In the view of Gavin Thornton, co-executive director for the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law & Economic Justice, the state had plenty of time to get its act together but chose not to.

“Year after year, foster parents and the organizations that support foster children had requested an update, and year after year it wasn’t done,” he said.

Thorton represents some of the plaintiffs in the current suit. He described the foster care payments in the state budget as a “win-win-win.”

“It’s a win for foster children who would have greater resources and support,” he said. “It’s a win for our community, which, by making an investment in foster children now, would be avoiding paying years down the road for criminal justice expenses and other consequences of neglect. And it’s a win for the state, which would be resolving litigation that carries a potential liability of hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Thorton worries what will happen to the foster kids and their caregivers. The legal complaint argues that the state violated the federal Child Welfare Act, which requires that the state provide “foster care maintenance payments” that cover the costs of raising a child in foster care.

“It costs more to kennel a dog than the state was paying to care for children in the foster care system,” he said.

Ah Chong, the longtime foster care provider who was lead plaintiff in the initial 2013 state lawsuit on behalf of more than a thousand other foster parents, wants lawmakers to move forward 

“I want the government to step up to the plate, to tell the legislature, ‘Come on, get with it,’” she said. “I challenge all the legislators, every single one, to foster one child for one week, and then tell me that the money is enough.”