If you are experiencing similar or concerned for others…

DATE: [Month Day, Year]

TO: Legal Intake, ACLU of [State]

RE: Case Review Request — Denial of Kinship Placement After Full Compliance

FROM: [Full name], [relationship], [city, state]

[Phone] | [Email]

What I request

• Civil-rights case review.

• A decision whether the ACLU will investigate, advise, refer, represent, or appear as amicus.

• Review of constitutional and federal statutory violations arising from the State’s refusal to place a child with compliant kin.

One-sentence case

The State removed [Child’s first name, age] and then denied placement with [me / named kin], a fit relative who completed every required background check, home study, and training, while the child remains in stranger foster care.

Parties

• Child: [first name, age, disability if any, Tribe if any].

• Requesting kin: [name, relationship, city/state].

• Agencies: [sending-state agency]; [receiving-state agency if ICPC].

• Court: [county juvenile/dependency court — case type only].

• Counsel: [none / name; counsel [does / does not] know of this request].

Facts — compliance, then denial

• Child entered custody: [month/year]. Time in stranger care: [X months].

• Kin identified: [date].

• Completed: fingerprints; CPS and criminal checks; home study on [date]; required training; any required home modifications.

• Home-study result: [approved / approved with conditions / no safety finding / delayed with no written denial / written denial dated ___].

• Interstate: ICPC submitted [date]. Regulation 7 requested: [yes/no]. Status: [pending / approved but not placed / denied].

• Agency reason for withholding placement: [quote the writing, or “no written reason provided”].

• That reason is not a current, individualized safety finding. It is [delay / age / single status / disability stereotype / old record already cleared / contractor preference / shifting caseworker demands].

• Harm to the child from delay: [interrupted medical care / IEP disruption / sibling separation / stranger or congregate placement / loss of family or culture].

• Kin did not cause the removal.

Constitutional and federal rights invoked

• 14th Amendment — procedural due process. After the State created a kinship, licensing, or ICPC process and I completed it, the State may not withhold placement by silence, shifting rules, or reasons unrelated to present safety, without notice and a meaningful hearing. Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319 (1976).

• 14th Amendment — family association and family integrity. A child in state custody retains a liberty interest in family association. Once the State took the child, it assumed a special relationship and may not arbitrarily refuse a fit relative. Santosky v. Kramer, 455 U.S. 745 (1982); Smith v. OFFER, 431 U.S. 816 (1977).

• 14th Amendment — parental liberty (use only if a parent is the requester or still holds rights). Fit parents have a fundamental right to the care, custody, and control of their children. Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390 (1923); Pierce v. Society of Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925); Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645 (1972); Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57 (2000).

• 14th Amendment — equal protection. Kin who completed the same path as stranger foster parents are denied the placement strangers receive. Family status, age, disability, or income is not a lawful basis for that difference without an individualized safety reason.

• First Amendment — association and petition. The family may maintain intimate association and petition the government for placement without freeze-out or retaliation.

• State-created liberty interest. Title IV-E kinship preference, 42 U.S.C. § 671(a)(19), and [State] kinship-first statutes are more than a hope. After compliance, denial without a current safety finding is arbitrary.

• ADA Title II, 42 U.S.C. § 12132, and Rehabilitation Act § 504 (if the child or caregiver has a disability). Public agencies and courts must use individualized assessment, provide reasonable modifications, and use the most integrated, family-like setting appropriate. Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581 (1999). Age or diagnosis is not a safety finding.

• ICWA, 25 U.S.C. § 1915 (if an Indian child). First preference is extended family. Departure requires good cause on the record.

• 42 U.S.C. § 1983. State actors, under color of law, deprived the child and kin of the federal rights listed above.

• ICPC Regulation 7 / Safe and Timely Interstate Placement (if interstate). The compact screens safety. It is not a lawful basis to park a child in stranger care after the receiving state has no safety objection.

Why this is an ACLU matter

• Stranger or contractor care is preferred after kin already cleared every published requirement.

• The denial rests on a classification the Constitution or the ADA forbids, or on no written reason at all.

• The method is delay: new caseworkers, new demands, and time that locks in non-kin placement.

• Disabled or medically complex children are kept out of family settings that can meet their needs.

• [One documented fact showing the pattern beyond this child.]

Relief requested

• Review the file for constitutional, ADA, and ICWA violations.

• Advise whether a § 1983 action, ADA complaint, or state-court due-process motion is viable.

• Consider representation, co-counsel, or amicus support.

• If declined, refer to cooperating or disability-rights counsel.

• If the facts show a policy, consider systemic review of kinship-denial practice in [State].

Not requested

• Relitigation of the original removal as a private custody fight.

• Replacement of the child’s counsel or GAL without cause.

• Publication of sealed records.

Attachments available on request

• Home-study approval or denial.

• Proof of prints, clearances, and training.

• ICPC dates and correspondence.

• Agency letters stating the reason for non-placement.

• Redacted medical or IEP summary of harm from delay.

• Public court minute entries.

• Prior complaints to the agency, governor, HHS OCR, or legislature.

I understand that this request does not create an attorney-client relationship and does not stop any deadline.

Respectfully,

[Name]

[Relationship to child]

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