Child-welfare suit nears an end

State officials and a California-based children's advocacy organization have agreed to formally end the 14-year-old lawsuit that is widely credited for reforming Utah's child-welfare system.

Both parties signed an agreement last week to end the David C. case, which was filed against the state in February 1993. The agreement is part of an exit strategy discussed in court earlier this year to bring an end to the class-action lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell must still approve the Friday agreement. She is expected to do so at a June 28 hearing in Utah's federal court.

Under the terms of the agreement, the case will be dismissed without prejudice, and active court monitoring of the state Division of Child and Family Services will end next month. DCFS still will be required to provide a federal court monitor and the National Center for Youth Law with agency data, which will be analyzed and presented to the court next summer.

If the agency is determined to be fulfilling its obligations, the case will be permanently dismissed in December 2008.

Since the David C. lawsuit was filed in 1993, DCFS has established a "practice model" that dictates certain fundamental principles of child welfare practice and has become a model for other states' child-welfare practices.