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.
Foster Care in Texas
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.
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Foster Care in Texas
Texas child welfare agency fires employee for encouraging a foster child to consider sex work
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.
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Foster Care in Texas
Judge asks Texas to remove foster care kids from out-of-state facilities facing child abuse investigation
At least 48 Texas children are housed at facilities run by organizations under an investigation launched by two U.S. senators.
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Foster Care in Texas
Judge plans to levy “substantial fines” after Texas failed to comply with court-ordered fixes to its foster care system
The judge in the 11-year federal lawsuit against Texas said the state has not properly punished or shut down unsafe child care placement facilities or curbed the rate of children who are sexually victimized while in the state’s care.
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Foster Care in Texas
Bastrop shelter caretaker accused of exploiting girls was fired from previous job for misconduct with children
State records show Iesha Greene was fired in 2020 from a state juvenile facility for having inappropriate relationships with children. The Refuge said it was aware of her previous work there, but it never requested her publicly available personnel records.
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Foster Care in Texas
Over 100 children have died in Texas’ child welfare system since 2020, report says
Most of the deaths were attributed to “preexisting medical conditions” or abuse suffered before the children entered the system, according to the DFPS report. The numbers are on par with those reported in previous years.
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Foster Care in Texas
Judge loses trust in Texas’ child abuse investigation of foster care facility and calls for federal inquiry
U.S. District Judge Janis Jack said she is seeking a federal criminal investigation into allegations that children were sexually abused and trafficked at The Refuge, a state-licensed foster care shelter for victims of sex trafficking.
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Foster Care in Texas
Child welfare monitors say there’s “ample evidence” kids were abused at Bastrop foster care facility, disputing Texas Rangers
Watchdogs appointed by a federal court found there is evidence of abuse and exploitation after reviewing thousands of documents and recordings.
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Foster Care in Texas
Founder of state-contracted child abuse shelter hopes to reopen after employee was accused of exploiting two girls
Brooke Crowder said The Refuge is working to incorporate a deeper employee screening process with the help of a company recommended by the governor’s and attorney general’s offices.
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Foster Care in Texas
Texas child welfare official resigns, saying top agency leaders scapegoated employees
The former child care investigations director said there are agency-wide communication issues that led to a breakdown in relaying key information, but two of his staff members are the ones who suffered the consequences.