Girgis, L. (2025, September 30). WA to pay $9 million to woman who said she was sexually abused in foster care. The Seattle Times. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/law-justice/wa-to-pay-9-million-due-to-alleged-sexual-abuse-in-foster-care/
The gross negligence of state child welfare agencies constantly traps vulnerable foster children in environments with physical abuse, sexual abuse, and emotional abuse, all of which end in severe damage and personal injury claims. According to an article written by Lauren Girgis from the Seattle Times, a $9 million settlement was paid by the state of Washington to a 34-year-old former foster child who survived years of horrific exploitation while in the state’s foster care system. She alleged that between the ages of 5 and 12, she was repeatedly raped and abused in Pierce County by her foster mother’s live-in boyfriend, a convicted felon whose criminal history should have immediately disqualified him from living in a state-licensed foster home. A lawsuit filed in 2023 against the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) exposed institutional failures such as social workers explicitly documenting in 2003 that the foster mother refused to submit the boyfriend for a mandatory background check, yet they finalized the adoption months later simply to get the case “out of [their] system.” Caseworkers also completely abandoned their legal requirement to check on the child every 90 days, at one point having not visited her for 500 consecutive days and ignored red flags when the young girl missed dozens of days of elementary school. The case was resolved in September 2025, but the $9 million payout only adds to the list of liability claims in Washington’s foster care system. By speaking out, the former foster child hoped to force accountability from an agency that robbed her of her childhood and to send a powerful message that foster children matter and are not disposable.