What is the Rosales Decision?
On March 3, 2003, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling in Rosales v. Thompson, 321 F.3d 835 (9th Cir. 2003) that would make many more children eligible for Title IV-E federal foster care assistance. In the Rosales case, the Court of Appeals ruled that the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) had misinterpreted Title IV-E of the Social Security Act in denying federal foster care benefits to certain children who had been maltreated and placed with relatives outside their home. The court ruled that certain children who were removed from their homes due to allegations of abuse and neglect and were living with their relatives on an interim basis were eligible for federal foster care payments under Title IV-E, even though the children would not have been eligible in the homes from which they were removed.
