The troubled Texas child welfare system that cares for vulnerable kids has been under federal oversight for more than seven years. “Foster children often age out of care more damaged than when they entered,” U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack wrote in a damning 2015 ruling. Yet the Department of Family and Protective Services — the state agency at the helm of the system — is still stumbling. Our reporters cover how fixes ordered by lawmakers, federal authorities and agency leaders are helping or hurting.
Support once afforded LGBTQ+ foster kids has vanished and a culture of silence has blanketed the agency tasked with raising children growing up in the system. Full Story
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Jack’s order to fine Texas Health and Human Services on Monday was the third time the state has been found in contempt over foster care conditions since 2011. Full Story
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The move is designed to reduce some of the rotating overtime shifts expected of agency caseworkers at group homes and motels, which have been criticized as dangerous for the children who live there. Full Story
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U.S. District Judge Janis Jack on Monday considers whether state’s foster care agency has made progress caring for most vulnerable children or should be held in contempt for the third time in an ongoing 2011 lawsuit. Full Story
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A report from Department of Family and Protective Services watchdogs paints a picture of a roughshod safety-net system that is unprepared to protect its youthful charges from predators and unable to keep them from endangering themselves. Full Story
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The Department of Family and Protective Services has increasingly relied on housing foster kids in hotels when it can’t find them a home. In the 2022 fiscal year, after record staff turnover, more than 1 in 4 caseworkers had less than one year of experience. Full Story
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Legislators also passed bills that will provide foster kids entering the troubled system with duffel bags or backpacks and those aging out of the system with help setting up bank accounts. Full Story
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A U.S. district judge has long presided over a court case that found Texas’ foster care system unconstitutionally harms kids. Tuesday’s hearing was the first appearance by the state’s new team of defense attorneys. Full Story
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Residential facilities did not refill medications in a timely manner, failed to follow psychiatric orders and, in several instances, violated state guidelines, court monitors documented after site inspections. The lawyer representing the foster kids said it could be “the tip of the iceberg.” Full Story
The upper chamber unanimously passed Senate Bill 182 after The Texas Tribune reported that a state-licensed foster care facility hired a caretaker whom the Texas Juvenile Justice Department previously fired for having inappropriate relationships with children. Full Story
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Relative caregivers, like grandparents who want to keep kids out of foster care, usually get half as much state assistance as strangers who take in children. Full Story
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Sharon Fonvielle-Baughman said Texas Department of Family and Protective Services leadership has failed to support the special investigators division, a unit created in 2005 to handle the most high-risk cases. Full Story
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Caseworkers and foster care providers often get incomplete and inaccurate information about foster kids in their care because of the state child welfare agency’s archaic technology system. Full Story
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Bills that would give relative caregivers more money have missed key deadlines to make it in front of the full House. Full Story
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Texas lawmakers and a federal judge say attorneys in the case against the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services should not hire lobbyists using funds won in court. Full Story
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As Judge Janis Jack continues to threaten contempt-of-court fines in a federal lawsuit against the state’s foster care system, advocates say the case has moved the needle on reform — but it has come with a hefty price tag. Full Story
The judge warned the state could be held in contempt of court for not following through with three mandates: youths not knowing their rights, not adequately responding to abuse allegations and still having too many children without placement. Full Story
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Residential treatment centers are meant to be a last resort for children in the state’s care, reserved for those with histories of severe trauma caused by neglect or abuse. Full Story
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The grand jury said it did not find sufficient evidence to indict Iesha Greene, who was reported to have sold and solicited nude photos of children at the Bastrop shelter. Full Story
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Texas Department of Family and Protective Services leaders instructed employees to avoid written communications about the cases and barred low-level employees from handling the investigations, according to internal agency communications. Full Story
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A spokesperson told The Texas Tribune that all employees are trained before supervising youth. DFPS Commissioner Jaime Masters apologized to the child and her mother. Full Story