Lawsuit seeks protections for 5,800 children in San Bernardino County foster care system

San Bernardino Sun ^ | 5/25/23 | BEAU YARBROUGH

[CFW]

San Bernardino County is being sued over its treatment of foster children.

A 68-page class action lawsuit was filed on Thursday, May 25, in U.S. District Court in Riverside, on behalf of more than 5,800 children who are or will likely end up in foster care.

The suit was filed against the California Department of Social Services, CDSS Director Kim Johnson, Gov. Gavin Newsom, San Bernardino County, the county Board of Supervisors and Department of Children and Family Services and CFS Director Jeany Zepeda. A second class of plaintiffs consists of hundreds of children with disabilities in the foster care system, whom the lawsuit claims have been especially harmed by the foster care system.

“Workers in San Bernardino County can’t possibly protect these children because of their high caseloads, no matter how hard they might try,” Marcia Robinson Lowry, director of A Better Childhood, the national nonprofit that brought the lawsuit, is quoted as saying in a news release issued Thursday.

“This is an ingrained system that ignores the needs of these children, and far too many children are suffering grievously because of it,” Lowry continued. “California should be doing far better for its most vulnerable children. Neither the state nor the county is stepping in to help these kids and reform is long overdue.”

[CFW]

Most state departments of child services exist to keep their own employee's jobs safe and do very little to help children. Every day I read another horror story of a child who was abused while in foster care or a case where parents had been reported for neglect and abuse but nothing had been done. We end up with dead children due to the counties' neglect. Those departments are well-known as a place for affirmative action hires and are staffed by people who can barely read and write and are more activist than anything else.

[philetus]

Not one child will see a penny of it.

[I-ambush]

It’s California, so I am surprised the proposed remedy is not post-birth abortion.

[PAR35]

or will likely end up in foster care.

Sueing on behalf of folks who aren't even victims?

[ridesthemiles]

IIRC-—Riverside County has become majority Hispanic/Illegals in past 30 years.