matter of serendipity, not design,” Lowry said. “I’m sure there are people in the system who want to do a good job and just don’t have the resources to do that.”
While the grand jury ruled that the county agency had taken some action to address the rising number of abuse cases, it called many of the steps “reactive” and not intended to prevent abuse.
For example, the agency has created an Open Case Investigation Unit to investigate cases of alleged abuse and hold meetings with law enforcement.
The grand jury alleged that the agency has no independent oversight.
“Currently, CFS has no local responsibility, which allows them to operate behind an air of confidentiality,” the report reads.
San Bernardino County Children and Family Services has been plagued with problems for more than 10 years, Lowry said, but despite scathing reviews and reports like those from the grand jury, little has changed.
“Nothing else works,” she said of the decision to file the lawsuit.
A Better Childhood is based in New York and has active businesses in New York, New Jersey, Mississippi, Oregon, West Virginia, Alaska and Texas. Some past lawsuits have resulted in federal mandates and federal oversight of welfare agencies.
“A lawsuit can be different because we want the court to really examine and look at the system very carefully,” said Polly Twill, whose firm, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, took the case on a pro bono basis. “We want to prevent disasters.”
