Senate Health and Human Services Committee members voted unanimously Wednesday morning to send a bill aimed at overhauling the state’s child welfare system to the full Senate for a vote.
Child Protective Services
Posted in
State Government
Analysis: Sex trafficking series shows Texas vexed by long-term challenges
State officials have done a lot of work to stop sex trafficking in Texas, but the results revealed by the Tribune’s Sold Out series are demoralizing. The state’s own safety net is part of the pipeline for victims of trafficking.
Posted inState Government
House committee hears bills on child welfare
Advocates and families testified all day in front of House Human Services members as legislators buckled down to look at key bills that would overhaul how the state takes care of endangered children.
Posted in
Sold Out
When it comes to helping sex-trafficking victims, success is elusive
How do you help sex trafficking victims like Sarah who’ve learned that the way to survive is to flee?
Posted in
Sold Out
She was a sex-trafficking victim, but Texas law labeled her a pimp
Laws the state uses to put sex traffickers behind bars can sweep up their prey, too. A few years in age can mean the difference between a chance at rehabilitation and a lengthy prison sentence, as Yvette learned.
Posted in
Sold Out
Texas couldn’t help this sex-trafficked teen, so authorities sent her to jail
No one wanted Lena behind bars. She was not a prostitute; she was a child who had been sexually exploited. But teenage sex-trafficking victims in Texas end up in jail for one simple reason: There’s nowhere else for them to go.
Posted in
Sold Out
When foster care couldn’t help this 16-year-old, she ran to a pimp
After her father raped her, Jean became one of the roughly 12,000 Texas kids in long-term foster care, a system that often leaves children more damaged than when they arrive. For Jean, selling sex seemed like a safer bet.
Posted in
Sold Out
How hollow rhetoric and a broken child welfare system feed Texas’ sex-trafficking underworld
Texas leaders have publicly battled sex trafficking for more than a decade, but they’ve devoted hardly any resources to helping victims.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Help us report on sex trafficking in Texas
Over the past five months, The Texas Tribune has investigated the hidden world of sex trafficking. Now, we want to hear about your experiences.
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Ask us anything about our investigation into sex trafficking in Texas
Texas Tribune reporters Neena Satija, Morgan Smith and Edgar Walters hosted a live discussion about sex trafficking with Chuck Paul, a former child welfare investigator.
