Opinion ID: 691035
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The City's Foster Care System and the Wilder Litigation

Text: 5 All children in New York City in need of foster care services are placed in the custody of the Commissioner of Social Services and are the responsibility of the City Child Welfare Administration (CWA), formerly known as Special Services for Children (SSC). N.Y.Soc.Serv.Law Sec. 395 (McKinney 1992), et seq. 6 CWA has traditionally entered into contracts with private, nonprofit voluntary agencies that perform the foster care tasks of placing children into foster boarding homes or congregate care facilities, monitoring placements, and providing essential services specific to each child's needs. Many of these agencies are operated under sectarian auspices. In addition to contracting with voluntary agencies, CWA itself operates foster boarding homes and congregate care programs (direct care programs). 7 In 1973, Plaintiffs instituted a lawsuit alleging, among other things, racial and religious discrimination in the City's foster care placement and referral practices. In particular, the complaint asserted that inferior services were being provided to the class of Black Protestant foster children, because the City would match Catholic and Jewish foster children, who were primarily White, with Jewish and Catholic voluntary child care agencies, which had better services and which also would accept only those children of the religion with which each agency was affiliated. 8 The City and the Plaintiffs eventually engaged in settlement negotiations that culminated in the Wilder Decree, which was signed in 1984, filed with the District Court on January 2, 1985, finally approved by the District Court in 1987, and affirmed by this Court in 1988. Wilder v. Bernstein, 645 F.Supp. 1292 (S.D.N.Y.1986), aff'd, 848 F.2d 1338 (2d Cir.1988). The Decree has been monitored by Judge Ward, who has actively presided over the case since 1977.