Lawsuit:Class Action San Bernardino County

“The lawsuit alleges that San Bernardino’s Child and Family Services (CFS) fails to adequately vet foster homes or check up on the children living in them, leaving children in “dangerous” placements — at times with known abusers. The department is also failing to meet statutory requirements for case planning, resulting in children being “forced to languish unnecessarily in foster care for years.”

“This is an ingrained system that ignores the needs of these children, and far too many children are suffering grievously because of it,” Marcia Robinson Lowry, director of A Better Childhood, said in a press release. “California should be doing far better for its most vulnerable children. Neither the state nor the county is stepping in to help these kids and reform is long overdue.”

The suit, Gary G. v. Newsom, was filed May 25 in a California federal court by the national nonprofit advocacy group A Better Childhood. It names 11 plaintiffs, ranging in age from 15 months to 15 years, representing a potential class of roughly 5,800 children. San Bernardino County elected officials and CFS Director Jeany Zepeda are named as defendants, along with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Kim Johnson, the head of the state Department of Social Services.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs allege that CFS’ treatment of foster youth violates their constitutional rights, as well as the federal Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act and the state Welfare and Institutions Code.

They also allege violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and name in the suit a subclass of children with physical, mental and behavioral disabilities, stating that they are disproportionately impacted by the child welfare department’s failures.

Among the concerns laid out in the suit:

• CFS lacks protocols to screen out abusers from becoming foster parents;
  Statutorily required monthly in-home visits for children in foster care are not constantly occurring, and visits that do occur are rushed, “perfunctory,” and don’t include all necessary steps to ensure child safety;
• Insufficient emergency placement options are leading to children sleeping in CFS offices for days to months, sometimes on the floor, living off of fast food while placement is sought;
• Inadequate and untimely case planning and child-family team meetings deny children permanency;
• Failure to provide timely access to basic healthcare and services, including therapists and mental health treatment needed to help youth reunify with their family or meet another permanency plan.

The results are dire, according to the lawsuit. Children in San Bernardino’s care are maltreated at a significantly higher rate than the state and national averages, according to the lawsuit. Children stay in foster care 24% longer than the national average and are 50% more likely to age out. Substantiated abuse cases for children in foster care have risen every year since 2019, the 2022 grand jury report states.

“CFS has itself admitted that ‘[p]ermanency is not being addressed’ and ‘performance has gotten worse since 2012,’” the suit states.

Understaffing is highlighted as a key factor driving many of the alleged violations, lawyers state. CFS caseworkers have a caseload average of 70 to 90 children, five times higher than accepted professional standards.

Plaintiffs’ experiences in foster care are shared to illustrate the harms caused by the county’s failings. Gary G. entered foster care as a newborn in December 2021 and has only had six in-home visits and not a single child-family team meeting to discuss permanency. The county has failed to assure consistent medical care for his complex needs and continues to allow unsupervised visits with his birth father, despite the child being so badly injured during a visit that he had to go to urgent care. Due to significant medical needs and developmental delays, Gary’s medical team referred him to the regional center, but his caseworkers failed to facilitate the referral.

Two sisters, Francesca B. and Delilah B., were placed in an abusive foster home where they were beaten and held underwater. One incident of abuse left Delilah with a broken bone that went untreated for months before the caseworker intervened and got her care. The caseworker failed to take her in for follow-up appointments to ensure proper healing, the suit alleges. Lawyers also state that the girls were never given services for the trauma, and still struggle with water-related activities, including showering.

CFS has been under scrutiny for nearly a decade. In 2015, it was the subject of the Fox 11 exposé “The Children are Dying,” in which former social workers alleged the department ignored evidence of abuse. It was investigated for potential systemic failures by the state Office of the Attorney General, and has been repeatedly investigated by grand juries. Grand jury reports in 2016, 2017 and 2019 found “excessively high” caseloads, “tremendous turnover” and chronic understaffing.

The lawsuit calls for lowering caseloads to accepted professional standards, and hiring and training enough social workers to meet that goal. It also calls for the county to develop an array of community-based therapeutic services and placements, and to increase its supply of short-term emergency placements to end the practice of housing children in CFS offices. Lawyers also want the court to order annual state and county analyses to ensure conditions and care are improving. ”

San Bernardino Foster Youth File Class-Action Lawsuit
[The Imprint 6/1/23 by Sea Tiano]

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