Alabama’s child welfare system has made tremendous improvements, and no more federal oversight is necessary after a 20-year transformation from national embarrassment to national model, a federal appeals court said.

In a decision made public Friday, The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld an order by U.S. District Judge Ira DeMent to end Alabama’s landmark child welfare litigation.

“This is another great day for Alabama,” Gov. Bob Riley said Friday. “We have built what is now recognized as a model child welfare system for the rest of the nation, and today’s ruling is an affirmation of all the incredible progress that has taken place.”

Attorneys sued the state in 1988 on behalf of an 8-year-old boy who was removed from a home because of neglect and who became emblematic of the failed system. Too few workers and too much turnover caused long delays with investigations of abuse and neglect, and foster children were moved around the state wherever a bed was available.

In 1991, Alabama agreed to strict court-approved standards to improve the child welfare system, including intervening faster to prevent abuse and working to keep families together whenever possible. A court-appointed monitor tracked Alabama’s progress.

DeMent in 2007 decided that there had been improvement and that it was time to end the federal court’s oversight.

The Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program disagreed and told the 11th Circuit more changes were needed. But a three-judge panel wrote that the state, the court and the plaintiffs had been “highly successful” in changing the system.

The Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program was deciding Friday whether to seek further review.