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I had always been a good student, getting A’s and B’s, but everything changed in tenth grade when I failed English, one of my favorite classes. Although we were reading books I had read before and loved, like Brave New World, I couldn’t stay awake to participate in class discussions.

Missouri has reached a settlement in a class-action lawsuit that litigants hope will set some precedent on a once-hot-button subject in child welfare: the use of psychotropic medication to treat youth in foster care.

U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey ruled this week that a class-action lawsuit over Missouri’s use of psychotropic medications for youth in foster care can continue. The decision moves forward a case that could potentially set some precedent on an issue that heated up in the earlier half of the decade and has taken a back burner lately: the mental health rights and treatment of vulnerable children.

A report from California’s state auditor found that children in the state’s foster care system were prescribed psychotropic medications without proper oversight from the counties responsible for their care. In response to a request from the California Joint Legislative Audit Committee about the use and oversight of these powerful medications, the office of the California State Auditor reviewed 80 case files for 80 foster children in Los Angeles, Madera, Riverside, and Sonoma Counties and analyzed existing statewide data.

A federal judge has granted class-action status to a lawsuit regarding alleged overuse of psychotropic medication by Missouri’s child welfare agency. United States District Judge Nanette Laughrey announced in a decision dated July 19 that the plaintiffs in the case will include “all children in … foster care custody who presently are, or will be, prescribed or administered one or more psychotropic medications while in state care.”

A federal audit into psychiatric drug prescriptions for foster children in Indiana revealed hardly anyone was keeping complete records.

The number of teens in foster care who report behavioral problems and treatment for them plummets as they age out of care, according to a recent study based on a survey of California foster youth.

New Hampshire is the latest state to step up the monitoring of medications intended to immediately control the behavior of children in foster care.

A boy in Missouri’s foster care system known as M.B. was placed on six psychotropic drugs at once by the age of 12. During his two and half years in care, M.B.was