Class-action lawsuit says state is failing Alaska foster kids – Alaska Public Media

A brand new federal class-action lawsuit filed towards Alaska’s Workplace of Youngsters’s Companies asserts that the state is failing youngsters in foster care. Attorneys for the 13 baby plaintiffs declare the state has identified about widespread foster care issues for years, however hasn’t addressed them. 

Within the 90-page grievance filed Thursday, they are saying issues embody excessive caseloads for caseworkers and excessive turnover amongst these staff, plus few sufficient foster houses and an absence of sufficient assist for putting foster youngsters with members of the family. 

The group of attorneys representing the plaintiffs embody A Higher Childhood, a New York-based advocacy nonprofit centered on foster care. The group has filed a variety of class motion lawsuits in different states akin to Oklahoma, West Virginia and Indiana.

Marcia Robinson Lowry, government director of A Higher Childhood, mentioned Alaska isn’t the worst state on the subject of assembly federal necessities, but it surely’s removed from the most effective. 

“Alaska is fifth-worst in returning children to their household houses and seventh-worst within the nation on the frequency with which youngsters are visited, which is a federal mandate,” Lowry mentioned. 

The state Division of Well being and Social Companies and OCS are listed as defendants within the grievance. 

Officers with the state businesses mentioned Friday that they hadn’t been served with the grievance but, and couldn’t touch upon the case. In an announcement, they mentioned, “what we will say is that the State takes its obligations for reunification of households, foster care, and the well being and welfare of all Alaskan youngsters very critically.” 

READ MORE: The COVID-19 pandemic is leaving extra youngsters in Alaska’s foster care system and not using a steady house

The grievance says the issues within the state’s foster care system are widespread.

It says the system is inflicting specific hurt to Alaska Native youngsters, who make up roughly two-thirds of all Alaska youngsters in foster care, regardless of being somewhat over a fourth of the state’s inhabitants. Below the Indian Youngster Welfare Act, or ICWA, baby welfare businesses are federally compelled to work as laborious as doable to deal with Native foster youngsters with their households, or with their tribes. 

The grievance particulars quite a few tales from the plaintiffs, together with 5 Alaska Native siblings who hadn’t been positioned in houses that complied with ICWA, a boy with ADHD who had been moved to seven completely different houses since April of final yr and a 16-year-old woman who reported she was sexually assaulted at a psychological well being remedy facility she was positioned at a whole lot of miles from her house.

The grievance additionally says the state isn’t doing sufficient to deal with foster youngsters who’ve disabilities.

Lowry mentioned one other challenge is that generally when children are positioned with members of the family, the households aren’t licensed by the state as official foster mother and father, so that they don’t obtain the funding and assist that comes with that licensing. 

“And the kids both wrestle alone with out sufficient cash obtainable for his or her meals and clothes and different actions,” Lowry mentioned, “or the foster mother and father mainly break underneath the strain and the youngsters get moved out and moved to a different placement, and one other alternative, and one other placement.”

Lowry mentioned the plaintiffs hope their lawsuit leads to the Superior Courtroom ordering the state to take a variety of actions, together with decreasing caseloads for foster care staff. Presently, these staff generally try handle case numbers that complete thrice the nationwide common. Turnover amongst employees is roughly 60 p.c.

“So there’s loads that must be executed with regard to caseloads, and the state has to develop extra and higher foster houses,” Lowry mentioned. “On the identical time, the state wants to offer companies so that youngsters can return house extra shortly, or if that’s not applicable or secure, so the youngsters may be adopted, both by kin if doable or different individuals as nicely.”

There are roughly 3,000 youngsters within the foster care system in Alaska.

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