Cameron v. Montgomery County Child Welfare Services

In 1978, Juvenile Law Center brought a Section 1983 civil rights damage action on behalf of Cameron, a foster youth who had been in foster care for three and half years without any judicial review and without the provision of services to help him return home to his family by the county child welfare agency.

This case was settled after the district court denied defendants’ motion to dismiss the suit. 

As a result of this litigation and other similar lawsuits around the country, as well as Congressional hearings and reports from organizations like the Children’s Defense Fund, Congress passed the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980, which required that the child welfare agency provide services to families both to prevent children from being removed from the home and to help them return home as soon as it is possible.