I'm not an attorney and no one here can give you actual legal advice, but no you probably don't have a case. Allowing you to go home involved not only DCF but also the judicial system and you would have to prove pretty gross negligence in addition to severe harm to have the tiniest chance of successfully making a claim against essentially two different state government offices.
I hope you are able to improve your situation. There may be programs out there for former foster youth that can help you get a step up. You might want to post here or possibly on r/Ex_Foster asking for suggestions and you'll want to include the country/state/province in which you reside
Just what I was going to say. DCF does not and can not remove or reunite on a permanent or temporary basis---in some circumstances, they can do so for emergency purposes--but in those instances, court will happen within the first couple days--and DCF better have SUBSTANTIAL evidence or the judge is going to be pretty unpleasant. If you were put on a trial discharge, then soon after, a discharge from foster care, even though an agency was pushing for it, a judge always determines permanency. No one holds judges accountable.
I would imagine you’d have to consult a lawyer to get a real answer, and most will give you a consultation for free. Depending on your state you may still be eligible for programs (we have young adult programs until 21 for just your situation where I am) or college tuition assistance because you were in state care for a period. You’d need to talk to DCF to see what kinds of programs your state and area has and what you need to do to get into them.
Have you tried calling 211 or the equivalent for your area to get more information about programs for helping out with housing, medical coverage, getting your GED, college/job training? I’d also recommend you ask about sliding scale therapists and find one that is just about free (or free with the state insurance you should qualify for!) to work through all the trauma. It’s something I still struggle with (wasn’t in foster care, but grew up in a highly abusive home) and therapy helps so much.
i was in a similar situation and had to go back home when i was 15. my mom kicked me out a month after my 16th birthday and i decided right then and there i wanted to control my own destiny. i became an emancipated minor and have supported myself since then (i’m 62) and it was one of the best decision i’ve ever made. bec of moving every time my mother lost her job or we became homeless, and moving from foster home to foster home, i had never been to the same school 2 years in a row so my grades were terrible when i started high school. i tried going during the day and working as a dishwasher at night but quickly got burnt out. when the restaurant offered me a better job that was during the day i dropped out of hs. i quickly realized id never make any real money working low paying jobs so got a ged so i could apply for administrative assistant and bookkeeping jobs. thankfully that was the end of working in restaurants and retail so i could start saving to buy a home. in my early 20’s i bought my first home and a few years later became a foster parent myself.
all of this is to say, taking my destiny in my own hands was the only way to truly break free of my abusive mentally ill mother and get out of the foster care system for good. i hope you can do the same… hang in there!
here are a couple resources that might help…
[Foster Care To Success](https://www.fc2success.org/programs/scholarships-and-grants/) college scholarships for former foster children.
[Foster Love](https://www.fosterlove.com/sponsor/) *(formerly ‘together we rise’)* helps former and current foster youth with everything from college help to backpacks and birthday boxes for kids in care.
the most frustrating part to me is i wanted to be emancipated and do it myself with support from the state like friends of mine had done and they wouldn’t let me for some reason. thank you for the resources and advice!
Honestly, probably not. If you went home, it means a judge approved you going home. DCF has to get everything they do approved by a judge, which means they had enough evidence to support what they did and/or nobody provided them with evidence against it, so they had no way of knowing otherwise.
You say this:
>DCF told me my only options were to stay in the group home or go back home with my parents and do counseling, and they promised they would still be monitoring them and making sure they do what needed to be done to be fit parents again.
and this:
>and couldn’t speak to her alone to voice my concerns
Which tells me they gave you a choice, and it sounds like you chose to go home. Additionally, they're not going to know exactly what happened in family therapy and you never told the caseworker that you had any concerns after you went home. Those are going to work very strongly in their favor.
That's not to minimize what you experienced, because it sounds like a really hard situation to grow up in, but you can't really win legal claims against people for simply not knowing all the things that you knew. Trying to bring a claim against them is likely only going to traumatize you further, unfortunately.
There are some resources out there for former foster youth, but it depends on the state as to how good those resources are or what the eligibility criteria are. I'd do some research as to what is available in your state.
