Blogs by Deborah K. Frontiera
Fighting CPS
4/5/2016 10:52:03 AM
Apr. 5, 2016
The purpose of this blog has been to provide updates on some of the cases I reported in my book (Fighting CPS: Guilty Until Proven Innocent of Child Protective Services Charges ISBN 9-780-9800061-6-2) that had not been resolved when the book went to press, and to report other cases where CPS is not working up to par. I’d also like to hear about cases in which Child Protective Services did the right thing so those cases can serve as examples of what should be done. Occasionally, I will report helpful tips and web sites with advice on fighting CPS. To comment on this blog, or to tell your story, email Deborah Frontiera at frontiera.fightingcps.deborah.gmail.com
Yes, this is a copy/paste type post, but it is TOO important not to pass it on you those of you who read my blog. This topic will continue to be in my posts over the coming months as it is an on-going case:
Judge blasts foster system
Massive overhaul ordered for ‘broken’ child care services
By David Saleh Rauf SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
AUSTIN — A federal judge on Thursday ordered Texas to fix its “broken” foster care system to end years of rape, abuse and neglect in a sweeping decision that advocacy groups said highlights the state’s continued failure to adequately protect children.
U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack ruled that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services must overhaul how it oversees foster services for children in long-term care with the state.
The agency, the judge said in a scathing 255-page order, has ignored more than two decades of reports outlining problems and potential solutions, creating a situation where “children have been shuttled throughout a system where rape, abuse, psychotropic medication, and instability are the norm.”
“Texas’s foster care system is broken, and it has been that way for decades. It is broken for all stakeholders, including DFPS employees who are tasked with impossible workloads,” Jack wrote. “Most importantly, though, it is broken for Texas’s PMC (Permanent Managing Conservator-ship) children, who almost uniformly leave State custody more damaged than when they entered.”
Julie Moody, a spokeswoman for the DFPS, said the agency is disappointed with the ruling and is reviewing its options.
“Great progress has been achieved improving the Texas foster care system,” Moody said in a statement. “Texas performs comparably with other states in this area and has steadily improved.”
According to the agency’s website, foster care is intended to provide children who are unable to live with their parents or other family members “a safe place to live until they can return to their parents’ home or are found a permanent home.”
Jack’s decision grew out of a class-action lawsuit filed by the Children’s Rights, a New York-based advocacy group, on behalf of an estimated 12,000 Texas children designated as being in “permanent” foster care.
Allegations outlined
The suit alleged that Texas’ foster care system violated the children’s civil rights by moving them around repeatedly, placing them in unsafe care and keeping them there too long.
It also alleged the state, which, in effect, serves as the parents of foster children, failed to employ enough caseworkers, creating excessive workloads that increased turnover; did not properly track child-on-child abuse; and inadequately investigated and inspected foster care facilities.
Jack, a federal judge in Corpus Christi, agreed and ruled that the state’s current system for children in long-term care is unconstitutional.
A court-appointed special master will help craft and implement a long list of proposed reform measures, according to the ruling, which directs the state to hire enough caseworkers to ensure manageable caseloads for long-term foster care across the state.
The court’s ruling also requires the state to improve caseworker turnover rates, to put policies in place that allow children to speak privately to caseworkers and to better track child-on-child abuse.
The state also was ordered to “immediately stop” putting long-term foster care children in unsafe placements, which include foster group homes that lack 24-hour supervision.
Advocates cheered the decision.
Marcia Robinson Lowry, executive director of A Better Childhood, a legal advocacy group, called the ruling “a stunning decision and a great victory for Texas children.”
‘A real turning point’
“It could be a real turning point for the Texas child welfare and the children who are dependent,” said Lowry, the former executive director of Children’s Rights who filed the lawsuit against Texas in 2011.
Ashley Harris, child protection policy associate at Texans Care for Children, said the proposed reforms are exactly what Texas needs “to provide the safety and support these children need.” Whether the state will take heed, she said, is another question.
“Hopefully CPS, legislative leaders and children’s advocates can now move past the legal battles and work together to come up with the solutions and funding to support these children,” said Harris, a former caseworker for Texas Child Protection Services.
Advocates focused the lawsuit specifically on the state’s system for long-term care. Referring to them as the “forgotten foster care children,” advocates say those that have been in the system the longest receive the most abuse and neglect.
At trial last year, former foster children painted a grim picture of the state’s system.
Getting bounced around different foster homes with poor conditions was routine — and so was physical and sexual abuse. Caseworkers also testified about being overwhelmed with too many cases.
Jack, in her ruling, concluded that the state’s “policies and practices amount to structural deficiencies that cause an unreasonable risk of harm to all class and subclass members.”
“Years of abuse, neglect, and shuttling between inappropriate placements across the State has created a population that cannot contribute to society, and proves a continued strain on the government through welfare, incarceration, or otherwise,” Jack wrote. “Although some foster children are able to overcome these obstacles, they should not have to.”
‘Wake-up call’
Paul Yetter, a lead trial lawyer in the case, said he’s hopeful the ruling will be a “wake-up call” for the state. Yetter, however, said he anticipates the state will fight the decision.
“The time is done for superficial actions,” said Yetter, a Houston-based lawyer. “For the children’s sake, I hope that there won’t be an appeal. But the state so far has been resistant to making the change it needs to make.”
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