Ten months after the filing of a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Oregon’s foster children, settlement talks have broken down and the case is headed for trial.
National watchdog group A Better Childhood has filed a cross motion to set a new schedule for the trial to allow plaintiffs more time to develop their case. Executive Director Marcia Robinson Lowry said they expect the case to be ready for trial by the end of the year. The defendants have yet to issue an opinion on the trial schedule.
Ten Oregon foster children and their representatives are calling on the governor and state leaders to take responsibility for the massive problems in the state’s foster care system. With the lawsuit, they’re seeking an overhaul of the system to deal with the state’s over-burdened caseworkers, shortage of foster families and lack of adequate homes for children with special needs.
EXPLAINED: Because children are voiceless: Why foster youths sued Oregon
The plaintiffs filed a motion in December to certify the class, which could expand the pool of plaintiffs to include the estimated 8,000 children in Oregon foster care.
“We should be able to represent all of the children,” Robinson Lowry said. “That’s because the children we have identified as the named plaintiffs are representative of the class, and their stories raise common issues.”
THEIR STORIES: Testimonies from foster youths suing Oregon
Two child welfare experts, brought in by the plaintiffs, read through the case records of all 10 children involved in the case. They discovered that each of the children had been referred to the state’s Department of Human Services child abuse hotline multiple times.
“Some as many as 20 times,” Robinson Lowry said, “and very few of the reports were investigated, and very few resulted in service being provided to the children and families.”
Robinson Lowry said that with cases piling up and a lack of placements for children, the scope of Oregon’s foster care problems reaches far beyond the 10 children currently involved in the lawsuit.
THE NEXT GENERATION: What Oregon can learn from other states about foster care reform
The plaintiffs submitted the reviewers’ evaluation to the court, but a judge is deciding whether it should be made public. Defendants argue there is identifiable information included in the report about the child plaintiffs.
Robinson Lowry expected the judge to decide whether any information is individually identifying.
“The defendants are fighting nearly every single thing, so that takes a lot of time,” said Robinson Lowry, referring to the lack of a settlement. “It also costs a lot of money for the state to be paying the private law firm, and ultimately, we expect they’ll have to pay our fees, as well. It’s a waste of time. The problems are known, and the state should be working on solving them with us because we put forward a very strong case.”
A defense motion to dismiss the lawsuit, submitted in August, is pending.
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