District of Columbia (LaShawn A. v. Fenty)
Overview
Children’s Rights filed this federal class action in 1989, charging the District of Columbia with jeopardizing the health and safety of thousands of abused and neglected children in its custody. Following a 1991 trial on the merits and a finding by the trial court that the District’s child welfare system violated federal law, Children’s Rights and defendants reached agreement on the terms of a court-ordered reform plan in 1993.
In the years that followed, the District made only minimal progress toward achieving court-mandated reforms, prompting the court to impose the unprecedented remedy of a federal takeover of the child welfare system’s management in 1995. The District regained control of the beleaguered agency in 2000, after establishing a cabinet-level Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) and committing to major reform. Though CFSA initially made strides to improve the quality of services and outcomes for abused and neglected children in the District, it remained in violation of the court-ordered reform plan.
In recent years, the advances previously achieved by CFSA deteriorated, and CFSA’s overall performance declined sharply, prompting Children’s Rights to file a motion for a finding of contempt against the District in July of 2008. The motion cites chronic problems including a large backlog of unresolved abuse and neglect investigations, failure to move children into permanent homes on a timely basis, and frequent moves for children in foster care. In an attempt to resolve these and other glaring problems, the parties negotiated a stipulated order, which was entered by the Court on October 7, 2008. The order set forth a number of requirements that CFSA must meet in order to move toward compliance with the court-ordered reform plan in the District.
On January 5, 2009, the court-ordered monitor issued a report indicating that CFSA has made adequate progress in meeting the requirements set forth in the October 7 order, and the parties are currently negotiating a longer term strategy plan for reform.