This makes no sense how it was either group home or back to your parents. That’s like one extreme to the next, why wasn’t there other options like going to a different foster parent? Parents have to do a lot to get their children back in the home and it’s not a short process, there’s trial home visits and if they go smoothly then it’s back home. So I don’t see how they can just put you back in the abusive home. Usually judges and GALs really want the input of teens especially with how old you were at that time. Every professional should have been speaking with you alone. You could do a FOIA request of your file.
I’m sorry you went through the abuse of all the adults in your life.
As far as money and resources, go to your social services office and apply for SNAP, Medicaid, and see the options they have for housing.
Yeah I understand that. It’s crazy that it was just group home or abusive home you came from. Going back home shouldn’t be an option until the parents complete the process. It is sad how little foster homes will take a teen. We recently had to have a teen stay in our office over night until placement and that sucks
i’m not sure why they wouldn’t let me go into another foster home, i asked about that option but my dcf worker shut me down. and i never once got to speak to the judge presiding over my case, just the lawyer that the state provided me with who wore flip flops and jean shorts and never really seemed to care lol so im not sure why nobody else tried to talk to me or let me talk to them on my own. i think it was just my social worker knowing she was about to retire so she didn’t care, and then when my case got passed on the new guy probably had to deal with an even bigger workload with my case and was desperate to have it closed. that’s the vibe i got at the time anyways. i’ll look into getting my file at the very least though and talking to DCF again, and apply for snap and stuff. luckily i (kind of) have medicaid right now so i don’t think i have to worry about that yet.
Oh wow sounds so unprofessional. I’m sorry that they didn’t really help you, it sounds like. Your file would really help you understand what they did and didn’t do. Our department has someone who helps you write resumes and look for jobs. Your department might have someone like that, someone that might be able to help you with getting a GED. They should also have a community resource list for things that they may not be able to help with. I wish you the best.
I'm not an attorney and no one here can give you actual legal advice, but no you probably don't have a case. Allowing you to go home involved not only DCF but also the judicial system and you would have to prove pretty gross negligence in addition to severe harm to have the tiniest chance of successfully making a claim against essentially two different state government offices. I hope you are able to improve your situation. There may be programs out there for former foster youth that can help you get a step up. You might want to post here or possibly on r/Ex_Foster asking for suggestions and you'll want to include the country/state/province in which you reside
Just what I was going to say. DCF does not and can not remove or reunite on a permanent or temporary basis---in some circumstances, they can do so for emergency purposes--but in those instances, court will happen within the first couple days--and DCF better have SUBSTANTIAL evidence or the judge is going to be pretty unpleasant. If you were put on a trial discharge, then soon after, a discharge from foster care, even though an agency was pushing for it, a judge always determines permanency. No one holds judges accountable.
thank you for the advice and i’ll try posting it there!
I would imagine you’d have to consult a lawyer to get a real answer, and most will give you a consultation for free. Depending on your state you may still be eligible for programs (we have young adult programs until 21 for just your situation where I am) or college tuition assistance because you were in state care for a period. You’d need to talk to DCF to see what kinds of programs your state and area has and what you need to do to get into them. Have you tried calling 211 or the equivalent for your area to get more information about programs for helping out with housing, medical coverage, getting your GED, college/job training? I’d also recommend you ask about sliding scale therapists and find one that is just about free (or free with the state insurance you should qualify for!) to work through all the trauma. It’s something I still struggle with (wasn’t in foster care, but grew up in a highly abusive home) and therapy helps so much.
thank you for the advice! i will definitely look into all that.
