11-2-2018
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The Washington State Supreme Court says that state employees are responsible for protecting children from abusive foster parents.
The Seattle Times reports that the court ruled that the state Department of Social and Health Services “owes a duty of reasonable care to protect foster children from abuse at the hands of their foster parents.”
The ruling affirms a decision by the Court of Appeals and sends a case brought by five children against DSHS back to trial.
Less than twenty years ago, DSHS placed five girls with Eatonville couple Scott and Drew Ann Hamrick, who physically, sexually and psychologically abused all five children.
Evidence also showed that a social worker with DSHS didn’t conduct required visits with the children in 1999.