The state of Florida has over 15,000 foster children and its Department of Children and Families (DCF) has no place for many of them. By 2000, approximately 20% of Florida's foster homes were operating over their licensed capacity and, as a result, children removed from their families were often placed for long periods in overcrowded, "temporary" holding facilities without necessary treatment. DCF was also known to rent motel rooms to serve as housing for foster children.

In August 2000, Children's Rights joined local Florida advocates in a lawsuit against DCF. Before the case made it to trial, however, the district court dismissed most of the Plaintiffs' claims, accepting Defendants' contention that the suit might interfere with the operations of Florida's dependency court - a "state's rights" argument typically rejected by federal courts in these cases. On the claims not dismissed, Plaintiffs reached a settlement whereby DCF agreed to reinforce a non-discriminatory policy towards African-Americans and older children who are about to "age out" of the system. Plaintiffs also appealed the dismissal decision. In May 2003, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's dismissal, holding that each individual foster child within the Plaintiff class may only seek relief from the harms they are suffering through their separate dependency court cases despite the fact that the dependency courts are precluded as a matter of law from granting the systemic relief foster children in Florida so desperately need. After unsuccessfully seeking to have the 11th Circuit reconsider its decision, Plaintiffs filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of the 11th Circuit's gross expansion of the so-called "abstention" doctrine, which has the result of closing the federal courthouse doors to Florida's foster children. By Order dated November 3, 2003, the Supreme Court denied this petition, effectively ending the case.

Despite legal roadblocks faced thus far, Children's Rights and its Florida allies have called national attention to Florida's ailing child welfare system. Children's Rights also succeeded in pressuring DCF to emphasize non-discriminatory policies and to respect the privacy of Plaintiffs' medical records. Though the Bonnie L. litigation is now over, Children's Rights is considering other types of legal action, including state court litigation and differently focused federal court litigation, aimed at protecting Florida's foster children.