Children’s Rights, together with the Rhode Island Child Advocate and the law firm Weil, Gothsal & Manges LLM, filed this class action in June of 2007 to reform the long-failing child welfare system in Rhode Island. The federal complaint charges Rhode Island’s Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) with failing to ensure the safety and well-being of more than 3,000 children in state custody. Systemic problems cited in the lawsuit include:
•Children are frequently abused and neglected while in foster care. Rhode Island has been worst in the nation in its rate of maltreatment or neglect to children in foster care in five of the six years from 2000 through 2005;
•Children are placed in large, orphanage-like institutions rather than in homes with families. Over 35 percent of children in foster care in Rhode Island are placed in shelters and other group settings;
•Children languish unnecessarily in foster care for years. DCYF fails to plan for adoption when children cannot be safely returned home, and places children in group homes rather than with foster families, further reducing their chances of adoption;
•Children do not receive essential medical, dental and mental health services.
In April 2009, the federal court dismissed the case on narrow, technical grounds. Children’s Rights has appealed the decision.
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