Anne Heiligenstein, the commissioner of the Department of Family and Protective Services, is retiring from the agency after three years.
Department of Family and Protective Services
Posted in
Health care
Accused Wait Years, Face Backlog to Fight Abuse Registry
More than 2,000 people listed in a statewide database of people who mistreat children are caught in a backlog of cases waiting for appeals, many with their careers and families hanging in the balance.
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Health care
House: Foster Kids Must Get Records Faster
Responding to a Texas Tribune article about young adults who age out of foster care being denied their records, House lawmakers passed a bill today to require the prompt release of case files following a child’s discharge from foster care.
Posted in
Health care
State Keeps Registry of Kids Who Abuse Kids
“Dear future son,” the North Texas father wrote in a prospective adoption letter. “I am a single dad who adopted a middle school boy in 2008. Now we are looking for one more kid so he will have a brother.” Instead, the father got shocking news: He would not be allowed to adopt again because his son is on a state registry of people who abuse children.
Posted in
Politics
The Kids Aren’t All Right
The budget draft filed last week provided the first glimpse at the kind of deep cuts that state agencies could see in the next biennium. As Matt Largey of KUT News reports, advocates are particularly worried about what the final budget could hold for the agency that protects children from abuse and neglect.
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State Government
TribBlog: State Shuts Daystar Center
The state has shut down Daystar Residential Inc. in Manvel, the facility where The Texas Tribune and the Houston Chronicle revealed that staff had forced young girls with disabilities to fight each other.
Posted in
Health care
Memories Lost
When foster kids bounce from placement to placement, they leave their belongings with state child welfare workers — where advocates say they often get misplaced, given to the wrong child or even stolen.
Posted in
State Government
A Death at Daystar
The same Houston-area residential treatment center where staffers forced disabled girls to fight each other — prompting child welfare officials to halt admissions and hire a safety monitor — is now under fire for the asphyxiation of a 16-year-old boy who died Friday after a restraint was applied by a staffer in a closet.
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Criminal Justice
TribWeek: In Case You Missed It
Ramsey on the fourth University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll (with insights into the statewide races, issues, the budget, and Texans’ view of the national scene), Hamilton and Thevenot in Galveston on the anniversary of Hurricane Ike, Ramshaw on secret hearings that separate children from their guardians, Hu on what former state Rep. Bill Zedler did for doctor-donors who were under investigation, Aguilar on the troubles around Mexico’s bicentennial, Galbraith talks coal and wind with the head of the Sierra Club, E. Smith interviews state Rep. Debbie Riddle about tourism babies and godless liberals, Grissom on why complaints about city jails go unaddressed, Philpott on the debate that will apparently never happen and Stiles continues to put the major-party gubernatorial candidates on the map: The best of our best from September 13 to 17, 2010.
Posted in
Health care
Anne Heiligenstein: The TT Interview
The commissioner of the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services talked to the Tribune about the planned redesign of Texas’ foster care system — one she hopes will keep kids close to home and connected to their siblings and reduce their time in state custody.
