Judge demands foster care fixes
New order stayed on appeal by state calls for reforms in long-term custody
AUSTIN — A federal judge Friday ordered Texas to make broad and immediate reforms to the way it cares for children in longterm foster care.
State officials called the mandates unfunded and unnecessary and won a quick stay from a federal appeals court.
The lower court ruling by U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack, of Corpus Christi, directed the state to expand its foster home options, make it easier for children to report abuse and ensure caseworkers visit with their kids each month.
In a 116-page order issued about seven years after a group of foster children brought the classaction lawsuit, Jack said state leaders “completely ignored” the court’s earlier order to implement policies to ensure foster children are free from an “unreasonable risk of harm.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans just hours later, saying Jack ordered a plan that is “incomplete and impractical.”
“Texas has a solemn responsibility to care for children removed from their homes due to neglect and abuse of all kinds, and last year the Legislature
approved landmark changes in the foster care system,” Paxton said in a statement. “When unelected judges improperly assume control of state institutions, Texas officials cannot make the policy they’ve been entrusted to make.”
The 5th Circuit ruling put Jack’s order on hold temporarily until it can hold a hearing on the issues.
Jack called the state’s recent steps “admirable,” but said the reforms haven’t gone far enough to fix a system she ruled unconstitutional in 2015, finding that foster children in Texas “almost uniformly leave state custody more damaged than when they entered.”
“Over two years later, the system remains broken and (the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services) has demonstrated an unwillingness to take tangible steps to fix the broken system,” she wrote in Friday’s order.
The foster system has faced scrutiny for shuffling children between multiple homes, relocating them far away from their own communities and running out of placement options, forcing children at times to sleep in state office buildings.
As of October last year, more than 16,800 children were in foster care statewide, including more than 3,200 in the 13-county Houston region, according to DFPS data.
Plaintiffs in the case, identified only by their initials, reported suffering sexual abuse from foster parents and siblings, being overmedicated and bouncing between foster homes and a rotating cast of caseworkers. Z.H., an 11-year-old boy at the time the lawsuit was filed, was placed in a residential treatment center 300 miles from his community in San Antonio.
‘Turning point for children’
An attorney who helped represent Children’s Rights, the New York-based children’s advocacy group that filed the lawsuit, said Jack’s decision represents a “turning point for Texas foster children.”
“The court’s ruling requires the state to provide safe and secure homes, which will protect our most vulnerable children,” said Paul Yetter, a Houston attorney. “It is a well-thought-out, comprehensive, careful order that requires across-the-board reform.”
Jack’s order requires the state to implement a plan developed over the last year by court-appointed experts, known as special masters. Two of them, at state expense, will monitor compliance with Jack’s order and submit reports to the court every six months updating progress.
Jack ordered the state to adopt some reforms immediately, such as setting up a 24-hour hotline for reporting abuse and requiring monthly, documented meetings with foster children, some of whom had testified they went months without seeing a caseworker.
Though the state has fought the court-ordered reforms at almost every turn, Abbott and the Legislature made improving child protection a priority last year.
The recent changes include boosting pay for family members who take in a troubled child and further privatizing foster care in certain areas, including Bexar County, where eventually a contractor will take over case management duties from state workers.
‘Requirement of urgency’
In 2016, the state approved $12,000 raises for about 6,000 child-protection workers, meant to help plug the workforce shortage and stop high rates of turnover.
Still, state Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, said there is more to be done.
“Judge Jack’s final order will bring a requirement of urgency that’s been missing in our effort to reform the foster care system,” he said. “It won’t be easy, and it won’t be cheap, but it’s necessary and it will save kid’s lives.”
Some of Jack’s mandates could come with a hefty price tag. One caps workloads at 17 children per caseworker, which could force the state to hire more staff. As of November last year, the average caseload was 18.4 children per worker, according to DFPS.
The ruling also forces the state to ensure each child has legal representation. It is unclear how many foster children do not have an attorney because the DFPS does not track that information, according to the order.
DFPS likely will have to recruit many more foster homes to comply with mandates that within two years all children under 13 be placed in “family-like settings” and that each region have enough foster homes to ensure kids are not placed far away.
In addition to an appeal, Paxton had requested a temporary suspension of Jack’s order, meaning the state would not have to immediately start making any of the changes.