-
-
-
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Thevenot on bogus public school accountability rankings, Garcia-Ditta on what locals think of increased patrols on the border, Stiles and Ramsey on where Kay Bailey Hutchison's donors have landed, Grissom on the pay gap between state and local police, Cervantes on how tweaks to the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder will impact Texas, M. Smith on the sinking prospects for an East Texas wetlands project, Ergenbright on the challenge of educating autistic children, Aguilar on efforts to legalize medicinal marijuana, Ramshaw on former foster children having trouble getting records from the state and Burnson on public health officials battling imported infectious diseases: The best of our best from August 2 to 6, 2010. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Tribweek_08_07_2010.jpg)
![Article thumbnail]()
Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman -
Digging Up the Past
Young adults who age out of Texas foster care often request their records to reconnect with estranged siblings, to track down biological families or to understand what they endured. But child welfare advocates complain the state routinely denies these requests, saying the records can't be found or will take months or even years to compile — assuming they respond at all. State officials admit they have a large backlog but insist they've beefed up staff and are putting new policies in place to address it. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/CPS_Records_Pile_v2.png)
![Article thumbnail]()
Credit: Graphic by Todd Wiseman -
Baby Bump
At a hearing today, the Department of Family and Protective Services will consider stricter caregiver-to-child ratios for child care centers — but improved care for Texas toddlers could also mean less income for child care providers and higher tuition for families. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Baby-with-block-at-daycare.jpg)
![Article thumbnail]()
Credit: Justyna Furmanczyk -
High Prescribers
A Houston psychiatrist who uses clinically controversial brain scans to diagnose everything from anxiety to marital discord. A Plano music therapist who believes his Peruvian pan flute tunes cure mental illness. And a Beaumont child psychologist reprimanded for continuing to prescribe to a proven drug abuser. These physicians have written more prescriptions for potent antipsychotic drugs to the state’s neediest patients than any other doctors in Texas. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/medicaid-pills.png)
![Article thumbnail]()
Credit: Graphic by Jacob Villanueva -
TribBlog: Lawmakers to DFPS: Tell Us About Abuse
The commissioner of the agency that oversees Texas foster children told lawmakers she regrets not telling them about a 2008 “fight club” involving developmentally disabled girls. She said the agency is moving quickly to address abuse and neglect inside Daystar Residential Inc. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/dystarResidential.jpg)
![Article thumbnail]()
Credit: Nick de la Torre / The Houston Chronicle -
Con Jobs
Criminal records don't always exclude job applicants from working with the most vulnerable foster care children, according to a Texas Tribune/Houston Chronicle investigation. At Daystar Residential Inc., where workers forced developmentally disabled girls to fight each other, dozens made it through the state's background check process in the last three years despite records of arrests. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/criminalbackground-approved001.png)
![Article thumbnail]()
Credit: Graphic by Jacob Villanueva -
TribBlog: Gallego Wants "Fight Club" Investigation
State Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, has asked the House Committee on General Investigating and Ethics to review how the Department of Family and Protective Services licenses, reviews and oversees residential treatment centers for foster kids. Full Story
![Article thumbnail]()
Credit: Nick de la Torre / The Houston Chronicle -
Forced to Fight, Continued
Texas officials have halted the placement of foster care children at Daystar and have assigned the Houston-area residential treatment center a state monitor following revelations of a staff-instigated “fight club” incident two years ago and a new incident that has come to light this past week: a possible sexual assault of a girl living at the facility. Full Story
![Article thumbnail]()
Credit: Nick de la Torre / The Houston Chronicle -
TribBlog: Governor Responds to "Fight Club" Abuse
Gov. Rick Perry's office said this evening that it has ordered the Department of Family and Protective Services to review its investigation and sanction policies in light of a Houston Chronicle/Texas Tribune article on staffers who forced young girls to fight at a Houston-area residential treatment center for foster children. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/20100605_MG_1035.jpg)
