Children’s Civil Rights Lawyer

Children’s Civil Rights Lawyer: Fighting for Justice When Child Welfare Systems Fail

When children are harmed in foster care, residential facilities, or disability systems, they don’t just suffer physical or emotional damage – their basic civil rights may be violated, their rights to safety and treatment based upon professional judgment. At Justice for Kids®, a division of Kelley Kronenberg, our children’s civil rights lawyer team who are foster care abuse lawyers take a unique approach that goes beyond simple negligence claims. We may be able to pursue these cases as federal civil rights violations, securing much larger damage awards and creating lasting change to protect vulnerable Children’s  across the country.

Children’s  Civil Rights Violations: A Crisis in Child Welfare Systems

Children’s in state care and disability services face civil rights violations at alarming rates. These aren’t just cases of poor care – they represent systematic violations of constitutional rights that demand federal intervention and substantial compensation.

The numbers are staggering. According to national data, over 670,000 Children’s  spent time in U.S. foster care in 2019, with nearly 50,000 substantiated cases of abuse in care. However, surveys of former foster Children’s  show that 25% to 40% report being abused or neglected while in care, suggesting massive underreporting. Even though the U.S. foster care population has shrunk to just under 400,000 Children’s , physical and sexual abuse in foster care is systemic.

There are 29 states with child welfare systems with pending class actions or consent decrees because of systemic deprivations of Children’s ’s most basic rights –the right to be safe from harm in these child protection systems. (Casey Family Programs, Class Action Summaries (2025 Update), https://www.casey.org/class-action-summaries-2025update/ (last visited July 14, 2025). New York, California, Illinois, and Florida –to name just a few states all face these class actions and systemic failures. Most of these cases raise claims for injunctive relief pursuant to 42 USC § 1983.

Foster Children’s  were 7-8 times and Children’s  in residential care 6 times more likely to be assessed by a pediatrician for abuse than a child in the general population. These statistics represent not just personal injury cases but may reflect systemic violations of Children’s ‘s constitutional rights to safety and protection.

The Federal Civil Rights Approach: Why It Matters

Traditional personal injury lawsuits are limited by state damage caps and sovereign immunity protections. But when our team of foster care abuse lawyers  pursue these cases as Children’s  civil rights violations under federal law, particularly 42 USC § 1983, we can recover much larger, uncapped damage awards and create systemic change.

42 USC § 1983: The Foundation of Children’s  Civil Rights Cases    

Section 1983 allows lawsuits against government officials and agencies who violate constitutional rights while acting under color of state law. For Children’s  in state care or receiving government-funded services, this creates powerful legal remedies when their rights are violated.

Key advantages of federal civil rights claims include:

• No caps on damage awards (unlike state tort claims)
• Ability to avoid sovereign immunity protections
• Punitive damages available for intentional violations
• Attorney fees paid by defendants when plaintiffs win
• Federal court jurisdiction with broader remedies
• Ability to seek injunctive relief requiring systemic changes

Constitutional Rights That Protect Children’s

Our Children’s  civil rights lawyers pursues violations of fundamental constitutional rights:

Fourteenth Amendment – Due Process: Children have substantive due process rights to be free from arbitrary government action that “shocks the conscience.” This includes the right to basic safety and protection while in state care. Further, Children in custody of a state or local foster care system have the right to be treated based upon professional judgment.

Eighth Amendment – Protection from Cruel and Unusual Punishment: Children in state custody have the right to be free from punishment that violates contemporary standards of decency.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): Children with disabilities have the right to equal access to government services and reasonable accommodations.

Justice for Kids® Limits Their Practice Foster Care and

Our Children’s civil rights lawyer team at Justice for Kids® has extensive experience identifying and proving civil rights violations in various child welfare settings. They are one of the few personal injury law firms that focus exclusively on representing Children in foster care and disability systems.

Common Civil Rights Violations in Foster Care:

Deliberate Indifference to Safety: When state or agency employees in foster care systems know of dangers to Children but fail to act, this may constitute a violation of their substantive due process rights. This includes placing children with known dangerous caregivers, other children, or by failing to investigate reports of abuse while they are in foster care. This also can occur because of dangerously high caseloads, case worker turnover and an insufficient continuum of foster care placements that meet the individual needs of foster children.

