Last week, advocates for civil, disability, and children’s rights filed a federal lawsuit against the NC Department of Health and Human Services for “pervasive, system-wide practice of unnecessarily warehousing children with disabilities in foster care in dangerous, locked psychiatric institutions.” The complaint, brought on behalf of a class of North Carolina youth in foster care with mental and behavioral health needs, alleges that DHHS discriminates against these youth by placing them in “prison-like” psychiatric residential facilities instead of providing them with community-based services. You can read the plaintiffs’ press release here.