Abbott agrees to child foster care summit
Six-year-long legal case enters a new phase as state, advocates work to seek out solutions
With the blessing of Gov. Greg Abbott, lawyers for the state and the plaintiffs in a class-action case alleging unsafe conditions in Texas’ foster care system are planning a meeting for next week to hash out policy solutions.
The summit marks a new phase in six years of legal proceedings since federal Judge Janis Jack ruled that the Texas foster care system placed children in jeopardy and violated their constitutional rights.
The state fought back and appealed, but Jack’s ruling stood and she ordered a number of changes to the state’s system, threatened fines and upbraided state officials in hearings.
But the time has ended for holding “feet to the fire,” Jack said in a hearing last week, calling for immediate solutions as up to 400 Texas children each month are stuck in unsafe, temporary placements in motels or state office buildings. She called on Abbott to decide whether he would support changes.
Abbott agreed to “good faith” negotiations “to discuss possible solutions” to the problems described in a recent report from court-appointed monitors describing children who are staying in unlicensed facilities.
“We’ve seen a change in attitudes,” said Paul Yetter, lead attorney for the class-action suit against the state.“This is a time for working together to protect the children, not for fighting against each other. And we’re very heartened to see the governor support that attitude.”
The summit is expected to be held in the next week or so, Yetter said, and he and his team will push for more trained staff, more licensed and safe facilities and “clear, decisive leadership to implement solutions.”
“This is a crisis, and we have to
move as quickly as we can,” he said. “I don’t think we’re going to rush into any solutions, but something has to be done quickly. Every day these children are out there in facilities that are putting them at risk, and children are getting hurt.”
In a court filing Tuesday, Abbott also sided with the plaintiffs suing Texas over staff for his own Department of Family and Protective Services on a significant legal question.
Last week’s hearing centered around the children who are staying in unlicensed facilities. In August, there were 395 such children. Monitors appointed by Jack found instances of child-on-child sexual abuse, overmedication, not receiving prescribed medication and unnecessary physical restraints. There was also a report of a foster girl arranging to meet a sex trafficker and being taken away from a state building where she was staying temporarily.
Lawyers for the family and protective services department, one of the agencies that administers the foster care system, had argued that Jack’s restrictions on where the state can board foster children only applied to licensed facilities, leaving out the temporary placements.
“I think we’ve got a clear record that you don’t think these children you’re stuffing into hotels and offices should be placed in a position where they’re free from increased risk of harm. I think we’re all clear on that,” Jack told the state’s lawyers at last week’s hearing, going on to ask Abbott to intervene.
Abbott on Tuesday backed down from the DFPS position, saying instead that the children without placement will receive the same protections as other children in the foster care system.