California Alliance of Child and Family Services v. Allenby
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
589 F.3d 1017 (2009)
- Written by Samantha Arena, JD
Facts
The Child Welfare Act (CWA) allows states to opt in to receive federal funding to assist providers with foster-care costs. The CWA requires states to make foster-care maintenance payments on behalf of eligible children, including payments “covering the cost of” food, clothing, shelter, and other specified basic needs. California opted to receive funds under the program, designating the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) (defendant) as the administering agency. Under California’s implementing statutory scheme, the CDSS employed the Rate Classification Level (RCL) system to determine the appropriate amount of foster-care maintenance payments to be made. The RCL classified foster-care homes into different categories based on the level of services that the operator provided. The initial 1990 rates were set relying on data from a 1985 study of costs. Thereafter, the state statute required that the rates be adjusted annually for inflation based on the California Necessities Index (CNI), which represented a weighted average of changes in costs of living for low-income individuals. The CDSS, however, failed to adjust the rates according to the CNI beginning in 2001 and by 2005 was making payments covering only 80 percent of foster-care costs. The California Alliance of Child and Family Services (CACFS) (plaintiff), a group of nonprofit foster-care providers, sued, arguing that California violated the CWA. The district court granted summary judgment for California, concluding that the payments covering 80 percent of costs substantially complied with the CWA. CACFS appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Rymer, J.)
Concurrence (Wu, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 815,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.