The importance of working for social change runs deep in the veins of adoption attorney Natalie Chavis, who’s advocating for foster awareness through a new documentary series.
Read More
Although many may be skeptical of parents whose children are removed from their care, statistics show that nearly 67% of Hoosier youths exit foster care and are successfully reunited with their moms and dads. Those stories of resilience inspired the Marion Superior Court Juvenile Division and the Marion County Public Defender Agency to celebrate National Reunification Month for the first time in Indiana.
Read More
When those in the legal community look back at 2019, they may turn their heads and look forward instead. While the year had bright spots, several sordid sagas dominated the headlines.
Read More
Children going into the state’s child welfare system end up more broken, attorneys suing the Department of Child Services say, because they are not being provided with therapy and treatment to help them heal. Rather, the lawyers contend, DCS is just finding beds to stick the kids in and forgetting about their other needs.
Read MoreTwo young women have been selected to serve as the voice of Indiana’s youth in foster care and social services and will be the newest — and youngest — members of the Commission on Improving the Status of Children Indiana.
A public defender and an attorney with the Indiana Department of Child Services have been appointed by Gov. Eric Holcomb to serve as judges in Clark County’s two new superior courts.
A CHINS finding against a Hendricks County girl was reversed Thursday after the Indiana Court of Appeals found determined the underlying evidence had been “exaggerated.”
Three adults who claim they were abused as children have filed a lawsuit against their adoptive parents as well as the Indiana Department of Child Services and the department’s county director and caseworkers, claiming the state agency and its employees were the “proximate cause of the shocking abuse” that the plaintiffs suffered.
A request by grandparents to adopt a grandson found to be a child in need of services was properly denied, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday, upholding a trial court’s determination that adoption was not in the child’s best interests.
An out-of-state father whose children were placed in foster care after one of them was injured during a domestic dispute between their mother and her boyfriend was wrongly denied an opportunity to parent his children, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.
Proposed legislation that would extend financial support to parents who adopt Hoosier children from foster care advanced in the Indiana Senate on Monday, with the bill’s sponsor hoping the bill’s third time will be the charm.
The number of Indiana children who died from neglect or abuse totaled 61 in 2019, down four from the previous year, the Indiana Department of Child Services said in a report released Thursday.
A Marion County mother has failed to convince the Indiana Court of Appeals that her parental rights over her 13-year-old daughter should be reinstated.
As Indiana lawmakers prepare to craft the state’s next two-year budget, leaders promise K-12 education will be the top priority — but they also acknowledge that every line item in the spending plan is at risk of cuts.
The Indiana Court of Appeals in a decision admonishing the Indiana Department of Child Services has reversed the termination of a mother’s parental rights to her son, while upholding the termination of his father’s parental rights in a separate case.
Indiana families celebrating the adoption of a new child into their families will now be able to capture the moments of that union in court via camera, no matter what time of year it is.
Indianapolis parents who claim the Indiana Department of Child Services wrongly removed their children from the home over allegedly false accusations of sexual abuse have filed a federal lawsuit against the agency seeking $3 million in damages.
As the Indiana Supreme Court takes up the question of whether a man convicted of murder should get a new trial because of misconduct by an attorney who served as jury forewoman at his trial, that attorney also is suing the state over her firing related to her conduct in the case.
An Evansville man who was proven to be the father of a child adopted by foster parents, but whose paternity was never formally established by a court, lost his appeal Wednesday challenging the adoption.
The Indiana Court of Appeals has reversed a child in need of services finding after concluding that the child’s mother, while admitting to using marijuana, was not proven to have used it in the child’s presence or seriously endangered the child as a result.
A mother whose parental rights were terminated after she signed a form voluntarily relinquishing them may not have been properly advised, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday, reversing the termination and remanding the case to the trial court.
Indiana trial courts and the Department of Child Services continue to deprive parents of their due process rights after years of warnings, the Indiana Court of Appeals said Wednesday, reversing the termination of a mother’s parental rights when the termination hearing went on without her or her lawyer present. In doing so, appellate judges strongly restated that courts and DCS have a duty to ensure parents’ rights aren’t violated.
A lawsuit alleging harm and constitutional violations by the Department of Child Services has survived a motion for summary judgment after a federal judge found the children plaintiffs have sufficiently claimed the state failed to protect them.
A lawsuit filed by 10 Hoosier children who argued Indiana should be required to provide legal counsel to youngsters involved in children in need of services proceedings was dismissed Tuesday in federal court. Attorneys who filed the case, however, indicated the matter is far from over.