Washington state and Evergreen Public Schools have agreed to pay more than $49 million to resolve a wrongful-death lawsuit over Karreon Adams-Franks, a 15-year-old Vancouver student who died in 2020. The settlement is for his estate and two surviving brothers. The exact total is reported differently: OPB reported $25 million from the state and $24.3 million from the school district, while The Columbian put the combined settlement at $49.34 million. The available reporting does not explain the difference.
The lawsuit alleged years of abuse and neglect in the home, including food deprivation, and accused state child-welfare agencies and school employees of failing to respond to warnings. Adams-Franks was autistic, nonverbal and legally blind; he weighed 61 pounds when he died at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in November 2020, according to KGW. These are allegations in the civil case, not findings established by the settlement.
The plaintiffs alleged that staff at Shahala Middle School and Mountain View High School did not report concerns to the state. Evergreen Public Schools has disputed that account, saying none of its staff failed to make mandatory reports and that employees receive training on their reporting duties, according to KGW. The estate, the brothers and their biological mother filed suit against state officials in 2023; the school district was added as a defendant in early 2024, and the case later moved from King County to Clark County.
Adams-Franks’s adoptive parents, Felicia Adams and Jesse Franks, were convicted in 2023 of homicide by abuse in his death and criminal mistreatment of his younger brothers. Adams was sentenced to 35 years in prison and Franks to 30 years, according to OregonLive. The civil settlement addresses claims against the state and school district; the parents’ convictions are separate criminal proceedings.
Statewide oversight concerns do not resolve this case
Washington’s Office of the Family and Children’s Ombuds reported in its 2019 annual report that mandated reporters had complained of long waits when calling Child Protective Services, with callers sometimes placed on hold during peak periods. That report describes a statewide concern from that period; it does not establish whether any report involving Adams-Franks’s family was delayed. Separately, KOMO News reported that a State Auditor’s Office review found problems with DCYF’s handling of abuse and neglect investigations. The audit is broader agency context, not evidence about the decisions made in this family’s case.
