Karreon Adams-Franks Settlement: Washington and Evergreen Schools Pay $49.3 Million Before Trial

The Karreon Adams-Franks settlement will pay about $49.3 million to the estate and two younger brothers of a blind, autistic 15-year-old who starved to death in Vancouver, Washington in November 2020: $25 million from the state's child welfare agencies and roughly $24.3 million from Evergreen Public Schools. The parties settled on October 8, 2026, four days before a Clark County Superior Court jury was due to hear claims that caseworkers and school staff ignored years of warning signs, and the district's share is reportedly every dollar of insurance it had.

The case is one of the largest publicly reported recoveries against a Washington public entity in a child-abuse death, and its structure matters to the plaintiffs' bar as much as its size. It combines a negligent-investigation claim against the state, the doctrine that has driven most large Washington child welfare payouts since 2000, with a mandatory-reporting claim against a school district, and it settled at policy limits on the eve of trial. Neither defendant admitted liability.

How much is the Karreon Adams-Franks settlement, and who is paying?

The total is reported as $49.33 million by KPTV and KING 5 and as $49.34 million by The Columbian; the difference is rounding in the district's share. According to Davis Law Group, the Seattle firm that represented the family, the money breaks down as follows.

Payer	Amount	Source of funds (as reported)
Washington DCYF and DSHS (state of Washington)	$25,000,000	State
Evergreen Public Schools	about $24,330,000 to $24,340,000	District's insurer; plaintiffs say it is the full available coverage
Total	about $49.33 million to $49.34 million

The settlement resolves claims brought on behalf of Karreon's estate and on behalf of his two younger brothers, who lived in the same house and, according to the criminal case, were also mistreated. How the money is divided among the estate and the brothers has not been disclosed. Nor has the Contingency Fee percentage, the size of any Medical Lien claims, or whether a portion will run through a Qualified Settlement Fund (QSF) or structured annuities, which is common when beneficiaries with disabilities or minority are involved.

Who are the defendants in the Karreon Adams-Franks lawsuit?

Three public bodies: the Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF), which took over child protective services from DSHS in July 2018; the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) itself, which ran CPS when the first reports came in; and Evergreen Public Schools, the Vancouver district whose staff at Shahala Middle School and Mountain View High School worked with the boys. The adoptive parents were not the target of the civil recovery; they are in prison.

What did the lawsuit say DCYF and the school district did wrong?

The core allegation is that the state had repeated notice that the children were being deprived of food and did nothing that would have saved Karreon. The complaint, as described by the family's lawyers and by local outlets that reviewed it, alleged:

• DCYF (then DSHS) received reports about the household as early as 2017, including reports that food was being withheld as punishment, and failed to act on them.
• Staff at Shahala Middle School and Mountain View High School documented concerns about the boys for years before Karreon died but did not properly report them.
• On November 20, 2020, a relative called DCYF to say Karreon looked like "a walking skeleton" and was falling from malnourishment.
• A DCYF social worker visited the home the next day, November 21, and recorded that he was "very skinny," but did not get him medical care and did not remove him or his brothers.
• Karreon died on November 27, 2020, six days after that visit.

Prosecutors in the criminal case said Karreon lost 47 percent of his body weight between July 2019 and his death, falling from 115 pounds to 61 pounds. He was autistic, nonverbal and legally blind, which meant he could not report what was happening to him and depended entirely on adults outside the home noticing.

Timeline of the case

Date	Event
June 2012	Karreon and his brothers adopted by their biological aunt, Felicia Adams, and Jesse Franks (per Davis Law Group)
2017	First reports to DSHS child protective services about the household, including food withholding, per the lawsuit
July 2018	Child welfare functions move from DSHS to the new DCYF
July 2019	Karreon weighs about 115 pounds, per prosecutors
Nov. 20, 2020	Relative reports to DCYF that Karreon looks like "a walking skeleton"
Nov. 21, 2020	DCYF social worker visits, notes he is "very skinny," takes no protective action
Nov. 27, 2020	Karreon dies at 15, weighing 61 pounds
May 2021	Arrest warrants issued for the adoptive parents
Oct. 2023	Adams and Franks convicted; sentenced to 35 and 30 years
2026 (March)	Washington appeals court affirms convictions and sentences, per KPTV
Oct. 8, 2026	Civil settlement reached
Oct. 12, 2026	Scheduled start of Clark County Superior Court jury trial

Why did Evergreen Public Schools settle?

