Appeals court hears mother’s claim that DCF failed to address housing and disability needs in long-running child-welfare case

An appeals court heard oral argument in case No. 240934—Department of Children and Families and Others v. Mother and Others—where an appellant (the mother) said the agency violated its statutory duty by failing to provide housing assistance and court-ordered accommodations, contributing to multi-generation family trauma and the loss of her parental rights.

The mother, identified in the record only as the appellant because parts of the case are impounded, told the court she was asking judges to consider “profound and persistent systemic barriers by the Department of Children and Families,” saying those barriers contravened the Commonwealth’s child-welfare mandate under Massachusetts General Laws chapter 119. She said housing instability and an untreated pattern of codependency—exacerbated by what she described as the agency’s failure to provide reasonable accommodations for a diagnosed nonverbal learning disorder—left her unable to reunify with her child.

The mother said she has experienced long-term housing instability since aging out of foster care, that her children were reunified with her twice despite unresolved housing and relationship issues, and that she currently rents a room and receives…