Midwest Foster Care & Adoption Ass'n v. Kincade

712 F.3d 1190, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 7008, 2013 WL 1394975
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedApril 8, 2013
Docket12-1834
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 712 F.3d 1190 (Midwest Foster Care & Adoption Ass'n v. Kincade) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Midwest Foster Care & Adoption Ass'n v. Kincade, 712 F.3d 1190, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 7008, 2013 WL 1394975 (8th Cir. 2013).

Opinions

GRUENDER, Circuit Judge.

Six individual foster care providers and two organizations representing Missouri foster care providers (collectively, “Providers”) brought a suit against officials of the State of Missouri (“the State”) who oversee the State’s foster care program. The Providers asserted that the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980 (“CWA”), 42 U.S.C. § 670 et seq., gave them a privately enforceable right under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 to receive payments from [1194]*1194the State sufficient to cover the cost of certain statutorily enumerated components of foster care. The district court1 held that the CWA provisions the Providers invoked were not privately enforceable and dismissed their complaint for failure to state a claim. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm the district court.

I.

The CWA is a piece of Spending Clause legislation that creates a cooperative state-federal program to fund foster care and adoption assistance. Mo. Child Care Ass’n v. Cross, 294 F.3d 1034, 1036 (8th Cir.2002).2 State expenditures are eligible for partial reimbursement with federal matching funds only if the state incurs them within the constraints set forth in the CWA. A state must enact a plan for organizing and operating its foster care program and then submit the plan to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (“Secretary”) for approval. 42 U.S.C. § 671(a). The Secretary must “promulgate regulations for the review of such programs to determine whether” there is “substantial conformity” between the terms of the state plan and federal requirements, as well as between the state plan as written and the way in which it is implemented. 42 U.S.C. § 1320a-2a(a). If “there is a substantial failure to so conform,” the Secretary is directed to take corrective measures, including withholding federal matching funds. § 1320a-2a(b). States failing to substantially conform must be given an opportunity to “adopt and implement a corrective action plan, approved by the Secretary,” during which time the withholding of federal matching funds is suspended. § 1320a-2a(b)(4).

One of the required characteristics of each state plan is that it “provides for foster care maintenance payments in accordance with section 672.” § 671(a)(1). Section 672, in turn, describes how “[e]ach state” with an approved plan “shall make foster care maintenance payments on behalf of each child who has been removed from the home of a relative ... if the removal and foster care placement” requirements are met and the child would have otherwise qualified for assistance under the now-defunct Aid to Families with Dependent Children program. § 672(a). Subsection (b) sets forth “[a]dditional qualifications,” which limit the individuals or entities eligible to receive foster care maintenance payments. These payments “may be made ... only on behalf of a child” who is eligible under § 672(a) and is in either “the foster family home of an individual” [1195]*1195or “a child-care institution.” § 672(b). Three classes of recipients are referenced: individuals, public or private “child-care agenc[ies],” and “child-care institution[s].” Id. A state can receive federal matching funds — at a rate equal to its Medicaid matching rate — only for those foster care maintenance payments meeting the foregoing requirements of § 672. See § 674(a)(1). Section 675, the “Definitions” section of the CWA, defines “foster care maintenance payments” as:

payments to cover the cost of (and the cost of providing) food, clothing, shelter, daily supervision, school supplies, a child’s personal incidentals, liability insurance with respect to a child, reasonable travel to the child’s home for visitation, and reasonable travel for the child to remain in the school in which the child is enrolled at the time of placement. In the case of institutional care, such term shall include the reasonable costs of administration and operation of such institution as are necessarily required to provide the items described in the preceding sentence.

§ 675(4)(A).

The State interprets these CWA provisions as constraining the potential types of payment recipients and imposing a ceiling on the types of expenses for which the federal government is willing to provide matching funds. In contrast, under the Providers’ reading, § 672(a) endows eligible foster care providers with an individually enforceable federal right to payments sufficient to cover every element of care listed in § 675(4)(A). It is this alleged right they seek to enforce through § 1983, by requesting both a declaratory judgment that the State is violating the CWA through inadequate foster care maintenance payments and an injunction requiring the State to adopt and implement a methodology that will result in a higher, “lawful” level of payments.

“Section 1983 provides a federal cause of action against anyone who, acting pursuant to state authority, violates any ‘rights, privileges or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws’ of the United States.” Pediatric Specialty Care, Inc. v. Ark. Dep’t of Human Servs., 293 F.3d 472, 477 (8th Cir.2002) (quoting 42 U.S.C. § 1983). However, § 1983 holds out a mechanism to vindicate only “the violation of a federal right, not merely a violation of federal law.” Blessing v. Freestone, 520 U.S. 329, 340, 117 S.Ct. 1353, 137 L.Ed.2d 569 (1997). “[I]t is rights, not the broader or vaguer ‘benefits’ or ‘interests,’ that may be enforced under [§ 1983].” Gonzaga Univ. v. Doe, 536 U.S. 273, 283, 122 S.Ct. 2268, 153 L.Ed.2d 309 (2002). Where a statute merely gives individuals a general benefit or enhances their interest in having the state meet its statutory responsibilities, plaintiffs seeking to force compliance with funding conditions must utilize “the typical remedy” of pursuing “action by the Federal Government to terminate funds to the State.” Pennhurst State Sch. & Hosp. v. Halderman, 451 U.S. 1, 28, 101 S.Ct. 1531, 67 L.Ed.2d 694 (1981).

In Blessing, the Supreme Court created a three-part test for determining whether a statute creates an individually enforceable federal right. This test requires us to analyze whether “(1) Congress intended the statutory provision to benefit the plaintiff; (2) the asserted right is not so Vague and amorphous’ that its enforcement would strain judicial competence; and (3) the provision clearly imposes a mandatory obligation upon the states.” Lankford v. Sherman, 451 F.3d 496, 508 (8th Cir.2006) (quoting Blessing, 520 U.S. at 340, 117 S.Ct. 1353). If a plaintiff demonstrates that a statute meets all three parts of the Blessing test, it is presump[1196]*1196tively enforceable under § 1983. Blessing, 520 U.S. at 341, 117 S.Ct. 1353.

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Bluebook (online)
712 F.3d 1190, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 7008, 2013 WL 1394975, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/midwest-foster-care-adoption-assn-v-kincade-ca8-2013.