How many foster kids are homeless in L.A. County? Nobody knows
LA Times
In the News
Children are too often harmed by US child welfare, juvenile justice, education, and healthcare systems. Through strategic advocacy and legal action, Children’s Rights holds these systems accountable for the well-being of the children in their care.
Key Facts
THE ISSUE
Every day, children in government systems are denied the childhood they deserve. They face discrimination, abuse, and neglect within the very systems responsible for their well-being.
It’s time we all put kids first and find solutions that keep them safe. And that means both at the border and in cities and towns across the country where what’s happening to kids is not making headline news.”
The guiding principles of the child welfare system should be to eliminate the need for the foster system whenever possible by supporting families, addressing the issues of poverty often conflated with neglect in order to keep parents and children together, and prioritizing placement with kin when that is not possible. When children must enter the child welfare system it is the government’s responsibility to ensure their health, safety, and well-being in foster homes where they can be cared for by loving adults, while pursuing family reunification when that is an option.
Government systems are ill-equipped to help children heal from the trauma of being separated from their families. Children often receive grossly inadequate medical or mental health care services, have their education interrupted, lack access to special education services, are shuttled between foster homes, congregate settings, and emergency shelters, and are placed far from their homes and community. The common practice of moving children night-to-night to sleep in offices, motels, and cars has a direct impact on children’s normal brain development and can cause irreparable damage.
Time and time again, the foster system, healthcare, education, and immigration systems fail at their most basic function: keeping kids safe and healthy. Children in government care are at risk of physical and sexual abuse, are subjected to solitary confinement and dangerous physical restraints, and are improperly medicated. There are too many tragic instances of children subjected to physical and sexual abuse and even losing their lives while in government custody, many children’s educations are disrupted and woefully inadequate. Across the country, children leave these systems more traumatized and hurt than when they entered.
These daunting and complex government systems perpetuate cycles of poverty, racism, abuse, and discrimination. Through strategic advocacy and the power of the courts, Children’s Rights holds elected officials, public agencies, and the systems entrusted with their care accountable. In over 20 states, we have driven large-scale, systemic change on behalf of tens of thousands of children.
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- Case Name
- Ocean S. v. LA County
- Status
- Active
Seven young adults in the Los Angeles foster system filed this case against the California Department of Social Services, California Health and Human Services Agency, California Department of Health Care Services, Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services, and the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health. Children’s Rights, along with co-counsel Alliance for Children’s Rights, Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, and Public Counsel, is proud to join them.
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