Years of reform promises, and a foster care system still in crisis

Filed in 2016, Wyatt B. v. Brown became the cornerstone of Oregon’s child-welfare litigation. It was brought for foster children who were moved again and again, placed in unsafe homes, sent out of state to abusive institutions, or left in hotels and offices because ODHS had no other place for them.

The lawsuit showed that:

• Children spent days or even weeks sleeping in hotels, ODHS offices, and temporary rooms with no proper supervision.
• Many foster children were placed in highly restrictive institutions, including out-of-state facilities with histories of abuse, restraints, and neglect.
• Oregon sent children thousands of miles away to programs in states such as Utah, Montana, and Michigan, many of which faced serious abuse allegations.
• High caseworker turnover and unmanageable caseloads made safe oversight impossible.
• Children with disabilities and mental-health needs received little or no treatment.

In 2022, Oregon agreed to a sweeping settlement that required major changes in safety, placement stability, caseworker staffing, and services. But as with the decades-long litigation in Illinois, a settlement does not guarantee that children are safe.

Another significant lawsuit, A.B. v. Brown, targeted Oregon’s practice of sending foster children to out-of-state residential treatment facilities that were unregulated, unmonitored, and frequently dangerous.

Children in ODHS custody endured:

• Physical and sexual abuse
• Improper use of restraints
• Isolation or seclusion rooms
• Overmedication
• Physical neglect, missed schooling, and unsafe living conditions

The suit pushed Oregon to return children to the state and reexamine its dependence on out-of-state placements. Even so, the fact that ODHS ever used these facilities, and kept doing so after warning signs appeared, points to deep systemic failure.

The lawsuit known as D.B. v. Brown addressed ODHS’s long-standing practice of housing foster children in hotels, offices, and makeshift overnight locations because the agency had no safe, appropriate homes.

Some children slept:

• On office floors
• In conference rooms
• In ODHS agency buildings
• In government facilities with no accommodations for children

This dangerous practice frequently affected teenagers, LGBTQ+ youth, and children with complex mental-health needs. Hoteling exposed children to the risk of:

• Sexual exploitation
• Running away
• Self-harm
• Lack of supervision
• Physical and emotional trauma

Oregon promised to end the practice, yet reports indicate that children still experience unsafe temporary placements, which shows the reforms have not yet resolved the crisis.

Beyond these major lawsuits, investigative reports, audits, and federal findings have documented continuing problems, including:

• Chronic caseworker shortages
• High turnover that leaves inexperienced workers carrying overwhelming responsibilities
• Inadequate recruiting and training of foster parents
• Children placed far from their families and communities
• A lack of services for children with disabilities
• Failure to track or respond to abuse allegations in foster homes
• Delays in reunification or adoption caused by administrative failures

Oregon’s system is overwhelmed, under-resourced, and systemically dangerous for many of the children in its care.

Although the Wyatt B. v. Brown settlement set out a roadmap for reform, Oregon still struggles with the same systemic failures that led to the class action. As with all child welfare settlements, signing the agreement did not erase the underlying problems that endanger foster children. The years since have made clear that ODHS continues to fall short of even its most basic obligations to Oregon’s most vulnerable children.

In recent years, audits, oversight reports, and media investigations in Oregon have uncovered continuing problems, including:

• Persistent hoteling, with children still sleeping in hotels or state offices because placements are lacking.
• High staff turnover, which leaves inexperienced caseworkers making critical safety decisions.
• Severe placement shortages, especially for children with disabilities, trauma histories, or significant mental-health needs.
• Children placed far from home, sometimes hours from their schools, therapists, and siblings.
• Inadequate supervision, resulting in injuries, disappearances, and abuse in foster homes and facilities.
• Poor communication among ODHS units, causing delayed investigations and inconsistent decisions.

These failures harm children every day. Younger children may suffer attachment disruption, regression, and developmental delays. Teenagers often run away, become homeless, or are targeted for trafficking, and many become victims of sexual abuse. Children with disabilities lose vital therapies, medical oversight, and educational supports. Siblings are separated because ODHS cannot find homes able or willing to take them together.

Even when ODHS recognizes dangerous conditions in a foster home or facility, children are frequently left there because no alternatives exist. This creates predictable patterns of injury, trauma, and instability. Families ask, “If ODHS knew this placement was unsafe, why was my child left there?” Sadly, the answers point to a child welfare system stretched far beyond its capacity.

For many children, particularly those in hoteling or other inappropriate placements, the harm is life-altering. They lose months or years of schooling. They are cut off from mental-health treatment. They develop trauma-related conditions that could have been prevented. The risk of sexual abuse rises because safety plans cannot be properly carried out, and many children run to situations where traffickers can sexually abuse them. These consequences do not disappear when a settlement is signed.

Justice for Kids® works to hold ODHS accountable in these cases so that children who have been injured or neglected have the chance to heal and rebuild their lives.

Our Oregon foster care attorneys review cases in which children in ODHS custody suffered:

• Physical abuse, including hitting, choking, slapping, or violent punishment
• Sexual abuse or exploitation, including abuse by foster parents, other children, staff, or others in the home
• Chronic neglect, such as inadequate supervision, insufficient food, medical neglect, or exposure to dangerous people
• Repeated placement disruptions, which deepen trauma and signal poor oversight
• Failure to protect, where ODHS disregarded reports or violated safety plans

We investigate whether ODHS:

• Ignored earlier abuse allegations
• Sent children back to unsafe homes
• Licensed unsafe foster parents
• Failed to provide services to children with disabilities or trauma histories
• Violated child welfare standards or Oregon’s rules on placement and supervision

Many Oregon foster children are placed in:

• Group homes
• Residential treatment centers (RTCs)
• Psychiatric hospitals
• Detention centers
• Out-of-state facilities

Children in these settings often face:

• Physical or sexual abuse
• Improper restraints
• Isolation or seclusion rooms
• Overmedication
• Peer-on-peer violence
• Staff misconduct or neglect

Our role is to determine whether ODHS and the facility:

• Violated standards of care
• Overlooked red flags
• Failed to investigate incidents
• Failed to move children to safer placements
• Delayed or denied access to mental-health services

Sadly, in many cases involving children who have been physically or sexually abused, some adopted children have endured multiple traumas and been diagnosed with severe mental health disorders, such as reactive attachment disorder or sexual aggressiveness, or with other psychological disorders. Adoption or child welfare agencies, ODHS, or other private foster care organizations did not disclose these conditions to the adoptive parents when the children were adopted from child protection systems. Others have been prematurely sexualized and have been physically or sexually aggressive toward younger children in the family. Adoptive parents may also need additional resources to treat these children, or temporary residential placements until it is safe to bring the children home, or to meet the other therapeutic needs of both the adopted children and the children who were injured.

Many adoption disruptions are preventable. At Justice for Kids®, where appropriate, we fight to increase adoption subsidies and to bring damage claims for negligent or outright misrepresentation or fraud. Children who are surrendered because an adoption is disrupted have been traumatized yet again, so they may have significant personal injury claims. The lawyers at Justice for Kids® fight to obtain the financial resources that parents and children desperately need to keep their families together and properly treat these children.