August 19, 2024
Iziko Calderon was in 10th grade when the seizures started.
A foster youth who had churned through abusive homes, Calderon assumed the episodes were a reaction to years of pent-up trauma. Calderon every so often would collapse at school, writhing from nerve pain as if engulfed in fire.
“People in school were afraid of me,” recounted Calderon, now 22 and a community organizer.
Calderon, who uses “they” pronouns, dropped out of Los Angeles High that school year, around age 16, in part because the teachers didn’t seem to know how to handle the debilitating episodes.
Two years later, shortly after turning 18, Calderon would flee another tense living situation and return to the school — not to enroll but to sleep on a park bench outside. For the next year, Calderon says, they were homeless, sleeping in their car and showering on Venice Beach, all while under the custody of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.
Every year, teens and young adults quietly slip from foster homes to the street, even as the county remains responsible for their care. After years of county officials promising more safe and reliable placement options for older foster kids, a sprawling federal lawsuit is putting new pressure on the nation’s largest child welfare system to get it done.
In June, U.S. District Judge John Kronstadt allowed a class-action lawsuit against Los Angeles County and the state to move forward, emphasizing that the government’s responsibility to foster kids doesn’t necessarily end when they turn 18.
We still find ourselves with far too many children living on the streets, couch-surfing, in and out of homeless shelters. It is just incredibly dangerous.
Leecia Welch
Related Work
View All Latest Content
- Case Name
- J.“E.”L. v. Charest
- Status
- Active
Children’s Rights, American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, and Disability Rights Rhode Island filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of Medicaid-eligible children against the state of Rhode Island for denying them legally required and medically necessary mental health care. Without access to intensive home and community-based services, these children have been routinely segregated from their communities and placed in institutions—sometimes far from home—where they are unable to thrive, and they remain at serious risk of continued unnecessary isolation and institutionalization.
Child Health, Families Together, Government Accountability
Lawsuit says R.I. is ‘failing’ kids with serious mental, behavioral health needs
Rhode Island Current
In the News
Stay Up To Date
Sign up to stay informed about our work in and out of the courtroom.