State is liable for children’s safety with foster parents, Washington Supreme Court rules

SEATTLE – The Washington State Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state is responsible for protecting children from abusive foster parents.

In a 5-4 decision, the court ruled that the state Department of Social and Health Services “owes a duty of reasonable care to protect foster children from abuse at the hands of their foster parents,” according to the opinion.

The ruling affirms a decision by the Court of Appeals and sends a case brought by five children against DSHS back to trial.

The ruling comes amid increasing criticism of DSHS for its handling of children in the foster care system. The department has long dealt with not having enough caseworkers and has seen a steady rise of emergency calls concerning the welfare of children.

DSHS last month agreed to pay $19.3 million to settle a 2017 lawsuit brought on behalf of a girl who was left blind, brain-damaged and quadriplegic after being abused by the foster father the department placed her with in Texas. It marked the biggest settlement reached in a case involving one person in Washington state’s history.

In its ruling Thursday, Washington’s highest court found that the five children involved in the lawsuit under review had been abused for five years, but DSHS never investigated.

“We agree with the Court of Appeals that the foster children produced sufficient evidence from which a jury could find that DSHS breached its protective duty, and that the breach of that duty caused their injuries,” Justice Debra Stephens, author of the majority opinion, said in the document.