Failure to Protect from Known Risks: Agencies have an affirmative duty to protect children in their custody. When they know of specific risks and fail to take reasonable steps to protect children, this may violate their constitutional rights. For example, they may place children with others who are sexually reactive or aggressive and expose them to a dangerous risk of sexual abuse. Another example is if they fail to screen foster or adoptive parents who are known sexual predators or who foster for their own financial gain.

Inadequate Supervision and Monitoring: Children in state care have the right to adequate supervision. When agencies fail to properly monitor placements or provide necessary oversight, this can constitute deliberate indifference. This can occur when case workers do not regularly visit foster children or

Denial of Medical or Mental Health Care: Children in state custody have constitutional rights to adequate medical and mental health care based upon professional judgment. Deliberate indifference to serious medical needs violates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Civil Rights Violations in Disability Services:

Discrimination Based on Disability: When agencies treat children differently because of their disabilities, this may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act .

Failure to Provide Reasonable Accommodations: Children with disabilities have the right to reasonable accommodations that allow them equal access to services and programs.

Inappropriate Placement or Segregation: Unnecessarily segregating children with disabilities or placing them in inappropriate settings can violate their civil rights.

Landmark Children’s  Civil Rights Cases: Changing the Law

Our children’s  civil rights lawyers have secured groundbreaking victories that have changed the law and protected countless Children’s  nationwide.

$5 Million Federal Civil Rights Recovery (2001)

In Roe v. Florida Department of Children & Family Services, our team recovered $5 million for six foster children – far exceeding Florida’s sovereign immunity limit of $200,000. This case established that federal civil rights law could pierce state immunity protections and secure substantial damages for injured foster children.

$14 Million Settlement for Foster Care Abuse (2007)

Our children’s civil rights lawyers secured more than $14 million, the largest recovery of its kind in Florida at the time, for 20 foster children who were abused in a foster home. This case demonstrated how federal civil rights law provides much larger damage awards than traditional state tort claims.

$27 Million Recovery Against Multiple Defendants

Using federal civil rights law, our team prevailed against New York City and the Archdiocese of Brooklyn, which together paid more than $27 million in the case of Judith Leekin. This case involved 11 special needs children who were adopted through fraud and then imprisoned, abused, and starved.

Landmark Court Decision on Child-on-Child Sexual Abuse

The Justice for Kids® case of H.A.L. v. Foltz resulted in the landmark Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decision recognizing that exposing foster children to child-on-child sexual abuse constitutes a viable federal civil rights claim under 42 USC § 1983. This decision protects countless children nationwide. When child welfare agencies place children in foster care with other Children’s  who have been sexually abused and who a pose a substantial risk of serious harm,

Children’s Civil Rights Lawyer: Building Powerful Federal Cases

Winning federal civil rights cases for children in foster care requires specialized expertise and a strategic approach that differs significantly from traditional personal injury litigation.

Proving Constitutional Violations

A skilled children’s civil rights lawyer must prove specific elements for federal civil rights claims:

State Action: The violation must be committed by someone acting under color of state law while in government custody in a foster care setting, including government employees and private contractors working for government agencies.

Constitutional Violation: The conduct must violate a specific constitutional right, such as substantive due process or Eighth Amendment protections.

Deliberate Indifference: For many claims, we must prove the defendants acted with deliberate indifference to the child’s constitutional rights, not mere negligence. Federal Courts have in some cases require repeated acts of negligence or in others required knowledge that the public foster care worker or private provider doing their job has exposed a child to the substantial risk of serious harm.

Causation: The constitutional violation must have caused the child’s injuries or damages.

Evidence Collection in Children’s Civil Rights Cases

Our Children’s  civil rights lawyer team conducts thorough investigations to gather evidence including:

• The foster care records, chronological notes regarding the injured child.
• Agency policies and procedures showing systemic failures
• Training records revealing inadequate preparation of staff
• Previous complaints and incidents showing pattern of violations
• Expert testimony on constitutional standards and agency obligations
• Medical and psychological records documenting harm and deterioration to the child
• Witness testimony from other Children’s , staff, and family members
• Statistical evidence showing systemic harm

Expert Witnesses in Federal Civil Rights Cases

These complex cases require testimony from specialized experts:

• Child welfare experts who can identify agency failures and industry standards
• Medical, psychological, treatment and life care  experts who can document trauma and injury to the child in the past and in the future
• Policy experts who understand government obligations to children in care
• Economic experts who can calculate lifetime damages

Children’s  Civil Rights Lawyer: Securing Maximum Compensation

Federal civil rights claims provide much larger damage awards than traditional state tort claims, with no arbitrary caps limiting recovery.