Because its insurers decided the risk of trial was larger than the policy. In a statement reported by The Columbian, KATU and KOIN, the district said the decision to settle "was made by the district's insurers" to avoid the risk of a jury verdict exceeding its available coverage, and that the payment on its behalf is being made by its insurer. Davis Law Group said the district's share "represented the entire amount of insurance coverage available to the district."

The district has not conceded fault. It says it maintained throughout the litigation that no staff member failed to make a mandatory report to DCYF or law enforcement, and that its employees are trained in and understand their reporting obligations. It also expressed sympathy for the family and said it hoped resolving the case without a trial would let Karreon's brothers heal.

That combination, a full-limits payment paired with a denial of fault, is a recognizable pattern. Once a plaintiff makes a credible demand within limits and the facts include a starved, disabled child and documented school observations, a liability carrier that refuses and then loses an excess verdict can face claims that it failed in its duty to its insured to settle in good faith. Paying the limits transfers that risk away from the carrier and protects the district's general fund. It also means the $24.3 million figure says more about the policy tower than about any judgment of the district's comparative fault.

The state did not comment. DCYF told reporters it had "no comment" on the settlement.

What happened to Karreon Adams-Franks' adoptive parents?

They are serving long prison sentences. In October 2023 a Clark County jury convicted Felicia Adams and Jesse Franks of homicide by abuse and second-degree murder in Karreon's death, and of two counts of second-degree criminal mistreatment involving his younger brothers. The murder conviction was vacated at sentencing to avoid double punishment for the same death. Adams was sentenced to 35 years and Franks to 30 years. The sentencing judge called the case "one of the saddest things I have seen in 37 years." A state appeals court upheld the convictions and sentences, according to KPTV.

The criminal judgments did not end civil exposure for anyone else. Under Washington's comparative fault framework, the parents' intentional conduct does not automatically extinguish claims against public bodies that are alleged to have breached independent duties to protect the children, which is why the civil case proceeded against the agencies and the school district.

Can you sue the state of Washington for CPS negligence?

Yes, within limits. Washington waived the state's sovereign immunity by statute: RCW 4.92.090 makes the state liable for its tortious conduct to the same extent as a private person or corporation. A claimant must first present a tort claim to the state under RCW 4.92.100 and wait out the statutory period before filing suit under RCW 4.92.110.

The substantive hook for child welfare cases is the negligent-investigation cause of action. In Tyner v. Department of Social and Health Services, 141 Wn.2d 68 (2000), the Washington Supreme Court read RCW 26.44.050, the statute that directs the department to investigate reports of child abuse and neglect, as creating an implied cause of action, holding that during an investigation the state "has the duty to act reasonably in relation to all members of the family." Later cases narrowed it. In M.W. v. Department of Social and Health Services (2003), the court described the claim as a "narrow exception" tied to the statutory duty to investigate and the harms that duty was designed to prevent. Courts have since required a biased or incomplete investigation that leads to a "harmful placement decision," which includes leaving a child in an abusive home.

That last element is why the November 21, 2020 visit was central to the Karreon Adams-Franks lawsuit. A caseworker who sees an emaciated, nonverbal child the day after a "walking skeleton" report and leaves him in place has, on the plaintiffs' theory, made exactly the kind of placement decision Tyner and its successors contemplate. The 2017 reports supported a longer arc of missed opportunities.

Two practical constraints apply to any claim of this kind. Washington does not allow Punitive Damages absent express statutory authorization, so recovery is compensatory: the estate's claims and the brothers' own injury claims. And the Statute of Limitations and claim-presentment clock run against the state just as they do in any tort case, subject to tolling for minors.

What are the mandatory reporting rules for Washington school employees?

RCW 26.44.030 lists school personnel among mandatory reporters. A school employee who has reasonable cause to believe a child has suffered abuse or neglect must report to law enforcement or DCYF at the first opportunity, and in no case later than 48 hours after forming that belief. Failure to report is a gross misdemeanor under RCW 26.44.080.

The civil theory against Evergreen was that staff documented concerns, which the plaintiffs say met the reasonable-cause threshold, but did not convert them into reports. The district's position is that no reportable belief went unreported. Because the case settled, no court resolved whether a school district's breach of the reporting statute supports a civil damages claim on these facts, or how a jury would have allocated fault between the district, the state and the parents.

