
Maxine confronts the D.C.F. commissioner over his budget cuts when she discovers that young girls in the foster care system are being moved from group homes into a locked psychiatric facility to save money that is evidently being redirected towards decoratating the commissioner's office; when Todd is about to be fired for bucking hospital protocol in an effort to save a young boy's hand, Kyle stands up for him despite their ongoing conflicts; after an Amish teenager becomes pregnant during rumspringa and decides to return to her community with her daughter, the child's father countersues for sole custody, and Amy must make the incredibly difficult choice between having the mother be shunned by her family and the father never seeing his child again; fearing that Maxine is spinning so out of control that his job is in jeopardy, Sean cuts back her hours and strongly urges her to see a therapist; concerned about the effect that peer pressure at her public school is having on Lauren, Amy go
When Amy is transferred to criminal court, Bruce stays behind in juvenile court, and she inherits Spencer, an insolent clerk; Lauren has an extremely unhappy first day at junior high, but things brighten up on day two when, much to her mother's dismay, she finds a boyfriend who is a year older; after accepting Stuart's proposal, Amy begins to have nightmares about the wedding; recently unemployed as a result of budget cuts, Donna helps Peter care for his sons while Gillian languishes in a coma; Ellen, D.C.F.'s newest employee, uses her experience as a former foster child to help Maxine deal with a teenager who's run away from her foster home; fed up with his impudence and disloyalty, Amy fires Spencer and hires Donna, who's recently graduated from law school; Amy's predecessor in the criminal division threatens her with retribution after she considers overturning his decision to suppress evidence in a capital murder case; Gillian finally emerges from her coma.