Washington Foster Care Negligence Attorneys Fighting for Children Who Were Failed by the System
Neglect in foster care is an extremely common but often overlooked form of foster care abuse. Children often enter the foster care system after being removed from a home due to alleged or actual mistreatment or neglect, and a foster care placement should be a place where a child experiences love, support, and care during a difficult and overwhelming time in their lives.
Yet despite the promise that foster care will provide more support and stability than a neglectful / allegedly neglectful home situation, many foster care arrangements fail to live up to this expectation. According to recent statistics, it is estimated that up to 28 percent of children in foster care experience some form of abuse or neglect. These statistics, although enraging, often come as no surprise to children who have been through the foster care system.
What Constitutes Neglect?
One of the challenging aspects of foster care abuse is understanding what constitutes foster care negligence. For children who may have grown up in environments of neglect, it can be difficult to know what actual loving care looks like and whether a foster care family is meeting their responsibilities to provide such care.
Negligence in foster care can take many forms, but in all circumstances it involves a failure to meet a child’s basic needs.
Physical neglect includes a failure to provide a child with their basic bodily needs, including adequate nutrition and water, as well as a safe and hygienic home environment. Physical neglect may also occur when a foster care family does not provide a child with the medical attention and care that they may require, or where inadequate supervision of a child leaves them exposed to a heightened risk of harm or injury due to unsafe living conditions.
Emotional neglect includes a failure to meet a child’s developmental emotional and psychological needs. All children deserve support, attention, love, and recognition. Without these basic emotional needs, children may deal with prolonged mental health challenges, including attachment issues, anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and difficulty creating or maintaining healthy relationships.
Neglect can also arise where a foster care placement fails to provide a child with the developmental or educational support that they need, including providing special needs resources, certain therapies, or regular access to an educational environment. Without these supports, a child may face ongoing learning challenges or impediments in reaching their full potential.
Because neglect takes many forms, it is not always obvious to onlookers and may result in subtle increases in harm over time. Indeed, the cumulative impact of foster care neglect may not be evident to a victim or their loved ones until many years after a child is out of a foster care setting. If you have concerns that you experienced foster care negligence, or that a child you know is currently a victim of neglect, talking with our Washington foster care negligence attorney team can help you understand the full extent of the abuse that may have occurred.
Liability for Foster Care Neglect
Liability for foster care negligence is not limited only to the foster care parent or family that failed to provide adequate physical, emotional, or educational care for a child. While foster care parents may indeed be criminally or civilly liable for their neglect, some responsibility can also fall on the shoulders of the professionals or agencies that allowed a child to be placed into a neglectful environment, or who permitted the neglect to continue.
Under Washington law, the State of Washington, its foster care agencies and foster care professionals all have a responsibility to ensure that a child in foster care is kept safe from harm. But a lack of resources, overworked professionals, and organizational failures can all lead to a failure to meet this responsibility. And when that happens, those individuals and organizations may also be responsible for foster care negligence that occurs.
In Washington, the state foster care system is run by the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF). Formerly, the state foster care system was part of the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS). The Washington State Supreme Court has held that DSHS / DCYF has a duty to protect foster children from foreseeable harm at the hands of foster parents. The duty is simply to use reasonable care to protect the other person from the criminal or tortious acts of third parties. DCYF has a duty to monitor placements of children to assure the safety, well-being, and quality of care being provided.
Pursuing Legal Action
If you or a loved one experienced foster care negligence as a child, it can be overwhelming to think about taking legal action to address your harm. Processing the trauma of what you experienced and moving forward can be challenging enough without the additional hurdle of trying to work through legal claims.
There are a variety of possible legal options available to you, and an experienced Washington foster care negligence attorney can help you evaluate whether you have a claim and which approach may work best. A civil legal action allows a negligent party to be held monetarily liable for the negligence that occurred. Certain time limits to bring a claim apply, so you should consult legal counsel as soon as you can.
Frequently Asked Questions Answered by a Washington Foster Care Negligence Attorney
Do I need proof of a criminal conviction in a negligence case?
No. A civil lawsuit for foster care negligence has different standards than a criminal case, and a criminal conviction is not required. Even if a survivor chooses not to move forward with criminal charges, or criminal charges are no longer possible, a survivor may still be able to bring a civil lawsuit for foster care negligence. A negligence claim can be brought against any individual or organization that may have had a duty to protect a child from foster care negligence and failed to do so. This means that negligence is not limited to the abuser themselves. If you have a concern about how best to proceed where there has been no criminal conviction, speaking with our Washington foster care attorneys can help you to consider your options.
What if my foster care negligence wasn’t documented?
A lack of documentation in cases of foster care abuse or neglect is common and may not necessarily prevent you from taking action concerning your abuse or neglect. Signs of neglect are often more subtle than physical abuse and may not be easily documented through medical records or photographs. And not all foster care negligence survivors have access to expensive therapy or treatment that might document the emotional neglect that occurs.
Where no documentation is available, survivors of foster care neglect can still offer persuasive evidence in support of their case. A survivor has their own testimony about the neglect they experienced and the impact it has had on their lives. If there were siblings living in the foster care placement at the time, they may also be able to testify to an environment of physical, emotional, or educational neglect. And other supportive individuals, like teachers or counselors, may have witnessed the impact of the neglect and expressed concerns that they can testify to in court. Your attorney may be able to subpoena foster care or other records that support your case. There are many different ways to provide evidence in support of a foster care neglect claim, and an experienced Washington foster care negligence attorney will work carefully with you to create a legal plan that best supports your circumstances and needs.
Who can be held liable besides the state for foster care negligence?
Although Washington state can be held liable for a failure to ensure the safety of foster children placed in their care, they are not the only entity that can be held responsible for foster care negligence. In some circumstances, a foster care parent can be held directly liable for the negligence that occurred in their home, either because they participated in the negligence or because they allowed it to happen.
Foster care agencies and placement companies that were responsible for managing foster care may also be held responsible for negligently placing a child in a dangerous home, failing to investigate complaints of foster care negligence, or inadequately evaluating or supervising an ongoing foster care placement.
Get Help Today: Speak with a Washington Foster Care Negligence Attorney in Confidence
If you have experienced foster care neglect or believe you know of a child who is experiencing neglect, it is important to speak with a Washington foster care negligence attorney as soon as possible in order to evaluate your possible claim. For more information and to discuss your options, contact the experienced team at Truitt and Lyons today.