Judge Blocks California’s Cuts to Foster System

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - The California Department of Social Services cannot cut reimbursement for foster care group homes by 10 percent, a federal judge ruled in the two-year legal battle.

California Alliance of Child and Family Services filed the suit in the wake of 2009 budget cuts, which they claimed would force many struggling group homes to close. The organization argued that the cuts violated the Child Welfare Act by failing to provide payments to cover the basic needs of the state's foster children.

In November 2009, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel granted a temporary injunction prohibiting California from implementing the cuts.

Patel closed the case Wednesday by issuing a permanent injunction that bars the barred California from enacting the planned cuts, which she said are in fact pre-empted by the requirements of the Child Welfare Act.

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