Lege can help make the foster system work

The fifth report by federal monitors on the status of foster care in Texas was recently released to Senior U.S. District Court Judge Janis Graham Jack. The report follows up on Jack’s 2015 findings that Texas failed to protect children in the care of Child Protective Services from unreasonable risk of harm. There are some positive findings in the latest report, but much more needs to be done to protect young Texans in foster care.

The federal lawsuit on child welfare, now in its second decade, resulted in Jack establishing a group of court-appointed special monitors to visit foster care programs, such as Roy Maas Youth Alternatives, or RMYA, to validate compliance with state and federal regulations and observe the overall well-being of children in those facilities. The monitors filed their first report in June 2020, concluding, “The Texas child welfare system continues to expose children in permanent managing conservatorship to an unreasonable risk of serious harm.”

For the fifth report, monitors visited eight facilities statewide. In our case, nine monitors showed up unannounced at 2 a.m. on a Monday this past summer at our Boerne campus. They reviewed documentation, examined policies and procedures, walked the property, entered each of our buildings and residential cabins, and interviewed staff and children.

The monitors found 100 percent of the youngsters they interviewed on our campus “always felt safe.” Of the eight operations visited, Roy Maas was the only provider where all children interviewed reported they “always felt safe.”

At RMYA, we embrace three overarching principals: safe kids, safe staff and financial sustainability. Our commitment to safety for our kids and staff requires us to exceed state requirements for residents. The state mandates residential treatment centers like ours provide 1 staffer for every 5 residents. We target 1 staffer for every 3 residents — because it makes everyone safer.

At RMYA we are committed to training and supporting our staff so children who come to us will have the best chance of success inside the Texas welfare system and beyond.

We provide robust counseling services at all times of day, yearround. Many of our residents struggle with emotional and behavioral challenges. Some were physically battered. Some were abandoned by their parents. Some have been victims of violent sexual abuse, and others were victims of child sex trafficking. Many struggle to regulate their emotions, their anger and their behaviors, which is all complicated by the presence of very real mental health issues.

Counseling helps our children adjust to the world in which they find themselves. In other programs, a contract counselor may come out and see five or so children in a day, and see the same child only once per week. But for RMYA children, who have the highest levels of need in the system, therapists are literally available all day, every day. Our therapists are on staff because we want them on campus when our kids need them.

We have to raise 40 percent to 50 percent of the cost of having kids in care, because the state reimbursement does not cover our expenses. We cannot do that forever. During this legislative session, lawmakers are considering an increase in funding for programs like ours. We are hopeful.

I applaud the oversight Jack has brought to the child welfare and foster care system. It was desperately needed. Let’s work even harder to help kids in foster care, whether in programs like ours or in foster families. They deserve a chance at life. They deserve a chance to dream again. We can help make that happen.