Judge orders sweeping changes to Texas foster care system

Source: Associated Press


Jamie Stengle, Associated Press
Updated 5:41 pm, Friday, January 19, 2018

DALLAS (AP) — A judge ordered Texas to make sweeping changes to its foster care system on Friday, two years after she found it unconstitutionally broken.

In the scathing final order, U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack told the state the overhaul must include improvements in record keeping, caseworker visits and where children are placed. The changes were based on recommendations from experts the judge appointed to help craft a plan to improve the lives of children in long-term foster care.

The judge appointed the two experts after ruling in December 2015 that people labeled permanent wards of the state "almost uniformly leave state custody more damaged than when they entered." The state has fought Jack's oversight and objected to previous recommendations made by the experts. In her ruling Friday, Jack wrote that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services "has demonstrated an unwillingness to take tangible steps to fix the broken system."

The state quickly filed an appeal following the ruling. Attorney General Ken Paxton said the judge's "unfunded and unrealistic mandates" were misguided, and he noted legislation last year that funds improvements to the system.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/texas/article/Judge-orders-sweeping-changes-to-Texas-foster-12511040.php