A3
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 2022
SPORTS
Judge OKs class-action lawsuit
alleging foster care dysfunction
By DIRK
VANDERHART
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Photos by Gary Henley/The Astorian
Members of the Astoria girls soccer team found time for a little clowning during the team photo sessions.
Fall sports set to begin
The Astorian
Astoria High School held
its annual sports “Media
Night” Friday at CMH
Field, signaling the start of
the 2022 fall sports season.
Fall sports teams posed
for team pictures for local
photographer Justin Grafton,
while the boys soccer, girls
soccer and football teams
held short scrimmages.
Games and events get
underway for real this week,
as Knappa hosts Warren-
ton for the annual nonleague
volleyball season opener
Thursday, and Seaside hosts
a varsity football jamboree
Friday at Broadway Field.
ABOVE: The 2022
Astoria cross-country
teams.
LEFT: Astoria senior
Mikai Tapec poses for
his individual football
photo.
RIGHT: Astoria boys
soccer goalkeeper
Salvador Wienecke,
right, is back for his
junior season.
Plaintiff s alleging wide-
spread dysfunction within
Oregon’s foster care system
can now sue on behalf of all
children within that system,
a judge has ruled .
With that decision by
U.S. District Court Judge
Ann Aiken, a three-year-
old lawsuit against the state
can potentially achieve a
greater impact on a sys-
tem that plaintiff s say strug-
gles to place children in ade-
quate facilities, doesn’t set
kids up to live alone once
they age out of the system
and frequently traumatizes
thousands of youth in state
custody.
Aiken’s ruling, over the
objection of state attorneys,
means that the suit can pro-
ceed as a class action. Rather
than merely seeking rem-
edies for 10 current or for-
mer foster children named in
the initial fi ling, the suit now
represents a general class
including every child who is
or eventually will be in state
care.
Aiken also certifi ed three
subclasses of that group:
youth who are aging out
of the system, who are dis-
abled, or who are LGBTQ.
Children in those catego-
ries have been subjected to
unique harms, the plaintiff s
argue, and should be treated
separately.
For each of those classes
to be certifi ed, the plain-
tiff s’ attorneys had to show
that the claims made by the
10 named defendants were
likely to apply to a wide
range of children in foster
care and that actions to rem-
edy those harms would also
help the greater group.
“The c ourt concludes
that p laintiff has shown that
the injuries claimed by the
named p laintiff s are certain
to recur on other similarly
situated individuals,” Aiken
wrote in her ruling.
The lawsuit was fi led in
Samuel S. Johnson
Foundation
Pacific Power
Funky Bear CrossFit
Ticor Title
2019 by Disability Rights
Oregon, the nonprofi t A Bet-
ter Childhood and attorneys
at the fi rm Davis Wright
Tremaine. Named as defen-
dants are Gov. Kate Brown
and leaders of the Ore-
gon Department of Human
Services .
The suit alleges that Ore-
gon has failed children in its
care for years, employing
too few caseworkers, iden-
tifying too few facilities or
homes where children may
stay, providing inadequate
training for care providers
and not properly evaluat-
ing the needs of foster kids,
among other problems.
The suit includes detailed
narratives of the 10 named
defendants, off ering a pic-
ture of a system in which
kids are separated from sib-
lings, denied necessary med-
ications, frequently moved
between homes and facili-
ties and generally unable to
access care specifi c to their
needs.
“What we’re seeking to
do is make the system better
and make it better for kids,”
said Marcia Lowry, an attor-
ney and executive direc-
tor of A Better Childhood.
“This case was fi led in 2019
and kids are still suff ering in
Oregon.”
Lowry’s
organization
has worked to improve fos-
ter care conditions in more
than a dozen states. She told
Oregon Public Broadcasting
it has rarely encountered as
aggressive a defense as that
by the state of Oregon.
“One of the things that’s
unfortunate here is that this
is a dysfunctional system,
this is a harmful system, and
the state has been spending
a huge amount of money to
defend this,” Lowry said.
Oregon has made some
changes to its foster care
system since the lawsuit was
fi rst fi led, such as a 2020
decision to bring back youth
who had been sent for care
in other states. But foster
youth advocates say Oregon
still has more work to do.