https://www.tpr.org/podcast/the-source/2023-12-11/texas-foster-care-system-on-trial

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Here are some key dates in the history of the lawsuit:

• 2011: The lawsuit is filed.
• 2015: The court issues its first order requiring the state to make improvements.
• 2018: The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upholds parts of the court's order.
• 2019: The court issues additional orders requiring the state to make improvements.
• 2023: A hearing is held to determine whether the state is complying with the court's orders.
• December 2023: The court is expected to rule on the plaintiffs' request for a federal takeover.

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https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/09/texas-foster-care-lawsuit/

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[Judge Jack] put the foster care system under federal oversight and has spent more than seven years issuing order after order: Hire more caseworkers, stop placing children in unsafe settings, track child-on-child abuse. She appointed "special masters" - also called court monitors - to track the state's compliance.

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Texas has spent $41.3 million on the court monitors alone. That's in addition to fees to cover staff member's and attorney's time, transcription services and travel.

Some lawmakers contend that Jack's 2015 ruling and continued oversight are the primary drivers for what improvements have been made. Critics say the suit has sucked up financial resources that DFPS could have used to improve foster care.

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Judge is considering to hold the state of Texas in contempt for a third time for its failure to implement court mandated changes.

Why are courts so slow? The legal system is just way too slow, itself becoming an injustice.

Watch every Democrat in Texas run on this next year, "for the children" when in reality they don't care about the kids all.

It has been on-going for decades and has never been a priority in politics. The reality is, Texas' voters do not care about the kids.

the foster care system has been broken for years. people have tried sound the alarm but leaders simply do not care. it's an absolute disgrace this hasn't been addressed yet. guess fixing the foster care system isn't as sexy as fighting stupid culture wars.

As someone who recently went through foster training for a faith based agency through our church, the stories you hear about the system will rip your heart out. I thought I was mentally prepared going into it. I was not.

barbacoa taco said:

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the foster care system has been broken for years. people have tried sound the alarm but leaders simply do not care. it's an absolute disgrace this hasn't been addressed yet. guess fixing the foster care system isn't as sexy as fighting stupid culture wars.

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First off, I agree with you regarding the system. However, a liberal complaining about fighting culture wars rings just a little hollow, don't you think?

when you know how dire things are in the foster system and people are begging lawmakers to address it, and they wont do that but they somehow have plenty of time to pass laws that are nothing more than virtue signaling, it's heartbreaking. it shows where their priorities are.

this topic is genuinely upsetting to me. and should be to anyone.

bmks270 said:

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Why are courts so slow? The legal system is just way too slow, itself becoming an injustice.

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Basically because of all the lazy lawyers/judges involved in the process and they make enough money that they need not care. Had this very conversation with a judge, DA, assistant DA and two other attorneys during voir dire. They asked me to approach the bench to continue a discussing we were having about a jury of your peers and how slow the system worked and how far behind they were with their case load. I commented that all of them are overpaid and allergic to work.

I told them that in the real world, there is this thing called overtime and that is how things get caught up. And that they should give it a try. He asked how I know they don't, and I said because many of you have designated parking spaces so I know when they are at the courthouse and when they aren't. And I said if I drive by your house, I won't find you working there either. And that your days are not consumed by volunteerism either since I never see any of you participating in anything, lol.

From the stories I've heard it looks like:
-foster care kids are very low priority to the state
-the system is extremely strapped for resources
-lawmakers don't agree that giving them more resources would solve the problem
-lawmakers are sensitive to families being unjustly targeted by CPS, and that by giving the foster care system more resources, power, and time the foster care bureaucracy would use it to target good families.
-Parents who have been paying attention know that taking their kids to the emergency room for innocent accidents can start the process of removal and there is already too much power to remove kids.

We have church friends who have had to go up against purpled-haired CPS workers in another state. These workers were bragging about specifically breaking up christian families and handwaving abuses in DEI strongholds. When lawmakers decide to not fund foster care, thats whats in the back of their mind as who they aren't funding.

