Recent court rulings and new laws make it tougher for the state to remove children from their homes.
Department of Family and Protective Services
Posted in
Health care
Texas foster care agency cancels troubled provider’s contract
The Department of Family and Protective Service’s action comes four months after it placed EMPOWER into receivership in the wake of the deaths of two children under its care and staffing problems.
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State Government
Texas child abuse investigations over gender-affirming care no longer blocked
The Texas Supreme Court lifted temporary injunctions protecting three families and members of PFLAG, Inc., after CPS cases were dropped.
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Health care
Texas’ foster care system is more likely to move children away from their communities
In 2025, one in three children placed in foster care was sent to a different region, sometimes hundreds of miles away, a Texas Tribune analysis of state data shows.
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Health care
Texas foster care agency chief to step down this summer
Two years after Stephanie Muth became Department of Family and Protective Services commissioner, staff turnover is down and the number of children without a placement has dropped.
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Health care
Texas doesn’t have to place LGBTQ foster youth in homes that affirm their identities, court rules
A federal judge has blocked a Biden-era rule that said providing foster children with “safe and proper care” required placing them in gender-affirming homes.
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Health care
Feds drop charges against Texas doctor accused of leaking transgender care data
Dr. Eithan Haim of Dallas had faced four counts for wrongfully disclosing the individually identifiable health information of underage patients at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
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Health care
5th Circuit Court orders federal judge removed from Texas foster care lawsuit
U.S. District Judge Janis Jack, the state’s de facto foster care czar, has been overseeing the case since 2011.
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Health care
Appeals court to weigh reimposing fines for Texas foster care failures, removing judge on case
Texas Health and Human Services could face $100,000-per-day fines for violating a judge’s orders. The state wants the judge off the case.
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Health care
State’s move to bump federal judge from longtime foster care lawsuit caps years of battles
A federal judge has taken the Texas’ foster care system to task for 13 years. Reforms have been made. Now armed with private legal fire power, the state wants the judge off the case.
