Judge Hughes ordered New Jersey officials to make public extensive portions of state foster care files that had already been released under court seal to Children's Rights Inc., a Manhattan-based advocacy group that is suing New Jersey over its foster care system.
Shakeem was cremated 13 days later, and his foster care case file, never made public, was put away.
"A lot of kids in foster care have files on them where it says they can't learn, they can't read, they can't succeed," Mr. Schreiberg said.
Regina Deihl, a Half Moon Bay foster parent who filed a similar lawsuit against the state on behalf of individual foster parents, said that with compensation for foster parents covering only 68 percent of the actual cost, there had been nearly a 50 percent drop in the number of licensed foster parents in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties since 1991.
Their leaders at the F.K.N.K. thus have little choice but to adopt uncompromising positions, such as this spring's boycott, which raises false hopes in the F.K.N.K. rank and file, fostering frustration and feelings of betrayal when, inevitably, the government disappoints them.
The move would be a significant change for the agency, which has been criticized for closing case files on foster homes and institutions before reports of abuse and neglect were fully investigated.
We hope that open access to the SBEI checklist and guidance materials (see Additional files) will foster its adaptation and use by others.
Victims can only sue until they reach the age of 23, and children who allege abuse in public institutions, like schools or foster care, are forced to file an "intent to sue" within 90 days of the original incident.
But over the next three years, as the city allowed Miracle Makers to remain in foster care, the agency never filed the petition, or explained why it could not.
