class action

West Virginia, the third poorest state in the nation with the highest rate of foster care removals in the country, is handing children off to unsupported and unverified relatives and dooming hundreds to age out of foster care from institutions and group homes.

A nonprofit law firm representing a group of New York City foster youth has resumed long-running litigation against the city’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) and the state agency that oversees it.

Plaintiffs involved in a class-action lawsuit of Mississippi’s child welfare system are asking for the federal courts to put a receiver in charge after a dismal recent report on progress under the current settlement.

The Trump administration has granted South Carolina an exception to rules barring federal funds to discriminatory providers, a decision that opens the door to more challenges by states that wish to shield religious groups from penalties.

Marcia Lowry, the crusading child welfare attorney, works out of an office on Hardscrabble Road. She didn’t name this leafy suburban New York lane, but it suits her reputation: The slew of big-ticket settlements she’s secured against large foster care systems made her one of the nation’s most respected, winning and – in some quarters – loathed attorneys for vulnerable youth.

In a pilot program meant to test privatization of child welfare services, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) has appointed a nonprofit organization to provide family-based safety services to families at risk of child abuse or neglect in six Texas counties, including El Paso.

Child welfare systems in many states are under court monitoring or receivership. Courts became involved due to class action lawsuits, such as the one recently filed against New York City's child welfare agency.