Federal Court Opens Children's Foster Care Records to Experts for Plaintiffs

PRESS RELEASE

State seeks to block information: Federal Court overrules objections.

Rejecting strenuous objections from the State, a Federal Court judge, Magistrate Judge John J. Hughes, directed today that the state child welfare system grant experts for plaintiffs in the Charlie and Nadine H. v. McGreevey lawsuit immediate access to 500 children's case files, allowing plaintiffs to collect information concerning harm to children while in the State's foster care custody.

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Plaintiffs will collect information under the supervision of their expert Dr. Richard J. Gelles, acting dean and chair for Child and Family Violence, School of Social Work, University of Pennsylvania, and document how the State treats children in foster care. Lawyers for the plaintiff children anticipate that the records will provide evidence that the State's child welfare system violates children's rights.

"For far too long, the state has refused to reveal what is really happening to foster children in its custody," said Eric Thompson, lead Children's Rights attorney for the children in this lawsuit. "The Federal Court has just put an end to their attempt to hide. This is a critical step forward in our effort to protect the children of New Jersey."

On March 8, 2002, Judge Garrett E. Brown of the U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, granted class certification in Charlie and Nadine H. v. McGreevey, a federal lawsuit that seeks to reform New Jersey's child welfare system. Judge Brown certified the case as a class action lawsuit on behalf of the thousands of New Jersey children who are or will be in involuntary custody of DYFS and all African-American and Hispanic children who are or will be in DYFS custody and who are at risk of being denied or delayed placements or adoption because of their race. The case record review is scheduled to begin July 29.

Children's Rights works throughout the United States in partnership with national and local experts, advocates and government officials to document the needs of children in the care of child welfare systems. Children's Rights helps develop realistic solutions and, where necessary, uses the power of litigation to ensure that reform takes place.