(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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White couple sues state over alleged 'policy' of basing adoptions on race • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1]
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Date: 2025-07-22
A white couple from eastern Iowa alleges the state illegally considered their race when rejecting their application to adopt three Black children who were part of their extended family.
A lawsuit filed by the couple claims the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, which was removed as the three children’s guardian last year by a court order, has an unwritten and illegal policy of considering the race and ethnicity of children under its supervision when making decisions on where to place children.
The civil lawsuit follows a 2024 court decision in which DHHS was found to have violated the federal Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994 and the Interethnic Adoption Provisions of 1996. Based on that finding, DHHS was removed as the guardian of the three children involved in the new lawsuit.
Jacob and Renee Sankey of LeClaire, who eventually adopted the children after a court battle, are now suing DHHS, its director and several DHHS adoption workers in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa for violating its own polices as well as the federal adoption laws.
The couple claims they are the great-uncle and great-aunt of the three children whose biological mother grew up in the foster care system and was adopted by other members of the Sankey family. After the mother turned 18, the lawsuit claims, she spent roughly “five years in and out of prison and then split her time between Indiana and Iowa.”
In the spring of 2022, when two of the children were four months old and one was 17 months old, concerns were raised about the children’s welfare while in their mother’s care. The children were removed from the mother’s home and temporarily placed in the care of their material grandparents, the lawsuit alleges.
Beginning in July 2022, the children began spending one or two weeks per month with Jacob and Renee Sankey and the couple’s children in LeClaire. During those times, the lawsuit claims, “a close bond was formed,” and the Sankeys expressed an interest in adopting the children.
After the parental rights of the children’s biological parents were terminated by court order in May 2023, guardianship was transferred to the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. The agency then formed an adoption selection committee to choose an adoptive family for the children.
According to the lawsuit, the Sankeys formally applied to adopt the children, as did E’Shaya Anderson and Mary Anderson of Indiana, who are sisters to the mother’s biological father.
“The Andersons are African-American,” the lawsuit states. “The children are African-American. The Sankeys are white Caucasian. Despite the close and personal bond between the children and the Sankeys, and the fact that they were relatives, (DHHS) did not select the Sankeys for adoption. Instead, (the agency) selected the Andersons for adoption due to the color, race, and/or ethnicity of the Sankeys and the children.”
The lawsuit claims that in doing so, DHHS failed to act in the children’s best interests by “irresponsibly, negligently, and recklessly discharging their duties in finding a suitable adoptive home for the children by ignoring expressed safety concerns about the selected family.”
Lawsuit: Emails show DHHS focused on race
According to the lawsuit, DHHS’ employee manual “unequivocally prohibits” a child’s court-appointed guardian or attorney from participating in the adoption selection committee’s deliberation process. The lawsuit claims that despite that policy, the children’s guardian actively participated in the deliberations after having openly discussed the fact that race was a predominant factor in adoptions.
In sworn testimony, the lawsuit alleges, members of the committee have stated that the real deliberations in the matter took place through individual conversations and through an email exchange in which the guardian was an active participant.
I worry about if the girls go with the Sankeys in LeClaire, where there are very few people of color -- let’s face it, that’s a very upper-middle class white environment and a very white, wealthy school district -- how are the Sankeys going to introduce the girls to their culture? – Email from DHHS adoption worker Katy James, as quoted in a new federal lawsuit
As evidence of the alleged consideration of race and color, the lawsuit claims that in at least seven of the 15 emails that were exchanged between members of the committee, direct references were made to race and color.
In one email, adoption worker Katy James allegedly stated, “I worry about if the girls go with the Sankeys in LeClaire, where there are very few people of color — let’s face it, that’s a very upper-middle class white environment and a very white, wealthy school district — how are the Sankeys going to introduce the girls to their culture? Who in the Sankey’s circle is not white?”
The lawsuit also claims the children’s guardian ad litem sent others involved in the selection process copies of articles she had picked up at a recent conference, including one entitled, “The Weaponization of Whiteness.”
In another email exchange, an individual informed James the Sankey adoption would be “a great case for relatives to take up with the court and for us to lose guardianship because we didn’t do our job.”
“All members of the committee and the children’s guardian ad litem deliberately used the race and/or ethnicity of the children and the Sankeys throughout the adoption selection process,” the lawsuit claims. “They each documented their use of race and/or ethnicity in writing, with no regard to applicable federal and state law and written policies of HHS.”
The agency’s actions demonstrate that DHHS has implemented an unwritten policy of considering race and ethnicity when selecting adoptive parents, the lawsuit adds.
Judge removes DHHS as children’s guardian
In April 2024, the lawsuit alleges, a Johnson County judge determined DHHS had violated federal adoption law and held that it was necessary and in the best interests of the children to remove DHHS as the children’s guardian.
In doing so, the judge allegedly stated, “It is difficult to understand from the communication that is part of the record, how the department can claim that race and color were not a primary consideration in their decision. The issue of culture is brought up both in the emails and in direct testimony.”
According to the lawsuit, the judge went on to state that “some of the selection committee members were unable to articulate a reason for the selection of Mary (Anderson).” The judge also noted that while the committee viewed Anderson working the overnight shift “as a positive,” the fact that Renee Sankey was a stay-at-home mom was negated.
The court then entered an order appointing the Sankeys as the children’s guardian. But as a result of the removal of DHHS as guardian, the Sankeys and the children lost their eligibility for “substantial governmental benefits” they would have otherwise received, the lawsuit claims.
DHHS did not challenge the court’s findings and did not appeal the decision.
The lawsuit is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for alleged violations of the Sankeys’ right to equal protection and due process as well as negligence. The lawsuit also seeks an order requiring DHHS to “cease any policy, practice, custom, and conduct in violation Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994 as amended by the Interethnic Adoption Provisions of 1996.”
DHHS has yet to file a response to the lawsuit and did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case.
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