The State of Iowa is paying nearly half a million dollars to settle the lawsuit filed after a boy in foster care was beaten with a brick and drowned. The birth mother of Dominic Elkins filed the lawsuit. Elkins had been placed with a foster family in Logan (Iowa). Another foster kid in the home who was 17 years old killed the five-year-old when the foster parents were not in the house. That teenager was charged and found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Attorneys for the five-year-old’s mother argued state officials should not have placed the two boys in the same foster care home. Last fall the state agreed to pay 300-thousand dollars from the “Foster Home Insurance Fund.” This week the State Appeal Board approved another 175-thousand dollar payment from the state to settle the case out of court.

On Monday, the legislature’s Oversight Committees held a hearing to examine the state’s child welfare system, including foster care.

(Radio Iowa)