![The Daystar Residential Inc. campus, in Manvel, photographed on Saturday, June 5, 2010.]()
Credit: Spencer Selvidge -
Forced to Fight
Workers at a center for distressed children in Manvel provoked seven developmentally disabled girls into a fight of biting and bruising, while they laughed, cheered and promised the winners after-school snacks. The fight was one of more than 250 incidents of abuse and mistreatment in residential treatment centers over the last two years, based on a Houston Chronicle/Texas Tribune review of Department of Family and Protective Services records. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/dystarResidential002.jpg)
![The Dystar Residential Inc. campus, in Manvel, photographed on Friday, June 4, 2010.]()
Credit: Nick de la Torre / The Houston Chronicle -
TribBlog: DFPS Launches Safe-Sleep Campaign
Stuffed alligators and wolves? A danger to your sleeping infant, according to the Department of Family and Protective Services' new "Room to Breathe" TV and radio campaign. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/sleeping_baby.jpg)
![Article thumbnail]()
-
Slipping Through the Cracks
What's in an IQ score? For autistic or profoundly mentally ill Texans: everything. A growing number of disabled young adults are considered too high-functioning for state care services, but their families say they’re too dangerous to go without them. Admission to state-supported living centers is limited to disabled people with IQs under 70 — and community-based care is generally capped at an IQ of 75. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/20100418-DSC_2214.jpg)
![Cameron Maedgen enters his apartment in San Angelo. Maedgen, an autistic, brain-damaged, 19-year-old, is ineligible for state services because his IQ is too high — but too low-functioning to live without assistance.]()
Credit: Caleb Bryant Miller -
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Ramshaw on the state's quiet sharing of infant blood samples with the military and on the things Rick Perry's opponents aren't saying about him, Grissom on Farouk Shami's surprising popularity in El Paso, Philpott on the political advantages of a job creation fund and how Debra Medina's supporters are reacting to her "truther" comments, Hu on Debra Medina in the latest installment of Stump Interrupted, Thevenot on how the kids feel about the federal option of closing bad high schools, Rapoport on the newest mutation of the state's pay-as-you-go transportation philosophy, and our roundup of party primaries in the last week before the election: Rapoport on HD-7, Ramsey on HD-11, Aguilar on HD-36 and HD-43, Philpott on HD-47, Thevenot on HD-52 and SD-5, Kreighbaum on HD-105 and one Supreme Court race, M. Smith on another, and Hamilton on the colorful Democratic candidates for Agriculture Commissioner. The best of our best from February 22 to 26, 2010. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Feb27thTribWeek.jpg)
![Article thumbnail]()
-
The Buck Stops Where?
Three of the biggest social services messes of Rick Perry's ten-year tenure — the sexual abuse scandal at the Texas Youth Commission, fight clubs at state institutions for the disabled and deaths of children on Child Protective Services’ watch — have been noticeably absent from the campaign trail. Is it because Texans don't hold him accountable for these tragedies? Or because his opponents think GOP primary voters simply don't care? Full Story
Credit: Bob Daemmrich -
Day Care Danger
The Texas Workforce Commission spent nearly $50 million during the last two years on day care centers and in-home childcare providers with troubled track records — including sexual and physical abuse, kidnapping, and leaving infants to suffocate and die in their cribs. A Texas Tribune review found that at least 135 subsidized facilities had their licenses revoked or denied by the Department of Family and Protective Services in 2008 and 2009 and had their funding immediately suspended. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/021610daycaredanger.png)
![Article thumbnail]()
Credit: Jacob Villanueva -
TribBlog: CPPP Says Texas Kids Fare Worse Than Most
Texas kids are poorer, hungrier and more often uninsured than kids in almost any other state, according to the Center for Public Policy Priorities. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/cppp.jpg)
![Article thumbnail]()
-
TribBlog: CPPP on Child Abuse Deaths
The CPPP says Texas' high per capita child abuse and neglect death rate is due to the state's high child poverty and teen birth rates — but also how Texas tallies its numbers. Full Story
-
TribBlog: Room to Breathe
The Texas Departments of Family and Protective Services and State Health Services are launching a "Room to Breathe" campaign to educate parents about the dangers of co-sleeping, a controversial subject that they appear to be approaching with caution. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/5e39e6b189ac36dfde5aeeee5fff5426/BD%20INC%20Rick%20Perry%2002%202009)