A Philly child welfare nonprofit reached an $11M settlement over allegations of infant neglect

A Philadelphia child welfare nonprofit has agreed to pay $11 million to settle a lawsuit alleging the agency failed to oversee an infant’s care as suspected abuse of the child continued. The baby eventually suffered near-fatal and life-altering brain injuries, and her biological mother was charged with the abuse.

The lawsuit, brought in 2020 by the girl’s adoptive mother, asserted that for the first four months of the baby’s life, case workers from Tabor Community Partners — a community umbrella agency contracted by the Philadelphia Department of Human Services to manage children’s services in the Northwest section of the city — neglected to make the DHS-prescribed weekly visits to the child’s home, document required basic health information, or communicate with the baby’s doctors.

The settlement was finalized last week, said Shanin Specter of the Kline & Specter law firm, which represented the child and her adoptive mother. The settlement money will be managed by a financial institution for the benefit of the child, Specter said. According to the lawsuit filed in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, because of her injuries, it is unlikely the girl will “be able to walk, read or live independently.”

“Organizations that take on the public function of protecting at-risk children must be held publicly accountable when they don’t do their job,” Specter said in a statement, along with attorneys Braden Lepisto and Aaron Dunbar. “The criminal justice system punished the child’s biological mother years ago. Now, the others responsible for her safety are being held accountable for their role in the injuries suffered by this defenseless, months-old child.”

Attorneys for Tabor Community Partners did not respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, a spokesperson from DHS said “it is always a tragedy when a child experiences harm and maltreatment.”

“While we are prohibited by the Child Protective Services Law from sharing information about this specific case, we can share that we require our providers, including our Community Umbrella Agencies (CUAs), to follow extensive guidelines designed to ensure the safety of the children assigned to them,” the spokesperson said. “To ensure that agencies are following these guidelines and procedures, we review cases, provide on-site technical assistance by social work service staff and attend meetings with families and providers. Additionally, we conduct random quality visitation reviews to ensure that visits are occurring as required.”

According to the suit, weeks after the child was born in December 2017, a DHS assessment found the baby’s biological parents — who were also responsible for their older child’s leg fracture — to be at a high risk for prior abuse and neglect. Noting that the father and mother were “not making the most appropriate decisions with the case family,” DHS prescribed Tabor to make weekly safety visits to the home.

However, the lawsuit alleges, various case workers from the agency came to the home monthly rather than weekly, with no documented communication between multiple Tabor case workers or indication they inquired about the baby’s medical care.

According to the suit, after a visit to the home on April 9, 2018, a Tabor case worker wrote that: “There were no additional safety concens [sic] observed in the home. The children were safe.”

Three days later, on April 12, the girl’s biological mother brought the baby to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where the lawsuit says medical records said the four-month-old “was not eating, was uncharacteristically lethargic, and was sleeping all day.”

Doctors found the girl had fractures to her skull, rib, and clavicle, eye injuries, and multiple brain injuries, including one which “indicated that there was a prolonged delay in seeking medical care for the child.” The baby was then admitted to the hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit, and placed on a ventilator and feeding tube.

Five days later, according to the lawsuit, a Tabor case worker visited CHOP, writing that the hospital’s child protection team was “very clear” in explaining that the girl’s injuries were “in conjunction [with] being physically abused for an ongoing period of time,” and that the “baby’s quality of life does not look good.”

The girl now lives with her adoptive parents. Her biological mother was charged with attempted murder, aggravated and simple assault, and endangering the welfare of a child, the lawsuit states, and is currently serving prison time for the abuse. Both biological parents’ rights were terminated in 2018.

The lawsuit also names CHOP, alleging that a nurse practitioner in December 2017 documented an abnormal bruise on the baby, suspecting it was abuse, but did not report it to DHS. In court filings, attorneys for CHOP denied the negligence allegations against the hospital, noting that the nurse practitioner “acted in good faith” and referred the mother and baby to the CHOP emergency department for further evaluation. A CHOP social worker reported the suspected abuse to DHS the same day, attorneys wrote.

A spokesperson for CHOP said the hospital does not comment on pending litigation.