Types of Damages in Children’s  Civil Rights Cases

Compensatory Damages:

• Past and future medical and therapeutic costs
• Pain and suffering with no state-imposed caps
• Educational and Vocational costs and special needs services
• Loss of earning capacity due to trauma and injury
• Life care costs for children with ongoing needs

Punitive Damages:

• Available when defendants acted with malice or reckless indifference
• Designed to punish constitutional violations and deter future violations
• Can significantly increase damage awards

Attorney Fees:

• Under federal civil rights laws, winning plaintiffs can recover attorney fees from defendants
• This makes federal civil rights litigation accessible to families regardless of financial resources

The Unique Justice for Kids® Approach

Our children’s civil rights lawyer team brings unparalleled experience and creativity to these complex cases. While other firms pursue simple negligence claims, we utilize federal civil rights law to secure much larger awards and create lasting change.

Why Our Federal Civil Rights Approach Works:

Higher Damage Awards: Federal civil rights claims are not subject to state damage caps or sovereign immunity limits, allowing us to secure much larger recoveries.

Systemic Change: Federal courts can order sweeping reforms that protect not just our clients but all children in the system.

Precedent-Setting Victories: Our landmark cases have changed the law and created new protections for vulnerable children nationwide.

Comprehensive Investigation: We investigate not just individual incidents but systemic failures that violate children’s constitutional rights.

Expert Legal Team: Our children’s civil rights lawyers have decades of experience with federal civil rights law and understand both the legal standards and practical realities of child welfare systems.

Protecting Damage Awards

We don’t just win large settlements – we protect them. Our team helps establish life care plans protected by trusts and structured settlements designed to serve children who often face a lifetime of specialized care needs.

Children’s  Civil Rights in Disability Services

Our children’s civil rights lawyer team has pioneered new approaches to protecting children with disabilities, including establishing private causes of action under state disability rights laws.

Landmark Disability Rights Case

In Baumstein v. Sunrise Communities, our team successfully argued in the Florida Third District Court of Appeal to establish a private cause of action for damages based on violations of Florida’s Bill of Rights for the developmentally disabled. This was the first decision to recognize this approach and led to significant settlements.

Federal Disability Rights Claims

Children with disabilities have extensive federal civil rights protections:

The Substantive Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects Foster Children’s Rights to Treatment based upon professional judgment when disabled children are in the custody of foster care systems.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): Prohibits discrimination and requires reasonable accommodations in government programs serving children.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act: Protects children with disabilities from discrimination in federally funded programs.

IDEA: Provides specific educational rights and procedural protections for children with disabilities.

Constitutional Rights: Children with disabilities have the same constitutional rights to safety, due process, and equal protection as all children.

Legislative Advocacy and Systemic Change

Our children’s civil rights lawyer team doesn’t just win individual cases – we work to change laws and systems to better protect all vulnerable children.

Creating Systemic Reform

Through our federal civil rights cases and legislative advocacy, we’ve helped create:

• Improved training requirements for child welfare workers
• Enhanced oversight and monitoring of child welfare agencies
• Better protection protocols for vulnerable children
• Increased funding for child welfare services
• Stronger accountability measures for agencies that fail children

Signs Your Child’s Civil Rights May Have Been Violated:

• Physical, sexual, or emotional abuse in state care or government-funded programs
• Sexual Behaviors that did not exist prior to the time they were in foster care.
• Denial of necessary medical, mental health, or educational services
• Placement in dangerous or inappropriate settings
• Failure to protect from known risks or dangerous individuals
• Retaliation for reporting problems or requesting services
• Systemic failures that put your child and others at risk
• Serious psychological diagnoses, Baker Acts or treatment of Children’s in psychiatric treatment facilities.
• Discrimination based on race, disability, or other protected characteristics

 

Why Time Matters in Civil Rights Cases:

Federal civil rights claims have specific time limits, typically two to three years from when the violation occurred or was discovered. However, evidence can disappear and witnesses can become unavailable, so it’s crucial to contact a Children’s  civil rights lawyer as soon as possible.

