Children Sue South Carolina to End Longstanding Dangers in Foster Care
Citing dangerous deficiencies in South Carolina’s child welfare system – including a drastic shortage of foster homes, excessive caseloads and a failure to provide children with basic health care – national advocacy organization Children’s Rights, the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center and Matthew T. Richardson, partner at the South Carolina law firm Wyche P.A., today filed suit against Governor Nikki Haley and Acting State Director of the Department of Social Services (DSS) Susan Alford.
The class action, Michelle H. v. Haley, filed in the Charleston Division of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, seeks reform on behalf of nearly 3,400 abused and neglected children statewide. It charges that as a result of pervasive failures by DSS, “Children have been and continue to be harmed physically, psychologically and emotionally, and continue to be placed at constant risk of such harms while in DSS custody.”
The 11 named plaintiffs, representing all children in state care, range in age from 2 to 17 and collectively have lived in foster homes and institutions across the state, suffering in myriad ways. For example, DSS has moved 16-year-old Michelle H. through at least 12 placements in about 8 years, including abusive foster homes. Michelle wants a family, but instead she is languishing in a restrictive group facility where she is placed in solitary confinement if she misbehaves because, as her caseworker told her, DSS does not have enough foster homes.
According to the complaint, child maltreatment in foster care goes uninvestigated, inaccurate data masks a much higher rate of abuse and neglect in care than the state reports to the federal government, and caseworkers are so overburdened that kids suffer unnecessary harms. South Carolina’s own standards call for caseloads of 14 to 20 children, but according to a 2014 report released by the Legislative Audit Council (LAC), 58 percent of workers had caseloads exceeding state standards, 19 percent were assigned more than 50 children, and some were even responsible for more than 75 children.
Many of the deficiencies detailed in the suit have been known for decades – highlighted as far back as 1985 by the LAC and as recently as the past year in multiple legislative hearings. The suit alleges that DSS has failed to make needed fixes.
The suit asks the court to fix three egregious problems in the system – the shortage of foster homes, excessive caseworker caseloads and inadequate health care for children.
More on this story at the link above.
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Source: http://www.spartanburgteaparty.org/2015/09/03/children-sue-south-carolina-to-end-longstanding-dangers-in-foster-care/
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