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Sunday, January 03, 2010

Ind. Courts - "Two suits over DCS cuts in subsidies to be linked in federal court"

Updating this ILB entry from Dec. 25, 2009 headed "Foster care payments cut by 10 percent," Tim Evans reports today in the Indianapolis Star in a long story that begins:

A pair of lawsuits filed against the Indiana Department of Child Services about proposed reductions in payments to service providers, foster parents and families who have adopted children in the state agency's care will be joined together in federal court.

The two suits were filed independently in December -- one in Marion Superior Court, the other in federal court -- after DCS announced plans to begin reducing the amounts paid to its community partners this month because of the state's budget crisis.
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The first suit was filed Dec. 14 in Marion Superior Court by IARRCA -- An Association of Children & Family Services, a coalition of 110 agencies serving 4,600 children for whom DCS is financially responsible. The second was filed Dec. 22 in federal court by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana on behalf of a group of foster parents and children, and parents who have adopted children in the care of DCS and those children.

Both suits ask the courts to block the pay cuts, which they say violate federal law.

"We agreed that IARRCA would join in our case since both cases do concern similar issues," said Ken Falk, legal director for the ACLU of Indiana. "The state agreed to join the cases for all purposes up to, but not including, a trial."

A hearing on requests for a preliminary injunction to block the cuts is scheduled for Jan. 20.

Under a last-minute agreement between IARRCA and DCS, January payments for services provided by member agencies in December will be made at their full amount, rather than the new amounts, according to IARRCA Executive Director Cathy Graham.

Graham said she hopes the federal court will issue a ruling on its request to block the pay cuts before the end of January so member agencies will not see any reductions in pay.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 3, 2010 10:31 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts | Indiana Government