Indiana
Annabel B. V. Governor Holcomb
Plaintiffs: 10 children in foster care, representing the general class of over 11,000 children in foster care in Indiana. The lawsuit includes a general class and a subclass: the Americans with Disabilities Act subclass, which represents children with emotional, psychological, cognitive, or physical disabilities.
Read the complaint, filed August 16, 2023
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about the INdiana foster care system
Indiana is failing to provide children in its care with stable, nurturing, family-like homes. A lack of foster homes mean children’s placements are based on whatever home is available rather than what home is suitable, and children too often wind up in institutions. Other problems include:
Frequent moves among homes and institutions increase trauma for children already removed from their family homes and often separated from their siblings, their school, and their community.
DCS is unable to meet the needs of the thousands of foster children with disabilities whose involvement in the child welfare system places them at a greater risk of institutionalization.
The child welfare system relies too heavily on institutionalization, particularly for children with even minor behavioral problems, with many children often placed in locked, restrictive, poor quality and jail-like facilities.
The system is not set up to provide children the necessary services and treatment they need—foster children’s medical, mental health, and physical needs remain unmet due to irregular, infrequent assessments and the lack of sufficient and available resources.
DCS fails to recruit and retain an adequate number of caseworkers. Overworked caseworkers struggle to make important but difficult decisions about the right services to provide—they face having too many children to serve, too few resources, and too little training.
DCS’s termination of parental rights practices cause children to remain in foster care for years, caught in limbo between reunification and adoption.
DCS’s treatment of foster parents causes foster parents to stop accepting placements, discourages foster parents from renewing their licenses, and deters prospective foster parents from seeking a license.
ADVOCACY GOALs
Annabel B. v. Holcomb requests that the court permanently prohibit DCS from subjecting the children in the general class and the ADA subclass to further harm and from threatening their safety and well-being through practices that violate their rights. The case seeks an order directing DCS to, among other things:
Establish processes to ensure that children receive timely and appropriate mental and medical treatment;
Lower caseloads of individual workers to professional standards and adopt a caseload counting methodology that accurately reflects workload;
Maintain accurate medical records for all foster children;
Conduct face-to-face visits with all foster children at least once per month, and at least twice per month for children on trial home visits;
Inform foster parents of the foster child’s medical needs prior to placement;
Establish a policy that prohibits retaliation against foster parents;
Ensure that children with disabilities have an opportunity to receive services in their home communities;
Develop a process to properly match children with safe and appropriate foster home placements; and
Contract with an outside entity to conduct a needs assessment that includes a plan with mandatory benchmarks.
Progress
The Seventh Circuit has a narrower version of the abstention doctrine than one espoused by the United States Supreme Court. We have been successful in other jurisdictions where the issue has been raised as a bar to challenging the foster care conditions in that state’s foster care system in federal court. In Indiana we lost the first case on the issues based on the Circuit’s view and it looks like our case may also face the same challenges. But we won’t give up. We will petition for rehearing en banc and will probably try to take the case to the Supreme Court.
Meet OUR PLANTIFFS
(All names below are pseudonyms)
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Miles is an eight-year-old boy who has been in and out of DCS custody since 2017. Miles was initially removed from his home for abuse, and in his first foster placement was traumatized by visits from his biological mother. Due to threats from Miles’ biological mother, the foster placement requested that Miles be removed from their care. DCS recommended a 6 month trail home visit with his mother and stepfather, and after 6 months considered them reunified. However, 6 months later, Miles’ stepfather murdered his younger brother, Justin, while Miles and his other siblings were in the home. Miles was then shuttled to three different foster homes over six months. Miles was placed back with his foster foster placement, however the foster parent was not provided any information about their abuse or behaviors. Despite many signs of abuse and neglect, Miles only received two Zoom therapy sessions over the year-long placement. He is now living with his maternal grandparents, who are not licensed foster parents, and is still without necessary services and treatment.
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Joshua J. is a 16 year old boy who has been in DCS custody for nine years. During that time, DCS has bounced Joshua between 22 placements. Joshua and his siblings were originally removed from the home after his stepmother died from overdosing on methamphetamine that Joshua’s father was trafficking. From 2015- 2022 While DCS took many years to conduct hearing for termination of parental rights and adoption, DCS changed Joshua’s placement 16 times, with no plan for permanency. During that year period, Joshua did not receive consistent therapy. Because of this, Joshua lost trust in medical and mental health professionals and expressed suicidal ideation and exhibited serious behavioral issues. DCS has been unable to find a suitable placement for Joshua, and knowingly placed him in an inappropriate setting. Joshua continues to suffer because of DCS lack of permanency planning and their failure to provide Joshua with much needed services.
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Annabel (14) and Levi B. (12) are siblings that were originally removed in 2015 because their mother physically abused her two eldest children. They have both spent more than half their life in foster care. Both children have a history of sexual abuse. After many placements and many behavioral issues, including an incident were Annabel cut her throat with a knife and was hospitalized, the siblings were in desperate need of stability and medical and mental health services. While many professionals have recommended consistent mental health services and a stable living environment, DCS has failed to provide Annabel and Levi with consistent care.
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Nigel (12), Sarah (11), Ashley (9), and Matthew (8) are siblings who have been in DCS custody for more than 6 years. The siblings were initially removed in 2016 for unsafe home conditions, and were bounced between placements, with each sibling experiencing at least eight separate placements in their first three years of care. During this time, all siblings have demonstrated increasing behavioral and psychological issues. After being placed back with their parents, they showed signs of severe sexual abuse. In 2019, DCS recommended termination of parental rights, are still without permanency plans. All four children have experienced declining mental health and increasing behavioral and psychological issues throughout their time in care due to DCS’s inactions.
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Sophia is a thirteen-year-old girl from who has been in DCS custody since 2019. Sophia and her siblings were repeatedly sexually abused by their mother’s fiance, even after a safety plan prohibited his contact with the children. When Sophia was finally removed from the home, her severe trauma was left untreated, and she didn’t receive any therapy or services for two years. Because of this, she was accused of sexually abusing another foster child. Since her removal, Sophia has been bounced between eight foster homes, two residential placements, multiple emergency room stays and acute stays, and five caseworkers. She now resides with her legal father and continues to suffer from her untreated emotional and psychological harm.
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Kimberly is 15 years old and has been in DCS custody for eight years. In 2015, DCS removed Kimberly after she was raped and molested by her stepfather and other adults in her home. She was placed with her grandmother even though DCS knew there were safety concerns, including an uncle living in the house with a history of sexual misconduct. An advocate reported this issue, but DCS never responded or removed Kimberly from the home. In the months following her sexual abuse, she received no therapy or psychological evaluation, and when she finally did it was inconsistent. This lack of services has caused behavioral issues, which have caused further inconsistency with foster home placement and medical care. She is back living with her grandmother.