R.S. v. Lucas County Children Services
25-3247
United States Court of Appeals
Sixth Circuit
Opinion by Judge Ritz
Date Rendered: November 18, 2025
Question Presented: Whether social workers showed deliberate indifference to children’s safety in violation of the children’s Fourteenth Amendment Substantive Due Process rights.
Lucas County Children Services (“LCCS”) removed children from Mother’s custody after reported suspected abuse of the youngest child. LCCS placed the children with a pastor and his wife, whom the mother suggested. Home study records indicated the Pastor’s household was associated with unsubstantiated allegations of sexual abuse. The children suffered sexual and emotional abuse while in the pastor’s custody, and the pastor was later criminally convicted.
Two of the children brought suit against LCCS under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging violations of their Substantive Due Process rights under the fourteenth amendment, alleging that the county social workers failed to protect them.
The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of the county employees, holding that the children failed to show the workers acted with “deliberate indifference.” The Sixth Circuit affirmed this decision, holding that the children did not present sufficient evidence that LCCS acted with the deliberate indifference required to support a Fourteenth Amendment Substantive Due Process claim. The Sixth Circuit found that there was not sufficient evidence to show that the case workers knew of and disregarded an excessive risk to the children’s safety before placing them, and that unsubstantiated or historical referrals in child welfare databases were not sufficient, without more, to show that the workers disregarded a known danger.
Digested by Emily T. Cecconi