The truth of the matter is it is far more complex and there is enough blame to go around to everyone

• The parents having these kids end up having 5 or more with 5 different dads...
• They couldn't afford the 1st one anyway, and most of the parents are crackheads
• The pay to be a CPS worker is trash, but up until lately, you had to have a degree
• They are outsourcing this to the private sector, and it pays even less
• Many of the foster parents are in it for the money... no... really
• Lack of resources and foster care in general means bad situations.
• The kids are already from broken homes, so more often than not, they have terrible behavior issues and psychological damage.
• The state doesn't want to expand services, but the influx of new population has put an even bigger strain on the system that was broken.

• The most important problem is that predators know this system is flawed and take advantage of it to exploit kids.

one safe place said:

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bmks270 said:

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Why are courts so slow? The legal system is just way too slow, itself becoming an injustice.

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Basically because of all the lazy lawyers/judges involved in the process and they make enough money that they need not care. Had this very conversation with a judge, DA, assistant DA and two other attorneys during voir dire. They asked me to approach the bench to continue a discussing we were having about a jury of your peers and how slow the system worked and how far behind they were with their case load. I commented that all of them are overpaid and allergic to work.

I told them that in the real world, there is this thing called overtime and that is how things get caught up. And that they should give it a try. He asked how I know they don't, and I said because many of you have designated parking spaces so I know when they are at the courthouse and when they aren't. And I said if I drive by your house, I won't find you working there either. And that your days are not consumed by volunteerism either since I never see any of you participating in anything, lol.

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Check the golf course.

Some Junkie Cosmonaut said:

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As someone who recently went through foster training for a faith based agency through our church, the stories you hear about the system will rip your heart out. I thought I was mentally prepared going into it. I was not.

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Texas really needs to step up with this now that R v W is gone. I haven't ever experienced it, but obviously you've confirmed what I think most people have always thought about the foster system.

Did you feel the faith based agency had a great deal more oversight to ensure quality care?

rgvag11 said:

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It has been on-going for decades and has never been a priority in politics. The reality is, Texas' voters do not care about the kids.

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Name one state that does.

I know a state judge who hears a lot of these family law cases. He's told me time and time again, almost none of the legislatures gives a damn about the foster system in this state, DEM or GOP. Almost none of them vote to improve the system and add more dollars and it is desperately needed.

Signel said:

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The truth of the matter is it is far more complex and there is enough blame to go around to everyone

• The parents having these kids end up having 5 or more with 5 different dads...
• They couldn't afford the 1st one anyway, and most of the parents are crackheads
• The pay to be a CPS worker is trash, but up until lately, you had to have a degree
• They are outsourcing this to the private sector, and it pays even less
• Many of the foster parents are in it for the money... no... really
• Lack of resources and foster care in general means bad situations.
• The kids are already from broken homes, so more often than not, they have terrible behavior issues and psychological damage.
• The state doesn't want to expand services, but the influx of new population has put an even bigger strain on the system that was broken.

• The most important problem is that predators know this system is flawed and take advantage of it to exploit kids.

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This

Talked to someone who fostered a lot of older children (like 5 and up) and ended up adopting 3 of them. Before he adopted the 3, he had to renovate his whole house because it was completely torn to shreds from the children he had temporarily in his home. Behavior was just abhorrent and he had almost zero ability to control them because as soon as he or his wife got physical (like restrain an out of control child) they could be criminally prosecuted and/or kicked out of the system. Any valuable's he owned he had to hide out of site and the children could never be left without adult supervision.

He really wanted to help but it really strains anyone who tries. I don't think I could have ever done it and I'm way to old now.

Big Brothers and Big Sisters has become a similar thing. Cousin tried to do this and she finally realized the teen was just taking advantage of her and gave up.

You can't help people who don't want it.

I would say this is pretty spot on for the most part.

It's not necessarily a problem of certain people having too many kids. Some people just shouldn't have any.

