Letitia James

A nonprofit law firm representing a group of New York City foster youth has resumed long-running litigation against the city’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) and the state agency that oversees it.

An influential child welfare foundation has a new diagnosis for what ails New York City’s foster care system. It explains one of the most vexing issues facing youth who have been removed from their parents’ homes due to child abuse or neglect: years-long waits to transition out of foster care and back into a permanent home.

Like most foster care systems, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s in New York City is plagued by grim outcomes for foster youth: Many develop mental health conditions, only about half finish high school, and one in five enter a homeless shelter within three years of leaving care.

Today, a New York judge threw out a controversial consent decree that would have ratcheted up state oversight of New York City’s foster care system. In her straightforward opinion, New York District Judge Laura Swain denied a proposed settlement to a July 2015 class action lawsuit that had accused both New York State and City of allowing foster youth to languish in care.