Lawsuit to Protect Foster Children

theThursday

"Thisisaningrainedsystemof ignoring children'sneeds, and asaresult, toomany children sufferterribly," Lowrycontinued. "Californiashould do better for themost vulnerablechildren. No stateor countyhas stepped intohelpthesechildren andreformis longoverdue ?

SanBernardinoCountyisbeingsuedover the treatment of foster children.

On Thursday,May25, a68-pageclassaction lawsuit wasfiled in Riversideonbehalf of morethan 5,800childrenwhoarecurrently in foster careor may eventually beplaced infoster care. filed in federal districtcourt

Thelawsuit wasfiledagainst theCalifornia Department of Human Services,CDSS Commissioner KimJohnson, San Bernardino County Governor GavinNewsom,theCounty Boardof Supervisorsand theOfficeof Childrenand Family Services, andCFSCommissioner Jeannie Zepeda A second group ofplaintiffsconsistsof hundredsof children who havedisabilitiesin shelters and who claim in their lawsuitsthat they are particularly harmedbytheprotection system "No matter how hard SanBernardinoCounty officials try, thenumber of casesisso high that it is impossibleto protect thesechildren," said the statewidenonprofit, A Better Childhood, which filed thelawsuit.isquoted in apressrelease fromMarciaRobinsonLowry,director of

SanBernardinoCountyonlylearnedof the lawsuit on Thursday, but officialswere"still reviewingandevaluatingthecomplaint," as officialswere"still reviewing and evaluating thecomplaint." Therefore, Idid not receivean immediateresponse CaliforniaDepartment of Human Servicesspokesman JasonMontiel said thedepartment hasnot commented on the ongoinglawsuit Thursday'slawsuit followsSan BernardinoCounty'ssettlement of a$7.8million foster childabuselawsuitlast September.

InDecember, aSan BernardinoCountygrandjury ruled that thedepartment was"too brokento repair,"requiring theentiresystem to be dismantledandreplaced, and that "San Bernardino County fosterchildren wereat risk " released astern report claimingthat the number of documented casesof child abuse among foster children inSanBernardino County hasincreased over thepast threeyears, accordingto agrand jury.

In itsresponsetothegrandjuryreport,thecounty said, "Children andFamilyServicesbelievesinthe