Children’s Rights
Children’s Rights is a national advocacy group working to reform failing child welfare systems on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of abused and neglected children who depend on them for protection and care. Since 1995, we have been fighting to enshrine in the law of the land every child’s right to be protected from abuse and neglect and to grow up in a safe, stable, permanent home. Through tough legal action complemented by substantive policy expertise, we have won landmark victories and brought about sweeping improvements in the lives of abused and neglected children in more than a dozen states.
In the states where Children’s Rights is active, fewer children who have already been victimized by abuse and neglect at home suffer further maltreatment in foster care. More children receive the high-quality medical, educational, and other services they need to recover from the trauma they have suffered and regain the healthy childhood that is their right. And more children go home sooner to better lives and to safe, stable, permanent families.
THE CASE
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With support from the Barbara McDowell and Gerald S. Hartman Foundation, Children’s Rights is pursuing a statewide federal class action lawsuit in Missouri challenging the state’s longstanding failure to ensure the safe administration of psychotropic and antipsychotic medications to children in state foster care. Plaintiffs include two- and three-year-old siblings in foster care, who were put on unmonitored psychotropic medications; a 14-year-old placed on six different psychotropic and antipsychotics medications simultaneously who developed facial tics, slurred speech and an inability to stay awake during the day; and a 12-year-old who required psychiatric hospitalization when given the wrong dosage of his medications upon moving from one home to another with no written medical instructions.
The lawsuit focuses on the state’s poor informed consent policy, a broken system for maintaining updated medical records for children, and the failure to operate a secondary review system to identify and address dangerous prescribing practices.
Our partners include John Amman of the St. Louis University School of Law Civil Litigation Clinic; attorneys at the National Center for Youth Law in Oakland, California, who have expertise related to the oversight of psychotropic medications; and the global law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, as pro bono counsel. Immediate and positive media coverage of our case has brought national attention to this important issue.
SIX-MONTH REPORT
YEAR-END REPORT -
In February 2015, Children’s Rights and the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest filed a class action lawsuit, B.K. v. McKay,against the state of Arizona on behalf of the over 17,000 children in the custody of its Department of Child Safety (DCS). Perkins Coie LLP joined the case as co-counsel in April.
The suit charges DCS and the Department of Health Services (DHS) with violating the plaintiff children’s constitutional and federal statutory rights by failing to: (i) maintain an adequate number and array of licensed family foster homes, (ii) provide needed health care services, (iii) preserve family ties once children are in foster care, and (iv) conduct timely investigations into reports that children have been maltreated while in state care. Children’s Rights’ case is vital and time-sensitive for these children, who are dependent on a dangerous, dysfunctional system for their protection, care, and well-being.
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In March 2011, Children’s Rights filed a class action in federal court seeking reform of the Texas child welfare system on behalf of approximately 12,000 abused or neglected children in long-term foster care statewide.
The lawsuit, known as M.D. v. Perry, charges Texas’s Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) with violating the constitutional rights of children who generally have been in foster care for at least a year, by routinely failing to find them safe, appropriate, and permanent new families—and therefore failing to meet its legal obligation to ensure the safety, permanency, and well-being of all children in its custody.
The case is scheduled for a full trial starting in December 2014.
CASE UPDATES SINCE GRANT YEAR
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The first-class action lawsuit to shine a federal spotlight solely on the overuse of psychotropic medications among vulnerable, at-risk populations, M.B. v. Tidball addresses longstanding, dangerous, unlawful and deliberately indifferent practices by Missouri’s child welfare system, including:
Failure to ensure that powerful psychotropic drugs are administered to children safely and only when necessary;
Failure to maintain complete and current medical records for children in foster care and to provide those records to foster parents and health providers to ensure effective and well-informed treatment;
Failure to maintain a secondary review system to identify and address high risk and outlier prescriptions to children when they occur; and
Failure to assure and document meaningful, informed consent in relation to the administration of these drugs.
Children’s Rights settled M.B. v. Tidball in 2019, and early data suggests a decline in the number of children on psychotropic medications. One of the most significant achievements to date is the development and publication of the first Psychotropic Medication Excessive Dosage Guidelines for Children in Foster Care by the settlement-created Psychotropic Medication Advisory Committee (PMAC). The publication of these guidelines by the PMAC represents a greatly needed advancement in the provision of mental health care to children in foster care and provides a template for other states to follow. This document can be accessed from the dedicated Psychotropic Medication Settlement page maintained by the Missouri Department of Social Services.
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Received class certification approval in a case against the State of Arizona for failing to investigate reports of abuse and neglect in foster care, to provide health services to the children, and to recruit sufficient foster home placements. The Court of Appeals affirmed class certification and the case is back at district court for trial. B.K. v. McKay
Since its filing the case has received press coverage in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the Wall Street Journal.
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Concluded a successful suit challenging abusive practices in Texas’ foster care system where children languish for long periods prior to adoption or reunification with their birth family.
A federal district court order, affirmed by the Court of Appeals, required the state agency to reduce caseloads, investigate abuse and neglect claims, and increase capacity for foster care placements. M.D. v. Abbott
“Children’s Rights is grateful to the Barbara McDowell Foundation for providing support that led to serious oversight improvements to protect kid’s health and safety.”
—Sandy Santana, Executive Director