The pay to be a CPS worker sucks. I have a friend who did this for awhile in Colorado, and it was an incredibly stressful and ****ty job that didn't pay anything. She was in school to be a therapist at the time, so it made some sense from an experience standpoint though.

There is certainly a lack of resources. Not enough for kids, and not enough for adequate oversight. A lot of these kids need much more access to mental health resources like counselors, therapists, and psychologists. They have a lot of issues with stability, abuse, and forming relationships because of the first two. Either their family sucks, their foster family sucks, or both. There's also not nearly enough oversight because most case workers are overworked as it is.

A lot of good families don't want to be foster families because of the myriad behavioral issues that a lot of foster kids have. It's just risky to bring a person into your home who may abuse your own kids, steal from you, assault you, etc. That's not to say every foster kid is bad, but you don't get to say, "Just give me the good ones." You don't know who or what you're going to get. Some of the behavioral problems are because of bad families, but some are also because of bad foster families. The latter makes getting good families a chicken and the egg problem.

Some families really are in it for the money. They get subsidies from the state to take care of the kids, and the kids see none of it. This is another area that should have more oversight and doesn't.



Then there's the social workers themselves. Some are in it for the wrong reasons and are just looking to weaponize their authority to push their own idealism onto others. The problems there are obvious. Others lack accountability for bending or breaking rules. Case in point, the aforementioned friend was assigned as a court appointed therapist to a girl who was taken from her dad over allegations of sexual abuse and put in her grandmother's custody. Her dad was allowed to visit, but he was not to have any kind of unsupervised time with her. It came out in therapy that the dad had essentially moved in with the grandmother after a couple of months and had all kinds of unsupervised time. Friend told the girl's CPS case worker who did nothing and did not report it to the court because she thought the dad seemed like a nice guy and the girl was just a delinquent looking for attention. The girl ended up running away multiple times and in some really bad spots, and I have no idea how her story ended up. Regardless, the case worker was making all kinds of mistakes and not doing her job, but she was a warm body and wasn't fired or disciplined. The girl paid the price.

Hearing first hand some of the horror stories of Colorado's system and knowing ours is just as bad, I can safely say that a large part of the problem is attracting and retaining qualified and properly motivated people. The pay has to be much better, and so do the resources for case workers in terms of therapists and counselors. If you want a job that will burn you out fast, it's working with abused and homeless kids. I know I couldn't do it.

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You can't help people who don't want it.

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I'm not sure this is entirely fair. These are kids with a lot of deep seated issues that they, by virtue of their lack of proper upbringing and immaturity, are not and never have been equipped to handle. I don't think it's necessarily that they don't want help so much that they're incapable of recognizing that they need it and/or accepting it.

Some have grown up to a point where they aren't capable of readily making the emotional and social connections to be helped, no matter how much they do or do not want it. They don't know how to be a member of a family because they never have. Even beyond that, many don't know how to love or be loved because they never have. I think issues like these are just beyond a foster family's ability to deal with because it's not just about giving that loving and familial environment. Some of these kids just don't know what to do with that even when they want it. There's a lot of therapy that needs to happen before they're ready for that.

Absolutely yes. Far and above the state's requirements.

ABATTBQ11 said:

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You can't help people who don't want it.

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I'm not sure this is entirely fair. These are kids with a lot of deep seated issues that they, by virtue of their lack of proper upbringing and immaturity, are not and never have been equipped to handle. I don't think it's necessarily that they don't want help so much that they're incapable of recognizing that they need it and/or accepting it.

Some have grown up to a point where they aren't capable of readily making the emotional and social connections to be helped, no matter how much they do or do not want it. They don't know how to be a member of a family because they never have. Even beyond that, many don't know how to love or be loved because they never have. I think issues like these are just beyond a foster family's ability to deal with because it's not just about giving that loving and familial environment. Some of these kids just don't know what to do with that even when they want it. There's a lot of therapy that needs to happen before they're ready for that.

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I was speaking more of the delinquent parents who cause the problems to begin with.

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most case workers are overworked as it is

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In Texas, all the caseworkers are massively overworked.