Children’s  Civil Rights Lawyers Justice for Kids® Attorneys Know Federal Civil rights Claims

• A Children’s civil rights lawyer who understands federal civil rights law can pursue much more powerful remedies than traditional state court personal injury claims filed by foster care abuse lawyers. These federal claims provide both larger damage awards and the ability to create lasting institutional change.
• Howard Talenfeld, one of our business unit leaders at Justice for Kids®, was recognized on Forbes’ inaugural list of America’s Top 200 Lawyersin the United States as one of only six lawyers on the list nationally selected for Civil Rights Law. Since the late 1980s, Howard has uniquely focused his practice exclusively on protecting the rights of vulnerable persons in civil rights cases, personal injury cases and systemic reform litigation. He began his career working with at-risk Children’s , fragile seniors and the developmentally disabled in the late 1980s when he represented the state of Florida in its major class-action lawsuits dealing with the foster care system, Children’s ’s mental health system, juvenile justice system, state psychiatric hospitals and the provision of Medicaid services to the developmentally disabled. He pioneered defending these cases by advocating for the improvement and reform of human service systems, while protecting states’ rights and avoiding federal over-sight. In Florida, he also represented governors, secretaries of state agencies, Florida’s Insurance Commissioner, the Florida Legislature and Florida’s Auditor General in civil rights cases in federal courts. He argued for systemic reform of state child protection systems because of civil rights violations in foster care before many state and national groups, including twice before the U.S. Congress, the National Association of State Mental Health Lawyers, the American Public Welfare Association and many Florida legislative committees. In the 1990’s, when it was apparent that Florida’s leaders changed their political priorities about improving the state’s human service systems, Howard stopped representing the state and then joined the Board of the Youth Law Center one of our country’s most respected national advocacy groups. Howard’s knowledge and skill in defending and improving state systems to help Florida’s Children’s , and his successes in trial courts, appellate courts and negotiations, formed the foundation of creative legal approaches that have delivered extraordinary results. Howard Video https://justiceforkids.com/attorney/howard-talenfeld/ Stacie Schmerling, Howard’s partner successfully handled the Naika Venant civil rights claims on behalf of the young foster girl who died by suicide on Facebook’s life feed. The Justice for Kids® lawyers have prevailed obtaining some of the most significant recoveries against the various types of child welfare entities in country. (link to Results and Verdicts page -civil rights)

 

How Our Children’s  Civil Rights Lawyers Can Help:

We provide comprehensive legal representation including:

• Free case evaluation to determine if federal civil rights claims apply
• Thorough investigation of both individual incidents and systemic failures
• Expert legal strategy utilizing federal civil rights law for maximum recovery
• Coordination with medical, therapeutic, and educational professionals
• Protection of damage awards through trusts and structured settlements
• Advocacy for systemic changes to protect other Children’s

 

Contact our Children’s  Civil Rights Lawyers Today

If your child has been harmed in state care or government-funded programs, don’t settle for traditional personal injury representation. Our Children’s  civil rights lawyer team has the specialized expertise to pursue federal civil rights claims that can secure much larger damage awards and create lasting change.

We offer:

• Free, confidential consultations to evaluate potential federal civil rights claims
• Contingency fee representation (you pay nothing unless we win)
• Aggressive pursuit of maximum damages through federal civil rights law
• Comprehensive case investigation and expert witness coordination
• Protection of settlements through specialized trust and structured settlement arrangements
• Advocacy for systemic reforms that protect other vulnerable Children’s

Don’t let state damage caps or sovereign immunity protections limit your child’s recovery. Federal civil rights law provides powerful remedies that can secure the compensation your child needs and create changes that protect other children from similar harm.

Contact Justice for Kids® today to learn how our unique children’s civil rights lawyer approach can make a difference for your child and family. Your child’s constitutional rights matter, and we have the experience and expertise to protect them.

 

This article provides general information about Children’s civil rights legal matters and is not legal advice for any specific situation. Reading this content does not create an attorney-client relationship. For help with your particular situation involving Children’s civil rights violations, please contact qualified legal counsel at Justice for Kids®, a division of Kelley Kronenberg.