Is this the largest child welfare settlement in Washington history?

No court or agency has said so, and outlets covering the deal did not confirm a record. The combined figure is far above the most-cited prior benchmark: in 2018 the state paid $19.3 million to resolve a Pierce County suit on behalf of a toddler, identified as M.D., whom DSHS placed in Texas with a man who beat her, leaving her blind and quadriplegic. KING 5 described that payment at the time as a DSHS record, more than double the agency's previous largest payment to a single plaintiff. The state's $25 million share here exceeds that figure on its own.

Case	Year	Forum	Public payer(s)	Amount
Karreon Adams-Franks (estate and two brothers)	2026	Clark County Superior Court, Wash.	DCYF/DSHS and Evergreen Public Schools	about $49.3 million
New Jersey child beaten by father (reported Oct. 14, 2026)	2026	New Jersey	Division of Child Protection and Permanency	$22 million, plus a separate $8 million medical settlement
M.D. (toddler placed in Texas)	2018	Pierce County Superior Court, Wash.	DSHS	$19.3 million
Developmentally disabled Pierce County woman	2025	Washington	DSHS and DCYF	$8 million
Dustyn Wilson (young man with autism)	Recent	Pierce County Superior Court, Wash.	DSHS and DCYF, split evenly	$6.85 million

The New Jersey figure, reported by the New Jersey Law Journal two days after the Washington deal became public, is believed by the child's lawyer to be the largest in the history of that state's child protection agency. The two cases, a week apart, show the same trend: eight-figure recoveries in failure-to-protect cases are now routine enough that agencies and their insurers price them before trial rather than after.

What it means for plaintiffs' firms, public entities and school districts

For plaintiffs' personal injury firms. The case is a template for pleading child welfare deaths against multiple public defendants with separate duties. The state claim rests on Tyner and the harmful-placement element; the school claim rests on RCW 26.44.030 and the record staff created. Keeping the school district in the case brought a second, independently insured payer to the table, and that payer's limits ultimately supplied almost half the recovery. Firms evaluating similar matters will look first at what written observations exist from schools, medical providers and caseworkers, because documented concern without a report is what converts a sympathetic case into a liability case.

For state agencies and risk managers. The facts that drove value were short-interval: a specific report followed by a visit that documented visible harm and produced no action. Those are the facts least defensible in front of a jury, and they surface in every negligent-investigation case. The size of the state's share signals that Washington's risk managers assessed the trial exposure as well above $25 million.

For school districts and their carriers. Districts generally insure through pools or commercial towers with fixed limits. A credible within-limits demand in a child-death case can exhaust the tower, as it did here, regardless of how the district views its staff's conduct. Districts that have not audited how teachers and counselors escalate observations, and how those records are kept, carry that exposure on every file.

For defense counsel. Settling four days before trial left open the questions defendants most wanted answered, including whether a school's alleged reporting failure supports a civil damages claim on these facts and how fault would be allocated against intentional actors who are already in prison. Those questions will be litigated in the next case rather than settled by this one.

FAQ

How much was the Karreon Adams-Franks settlement?

About $49.3 million in total, reported as $49.33 million or $49.34 million: $25 million from the state of Washington through DCYF and DSHS, and about $24.3 million from Evergreen Public Schools' insurer.

Who receives the settlement money?

The estate of Karreon Adams-Franks and his two younger brothers, on whose behalf the claims were filed. The individual shares have not been disclosed.

When was the case set for trial?

Trial was set to begin on October 12, 2026 in Clark County Superior Court in Vancouver, Washington. The parties reached the settlement on October 8, 2026.

Did the state or the school district admit wrongdoing?

No. The state agencies declined to comment, and Evergreen Public Schools said its insurers made the decision to settle and that none of its staff failed to make a mandatory report.

What did the DCYF caseworker allegedly miss?

According to the lawsuit, a caseworker visited on November 21, 2020, the day after a relative reported the boy looked like "a walking skeleton," noted he was "very skinny," and neither sought medical care nor removed the children. Karreon died six days later.

Can families sue Washington's DCYF for failing to protect a child?

Yes. Washington has waived sovereign immunity for torts under RCW 4.92.090, and Tyner v. DSHS recognizes a negligent-investigation claim under RCW 26.44.050 when a biased or incomplete investigation leads to a harmful placement decision, such as leaving a child in an abusive home.