Advocates for foster children had found that children in the city spent twice as much time in the foster system as others in the rest of the country. The suit, filed in July against the state and city child welfare agencies, was brought by the public advocate, Letitia James; Marcia Robinson Lowry, executive director of A Better Childhood, an advocacy group; and lawyers from Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
The settlement, signed on Tuesday, was a partial victory. The state’s Office of Children and Family Services, which oversees the city’s Administration for Children’s Services, has agreed to a series of reforms. But the city has not settled.
