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A federal lawsuit brought by Indiana foster children alleges the Indiana Department of Child Services is failing to keep children safe by not correcting systemic failures that have been known to state officials for decades.
The three-count class-action lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the Indiana Northern District Court, has 10 named plaintiffs ranging in age from 8 to 16. The lawsuit also names as defendants DCS Director Eric Miller and Gov. Eric Holcomb.
The lawsuit references state and federal investigations that have shown “critical failures” within DCS, as well as data that indicates the state’s foster children are “languishing in state custody longer than ever before.”
“The data reveals a foster care system in crisis: foster children in Indiana remain in state custody for too long, move through far more placements than the national standard, re-enter the foster care system at higher rates, are returned home when their homes are unsafe, and experience maltreatment in care at rates that exceed national standards,” the complaint says.
One of the plaintiffs, for example, is 15 years old and has been in DCS custody for about eight years, according to the lawsuit. DCS removed her when she was 8 years old after being sexually abused by her stepfather, who is currently incarcerated for those offenses. The mother was also accused of neglect and illegal drug use.
After removal, DCS placed her with a grandmother, the lawsuit says, even though DCS knew the placement was unsafe because the grandmother was selling pain medication for gas and food, and she was “overmedicating” so she couldn’t properly supervise the plaintiff and her sister.
The plaintiff was sexually abused again, this time by the grandmother’s neighbor, according to the complaint, and instead of removing her and her sister, DCS implemented a safety plan prohibiting contact with the neighbor.
The plaintiff was removed from the grandmother’s home in 2019 and placed in a licensed foster home, the complaint says, though she didn’t receive therapy or a psychological evaluation for six months.
The systemic problems the lawsuit references include staff turnover because of high caseloads. According to the complaint, every staff turnover costs between 45% and 115% of an employee’s salary because of expenses associated with recruiting, training and onboarding new employees.
“As a result of its ongoing caseworker retention problem, DCS is unable to adequately implement safety plans, to inspect placements, to conduct visits with children, or to make important decisions about a child’s life such as whether to recommend that a child should be returned home,” the lawsuit says.
The complaint also accuses DCS of leaving children “in limbo” because it’s unable to secure permanency for foster children due to problems with caseworker retention.
Another accusation is that DCS is failing to maintain an adequate medical record-keeping system for children in its custody.
“Instead, children habitually arrive at new foster homes with just an unmarked sandwich bag containing their medications,” the lawsuit says. “DCS rarely provides foster parents with a medical passport; when they do, it is typically blank or includes incomplete or incorrect information. When asked, many foster parents have never heard of, let alone seen, a medical passport.”
The lawsuit also references the 2017 resignation letter former DCS Director Mary Beth Bonaventura penned to Holcomb, in which she warned that Miller was “the greatest threat to this agency and child welfare.”
The letter doesn’t name Miller, who was then chief of staff.
“The current chief of staff has engineered the hiring of his choices, driven out career professionals, engaged in bullying subordinates, created a hostile work environment, exposed the agency to lawsuits, overridden my decisions, been brazenly insubordinate, and made cost cutting decisions without my knowledge or regard for the consequences,” she wrote.
Holcomb appointed Miller as director in May, replacing Terry Stigdon.
The children in the lawsuit are represented by SouthBank Legal, as well as Kirkland & Ellis and national advocacy group A Better Childhood.
“Children in Indiana are literally dying,” Marcia Robinson Lowry, executive director of A Better Childhood, said in a statement. “Tragically, the child welfare system in Indiana continues to ignore the needs of its most vulnerable children. It is critical that this agency and the state are held accountable for what they are doing to the children they are required to protect.”
DCS declined to comment on the lawsuit.
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