alaska

Mary B. v. Kovol

Plaintiffs: 14 children in foster care, aged 1 through 16, representing the general class of over 3,000 children in foster care in Alaska. The lawsuit includes three subclasses: the Alaska Native Subclass, which represents Alaska Native children who are entitled to protection under the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978; the Kinship Subclass, which represents children who reside in a kinship foster home and who meet the criteria to receive foster care maintenance payments but whose foster families are not receiving said payments; and the Americans with Disabilities Act subclass, which represents children with physical, cognitive, and psychiatric disabilities.

Read the amended complaint here (filed July 15, 2022)

Read the order on Motion to Dismiss here (September 28, 2023)

Read the order on Class Certification here (June 25, 2025)

about the alaska foster care system

Alaska is failing the children in its foster care system, with children being shuffled across many placements, ending up in institutions, non-kinship foster homes far distances from their families, homeless shelters or—in extreme cases—Alaska Office of Children’s Services (“OCS”) offices. OCS also fails to support foster children and families and provide adequate services or the required monetary support to the foster families and children and fails to provide timely case plans and adequate permanency planning. Other problems include:

  • High caseloads and rampant turnover amongst caseworkers leaving caseworkers undertrained and overworked with caseloads “more than 3x the national average” that “exceed what is safely manageable” and with a system where “mission critical tasks go unmet.”

  • OCS is failing to provide Alaska Native children with placements that are compliant with the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, instead placing the children with non-Native families far from their communities.

  • Kinship or familial caregivers, who are often the best placements for children, are provided little if any support, including not being assisted by OCS to get licensed and not being paid foster care maintenance payments to which they are entitled under federal law.

  • The needs of foster children with disabilities are unmet, with OCS lacking adequate numbers of therapeutic foster homes and failing to assist children in obtaining adequate services to meet their needs.

Allegations

Alaska has repeatedly failed to meet federal and constitutional child welfare standards even though it has long been aware of extensive problems within its child welfare system. Children are placed in inappropriate homes and then are not supported or supervised in those homes.  Moreover, Alaska Native children are often not placed in Native homes, which leads to devastating loss of a connection to culture and community, kinship foster families are not given the financial support to which they are entitled under the law, and children with disabilities do not receive necessary treatment and are in many instances placed in overly restrictive and inappropriate facilities. These failures add to foster children’s already existent trauma of being removed from their family.

ADVOCACY GOALs

Mary B. v. Kovol requests that the court permanently prohibit OCS from subjecting the children in the general class and subclasses to practices that significantly harm them emotionally and physically.  On behalf of a class of over 3,000 children, we ask that the court enforce these children’s constitutional and federal law rights and ensure that they are placed in appropriate homes and adequately supported while in the state’s care.

Progress

ABC went to trial on behalf of foster children in September 2025. In April 2026, the judge ruled against the plaintiff children. The judge’s decision focuses on the wrong issues and departs from long-standing precent.  ABC is now gearing up to appeal the case to the Ninth Circuit.

Meet OUR PLANTIFFS

(All names below are pseudonyms)

  • Lana H. (age 14) has been in OCS custody since 2018 and is currently living at a homeless shelter in Anchorage, where she has spent almost two months waiting for a foster care placement. Since entering custody, she has spent time in 17 different placements—including six placements in overly restrictive behavioral institutions where clinicians physically restrained and sedated her. Despite severe medical and mental health needs, OCS is not providing her with services and has not placed her in a suitable therapeutic foster home.

  • After removing them from their mother, OCS initially placed Jeremiah M. (age 10), and twins Hannah M. and Hunter M. (age 6)—Alaska Native children—with their grandmother. OCS did not provide the grandmother with foster care maintenance payments or support services. And when their grandmother actively sought to obtain a foster care license, OCS denied her any help. This lack of support caused the placement to disrupt, and OCS removed the children from their grandmother—instead placing them in a non-Native home with a youth that has a record of sexual abuse. OCS is not providing the children with the services they need and has failed to take steps to reunify the children with their mother even though the case plan still recommends reunification.

  • Siblings Connor (age 1) and Mary (age 3) are both Alaska Native children. They have never lived together, and Connor has been living with a non-Native family since birth, with OCS making almost no attempt to maintain his connection to his family and culture. OCS only placed Mary with her grandmother after her grandmother fought for custody, but ultimately failed to support the grandmother by withholding required funding and by making the licensing process extremely difficult. Ultimately, this lack of support caused the placement with the grandmother to disrupt. OCS then placed Mary with her uncle, but still refused to place Connor with his family. Moreover, the grandmother, along with the biological mother, are regularly excluded from meetings pertaining to the children, thus hindering a successful reunification or guardianship even though that is still the goal for Mary and Connor, respectively.

  • David V. (age 16), George V. (age 15), Karen V. (age 13), Lawrence V. (age 12), and Damien V. (age 11) are adopted siblings. Since entering custody, OCS has placed the children in at least 40 different non-kinship placements. These placements include group homes, overly restrictive facilities, and homeless shelters. OCS has for the most part not placed the children together nor has OCS placed these Alaska Native children in Native homes. OCS has failed to treat the children’s extensive mental health needs and has failed to support or prepare the foster homes in which OCS has placed the children. Even though the permanency plan for the children remains reunification with their mother, OCS stopped in-person visitation entirely until an agency that could provide “therapeutic visitation” became available.

  • Gayle T. (age 16), Rachel T. (age 15), and Eleanor T. (age 14) have been in OCS custody since August 2020. Rachel T. and Eleanor T., who OCS placed separately from their sister Gayle T., require extensive medical services and are not receiving the services or support they require. Making matters worse, they have each cycled through numerous caseworkers, at least one of whom is responsible for nearly 100 children. OCS has also failed Gayle T. by placing her in inappropriate and overly restrictive facilities far from her family where she has been physically restrained and sedated against her will and has also been sexually assaulted by another foster child.