aBC IN THE NEWS

Portland, OR - May 4, 2026, - Oregon’s child welfare system, which previously yanked too many children from their homes, then gave some of them too little protection and care, has made measurable strides on key targets for child well-being set by an independent expert, the state asserted Friday.

Anchorage, AK - May 1, 2026 - The national nonprofit A Better Childhood is appealing the dismissal of a lawsuit against the Alaska Office of Children’s Services. Judge Sharon Gleason dismissed the federal class-action lawsuit in March.

Nashville - March 12, 2026 - Lawsuit claims TN foster children living in concerning conditions

West Virginia - February 25, 2026 - Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s “Bring Them Home Fund” doesn’t address West Virginia’s longstanding problem of warehousing too many troubled kids in group homes. Our investigation found that much more is needed to repair the program.

Tennessee - February 23, 2026 - A state commission reviewing severe child abuse cases found children using meth and being sex trafficked while staying in Department of Children's Services offices and transition homes.

Tennessee - December 17, 2025 - An audit released by the Tennessee Comptroller's Office paints a troubling picture of conditions inside the Department of Children's Services, citing widespread failures that advocates say are putting vulnerable children at risk.

New York, NY - October 21, 2025 - The challenges are enormous, but Lowry says to improve the system, reform is possible.“All you have to do is look across the river to New Jersey," Lowry said. "There are now extraordinary reforms, and it’s one of the best systems in the country. New York is not. If the child needs protection, the child is entitled under the Constitution and the laws to that protection. New York is not delivering it for too many children.”

ANCHORAGE, AK - September 9, 2025 - Alaska’s Office of Children’s Services is defending its practices in a federal court case that began Aug. 25 in Anchorage. A national organization, A Better Childhood, brought the class-action lawsuit hoping to force court-mandated reforms to a system it says is failing Alaska kids. It’s a strategy the group says has worked in other states.

SALEM, OR - August 12, 2025 - A Ninth Circuit panel ruled that all kids in the legal custody of Oregon's foster care system should benefit from the settlement, even the ones staying with family.

NASHVILLE, TN - May 20, 2025 - DCS is "worse than ever" after federal court monitoring ended 8 years ago. A group of Tennessee foster children is suing the state in a class action lawsuit, which claims the Department of Children’s Services fails the children it is supposed to protect.

CHARLESTON, WV - May 14, 2025 - A group representing children suing the state of West Virginia over its troubled foster care system wants the lawsuit revived after a judge tossed the case in February. 

ALASKA - April 23, 2025 - A putative federal class action aimed at reforming Alaska's foster care system cleared another legal hurdle on Wednesday when a federal judge denied much of the state's motion for summary judgment, though he did trim some pieces out of the complaint

TULSA, OK- March 13, 2025 - Federal court oversight of the Oklahoma child foster care system officially ended after 13 years on Thursday. The parties in the federal lawsuit D.G. vs. Yarborough were in court on Thursday to officially end federal court oversight over the Oklahoma child foster care system.

WEST VIRGINIA - February 28, 2025 - A federal judge on Friday threw out a lawsuit brought by foster children in 2019 against the state that sought to mandate changes in the troubled system. 

WEST VIRGINIA - January 28, 2025 - A decade after a federal investigation found West Virginia unnecessarily institutionalizes foster kids, our investigation has found the state’s most vulnerable kids are still being left behind.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA - October 1, 2024 - class action seeking to drastically reform San Bernardino County's beleaguered foster care system, which was deemed "too broken to fix" by a civil grand jury, cleared its first legal hurdle Tuesday after a federal judge denied the county's motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

EUGENE, OR - September 12, 2024 - They were shuffled from foster home to foster home, physically abused and emotionally scarred. On Thursday, they spoke out on behalf of Oregon’s 4,500 children in the state’s foster care system in a federal courtroom in Eugene. The four-hour hearing represented the final step in settling a five-year class action lawsuit that advocacy groups for children brought against the Oregon Department of Human Services, which runs the state’s foster care system.

Charlotte, NC - August 29, 2024 - North Carolina puts thousands of children in harm’s way by failing to fix the state’s broken child welfare system, says a federal class action complaint filed on behalf of nine foster children.

