New Hampshire class action approved for foster teens with mental health disabilities

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A federal judge has approved class-action status for a lawsuit challenging the placement of teens with mental health disabilities in New Hampshire’s foster care system.

The lawsuit was filed against the state in 2021 and it has been amended since then. It says New Hampshire has “unnecessarily warehoused” foster care teens in institutional and group home care settings instead of with families, against their best interests. The state requested a dismissal, saying the plaintiffs did not prove their case.

Efforts at mediation failed earlier this year.

U.S. District Judge Paul Barbadaro’s ruling Wednesday applies to children ages 14 through 17 who are or will be under supervision of the state Division for Children, Youth and Families, have a mental impairment and are at serious risk of being unnecessarily placed in a group care setting. The ruling says fewer than 200 teens could be affected.

The original plaintiffs have since aged out of custody, and Barbadaro, in Concord, dismissed their claims.

He allowed one to proceed involving a 15-year-old in a group home who alleges disability discrimination and case planning neglect. Lawyers for the state argued that neither claim is appropriate for a class-action resolution.

Barbadro noted since the lawsuit was first filed, the defendants “have undertaken laudable efforts to address many of the concerns raised in the complaint. But there is no evidence that the defendants have abated or modified the common practices identified in this order.”

The lawsuit was filed against Gov. Chris Sununu and heads of the Health Department, Division for Children, Youth, and Families; Medicaid services; and the administrative office of the courts.