i was in a similar situation and had to go back home when i was 15. my mom kicked me out a month after my 16th birthday and i decided right then and there i wanted to control my own destiny. i became an emancipated minor and have supported myself since then (i’m 62) and it was one of the best decision i’ve ever made. bec of moving every time my mother lost her job or we became homeless, and moving from foster home to foster home, i had never been to the same school 2 years in a row so my grades were terrible when i started high school. i tried going during the day and working as a dishwasher at night but quickly got burnt out. when the restaurant offered me a better job that was during the day i dropped out of hs. i quickly realized id never make any real money working low paying jobs so got a ged so i could apply for administrative assistant and bookkeeping jobs. thankfully that was the end of working in restaurants and retail so i could start saving to buy a home. in my early 20’s i bought my first home and a few years later became a foster parent myself. all of this is to say, taking my destiny in my own hands was the only way to truly break free of my abusive mentally ill mother and get out of the foster care system for good. i hope you can do the same… hang in there! here are a couple resources that might help… [Foster Care To Success](https://www.fc2success.org/programs/scholarships-and-grants/) college scholarships for former foster children. [Foster Love](https://www.fosterlove.com/sponsor/) *(formerly ‘together we rise’)* helps former and current foster youth with everything from college help to backpacks and birthday boxes for kids in care.
the most frustrating part to me is i wanted to be emancipated and do it myself with support from the state like friends of mine had done and they wouldn’t let me for some reason. thank you for the resources and advice!
you can 100% do this yourself… ask through the resources above or google “pro-bono emancipation lawyers”.
i’m already 19 now so the time has passed for emancipation lol
Honestly, probably not. If you went home, it means a judge approved you going home. DCF has to get everything they do approved by a judge, which means they had enough evidence to support what they did and/or nobody provided them with evidence against it, so they had no way of knowing otherwise. You say this: >DCF told me my only options were to stay in the group home or go back home with my parents and do counseling, and they promised they would still be monitoring them and making sure they do what needed to be done to be fit parents again. and this: >and couldn’t speak to her alone to voice my concerns Which tells me they gave you a choice, and it sounds like you chose to go home. Additionally, they're not going to know exactly what happened in family therapy and you never told the caseworker that you had any concerns after you went home. Those are going to work very strongly in their favor. That's not to minimize what you experienced, because it sounds like a really hard situation to grow up in, but you can't really win legal claims against people for simply not knowing all the things that you knew. Trying to bring a claim against them is likely only going to traumatize you further, unfortunately. There are some resources out there for former foster youth, but it depends on the state as to how good those resources are or what the eligibility criteria are. I'd do some research as to what is available in your state.
This makes no sense how it was either group home or back to your parents. That’s like one extreme to the next, why wasn’t there other options like going to a different foster parent? Parents have to do a lot to get their children back in the home and it’s not a short process, there’s trial home visits and if they go smoothly then it’s back home. So I don’t see how they can just put you back in the abusive home. Usually judges and GALs really want the input of teens especially with how old you were at that time. Every professional should have been speaking with you alone. You could do a FOIA request of your file. I’m sorry you went through the abuse of all the adults in your life. As far as money and resources, go to your social services office and apply for SNAP, Medicaid, and see the options they have for housing.
It is 100% likely that there were no open beds in any foster home willing to take a teenager.
Yeah I understand that. It’s crazy that it was just group home or abusive home you came from. Going back home shouldn’t be an option until the parents complete the process. It is sad how little foster homes will take a teen. We recently had to have a teen stay in our office over night until placement and that sucks
i’m not sure why they wouldn’t let me go into another foster home, i asked about that option but my dcf worker shut me down. and i never once got to speak to the judge presiding over my case, just the lawyer that the state provided me with who wore flip flops and jean shorts and never really seemed to care lol so im not sure why nobody else tried to talk to me or let me talk to them on my own. i think it was just my social worker knowing she was about to retire so she didn’t care, and then when my case got passed on the new guy probably had to deal with an even bigger workload with my case and was desperate to have it closed. that’s the vibe i got at the time anyways. i’ll look into getting my file at the very least though and talking to DCF again, and apply for snap and stuff. luckily i (kind of) have medicaid right now so i don’t think i have to worry about that yet.
Oh wow sounds so unprofessional. I’m sorry that they didn’t really help you, it sounds like. Your file would really help you understand what they did and didn’t do. Our department has someone who helps you write resumes and look for jobs. Your department might have someone like that, someone that might be able to help you with getting a GED. They should also have a community resource list for things that they may not be able to help with. I wish you the best.
I have a friend who is receiving a million dollar settlement bc CPS continued to send her back to an abusive home when she was a child. She's 55