New York, NY - August 27, 2024 - In a legal victory for a group challenging the city’s foster care system, a federal court judge has ruled that 19 children, can proceed as one class representing all of the children in the New York City’s foster care system which amounts to about 7,000 children.

Louisiana - April 10, 2024- A class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of nine of those foster youth against Gov. Jeff Landry and his child welfare director David Matlock, accused the state of inadequate staffing, placement instability and insufficient medical care for kids.

April 10, 2024 - Nine foster children in Louisiana who have cycled through abusive homes and psychiatric hospitals are plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday against the state’s Department of Children and Family Services and the governor’s office, alleging that Louisiana is failing its children and violating their due process rights.

West Virginia - October 24, 2023 - The agency has repeatedly asked for more time to provide records and other documents in a class-action lawsuit.

Anchorage - September 29, 2023 - A federal judge advanced a putative class action brought by 14 foster children against Alaska’s Office of Children’s Services. Plaintiffs seek “wide-ranging reform” of Alaska’s foster care system, which plaintiffs claim is beset by structural issues that violate their federal statutory and constitutional rights.

New York - September 21, 2023 - A federal appeals court has granted New York City foster youth the go-ahead to proceed with their lawsuit against the city and state child welfare agencies, overturning a lower court ruling denying them class-action status.

West Virginia - August 18, 2023 - The 2019 lawsuit alleged that the state health department had failed to protect more than 6,000 foster kids and that too many of them were left to languish in the troubled system

South Bend, IN - August 16, 2023 - Ten children in the state’s foster care system sued the Indiana Department of Child services (DCS) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana on Wednesday, alleging that the agency failed to provide for the children’s care and left them in placements known to be “dangerous.”

AUSTIN, TX – June 30, 2023 - Off-duty cops hired to provide security to foster children sleeping in hotels and other makeshift facilities have shocked with a stun gun, handcuffed and pepper-sprayed the youth in the state’s care within two months, according to newly filed court documents

San Bernardino County - May 25, 2023 - A federal class-action lawsuit on behalf of more than 5,800 youths alleges San Bernardino County Children andFamily Services, an agency that was deemed “too broken to fix” by a civil grand jury, failed to protect children under its care and at times placed them in danger.

April 25, 2023

NEWARK - After 20 years of biannual reports measuring the progress on four dozen goals during five governors’ administrations, U.S. District Court Judge Stanley R. Chesler in Newark on Tuesday declared the lawsuit was finally over.

April 12, 2023

New documents offer a rare opportunity to see inside settlement discussions and show why legislation passed this year falls far short of what lawyers suing the state seek to help fix West Virginia’s foster care crisis.

April 12, 2023

AUSTIN — Foster children who previously were victims of sexual abuse are being placed in bedrooms alongside youth flagged for histories of sexual aggression and the state is doing nothing about it, a federal judge said Wednesday.

March 22, 2023 - Eleven years after a federal court began monitoring reforms in the state, Oklahoma now has a “model child-welfare system,” officials said Wednesday.

February 15, 2023 - Lawyers for more than 10,000 children in Texas’ much-criticized system of long-term foster care have used part of their taxpayer-paid fees to hire lobbyists to advocate for increased state funding of foster care.

February 9, 2023 - The state’s child welfare agency declined to investigate more than 100 reports of child-on-child sexual assaults and other “inappropriate sexual activity” in 2021, according to a report by the Office of the State Comptroller Wednesday that accuses the Murphy administration of not following the law and its own policies.

December 6, 2022 - A tentative plan to end nearly two decades of court-ordered supervision for New Jersey’s child welfare system in 2023 is finally gaining momentum after stalling for eight months in the state Legislature.

October 21, 2022 - A plan by Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration to end nearly 20 years of court oversight of New Jersey’s child welfare system — once considered to be among the most dysfunctional and mismanaged in the nation — has hit a snag

August 19, 2022 - Plaintiffs alleging widespread dysfunction within Oregon’s foster care system can now sue on behalf of all children within that system, a judge ruled this week.