Photos: “We don’t feel safe here.” A transgender teen and their family flee Texas.
Texas policies targeting access to health care for transgender youth forced one family to leave the state. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/cdbcc51c1247c0fc976b716fd3c0c33c/Cass%20Wide%20Edit%20JV%2056.jpg)
-
![Heather Crawford embraces Cass as they struggle through a panic attack while packing their room to move to Minnesota from their home Austin, TX on August 19, 2022.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
In after-hours notice, Gov. Greg Abbott announces another leadership change for the Department of Family and Protective Services
Former DFPS commissioner Anne Heiligenstein was tapped by Abbott in June to serve as the agency’s executive deputy commissioner. Last month, she was out. Now she’s back. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/76ccafde0d80e8a0282b8fff582293b4/DFPS%20building%20LS%20TT%2001.jpg)
![The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services building in Austin.]()
Credit: Laura Skelding for The Texas Tribune -
Two Texas Family and Protective Services leaders exiting beleaguered agency
The department is terminating the contract of Executive Deputy Commissioner Anne Heiligenstein, who was supposed to work until next June, amid a staffing crisis. The chief of staff for the agency’s top leader has also left. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/43532fb978176d0623de632310e7d330/2018-06-20_TFPS_Ride_Along_Pu.Ying.Huang013.jpg)
![A caseworker's badge hangs off her neck as she prepares to assist on a case for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) in June 2018.]()
Credit: Pu Ying Huang for The Texas Tribune -
Texas should place more foster kids with families rather than in residential treatment, report finds
Residential treatment centers are meant to be a last resort for children in the state’s care, reserved for those with histories of severe trauma caused by neglect or abuse. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/6d9308f8cc5b2d18c3b38506f1d1ceec/DFPS%20Trans%20Youth%20Hearing%20JV%20TT%2002.jpg)
![Department of Family Protective Services Commissioner Jaime Masters at a DFPS Committee meeting in Austin on Friday, March 11, 2022.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Texas’ child welfare agency blocked from investigating many more parents of trans teens
Friday’s injunction applies to all members of PFLAG, an LGBTQ advocacy group with more than 600 members in Texas. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/050ac76f3fad0b40e7f8635966972af1/Trans%20Rights%20Rally%20LW%20TT%2007.jpg)
![Naia Fulton-Jones chants in front of the Texas Capitol to protest for transgender kids' rights on Tuesday, Mar. 1, 2022.]()
Credit: Lauren Witte/The Texas Tribune -
Texas’ child welfare agency told staffers to keep quiet about gender-affirming care investigations, documents show
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services leaders instructed employees to avoid written communications about the cases and barred low-level employees from handling the investigations, according to internal agency communications. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/13c6dc2bbe8b291854587da4d0048960/Texas%20DFPS%20EG%20TT%2012.jpg)
![The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services offices in Austin on Nov. 14, 2019.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Watch: With a “feeling of betrayal,” one family flees Texas in search of safer climate for their transgender daughter
Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate parents who provide their children with gender-affirming care, driving one such family to leave home. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/af64232d6fd79502fd0de5c8556d8f42/Ess%20Welsh%20TT%2001.jpg)
![Ess Welsh.]()
Credit: Lauren Santucci for The Texas Tribune -
Texas child welfare agency fires employee for encouraging a foster child to consider sex work
A spokesperson told The Texas Tribune that all employees are trained before supervising youth. DFPS Commissioner Jaime Masters apologized to the child and her mother. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/c095b9dfcf9b40a5ee2c10e4cd40e3ae/Texas%20DFPS%20EG%20TT%2017.jpg)
![The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services offices in Austin on Nov. 14, 2019.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Head of embattled Texas child abuse investigations resigns after less than a year
During Robert “Rich” Richman’s short tenure, he oversaw the investigation of parents who provide gender-affirming care to their transgender children and the mishandling of allegations of sex abuse at a foster care facility. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/4a858e703df71e7254c7135957c258d0/DFPS%20Trans%20Youth%20Hearing%20JV%20TT%2019.jpg)
![Members of the DFPS Committee hear public testimony at a meeting in Austin on Friday, March 11, 2022.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Judge asks Texas to remove foster care kids from out-of-state facilities facing child abuse investigation
At least 48 Texas children are housed at facilities run by organizations under an investigation launched by two U.S. senators. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2017/04/10/TTE-FosterCare_leadart-01.png)
![Article thumbnail]()
Credit: iStock -
Texas has a law that allows parents to give up newborns at fire stations or hospitals. Hardly anyone uses it.
The Supreme Court cited safe haven laws as an abortion alternative when it overturned Roe v. Wade. But Texas’ policy lacks funding and just 172 infants have been relinquished since 2009. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/3bff902cb5d4856f853e94fab2c613d4/Baby%20Moses%20Law%20HC%20MP%20TT%2002.jpg)
![A "Safe Baby Site" sign at Fire Station 35 in Houston.]()
Credit: Courtesy Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle -
Judge temporarily blocks some Texas investigations into gender-affirming care for trans kids
The state has been investigating whether parents who provide access to gender-affirming health care are committing child abuse. The temporary restraining order is part of a lawsuit filed on behalf of three families and members of PFLAG, an LGBTQ advocacy group. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/63bb871761622ca67c767b18fc3c968b/ATX%20LBGTQ%20Stonewall%20Rally%20AP%20TT%2005.jpg)
![Activists and members of Austin's LGBTQ community gather on the steps of the capitol on June 28, 2017, to celebrate the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall riots. These riots signify a key moment in the birth of the modern LGBTQ movement in America.]()
Credit: Austin Price/The Texas Tribune -
Judge plans to levy “substantial fines” after Texas failed to comply with court-ordered fixes to its foster care system
The judge in the 11-year federal lawsuit against Texas said the state has not properly punished or shut down unsafe child care placement facilities or curbed the rate of children who are sexually victimized while in the state’s care. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/23e69ecb75c1598d57aed8d63c865b21/Texas%20DFPS%20EG%20TT%2023.jpg)
![The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services offices in Austin on Nov. 14, 2019.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Texas Supreme Court allows child abuse investigations into families of transgender teens to continue
The high court also raised questions about why the state opened these investigations in the first place, noting that the child welfare agency is not bound by directives from the governor. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/62411d2ffb09a26e2f184e29d827dac1/Trans%20Rights%20Rally%20LW%20TT%2002.jpg)
![Jey Austen listens to the testimony of an anonymous transgender child during the Trans Kids Cry for HELP! rally in front of the Governor's Mansion in Austin on March 13, 2022.]()
Credit: Lauren Witte/The Texas Tribune -
Lack of communication between child welfare and juvenile justice systems hurts foster kids, court monitors say
The court-appointed watchdogs expressed concern after learning that a caretaker accused of exploiting children at a state-licensed facility in Bastrop had been previously fired from a state juvenile justice facility for misconduct. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/0622c5cc542086581f19205e4213aeb1/Bastrop%20Refuge%20JV%20TT%2019.jpg)
![The Refuge in Bastrop on Apr. 12, 2022]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Bastrop shelter caretaker accused of exploiting girls was fired from previous job for misconduct with children
State records show Iesha Greene was fired in 2020 from a state juvenile facility for having inappropriate relationships with children. The Refuge said it was aware of her previous work there, but it never requested her publicly available personnel records. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/60f348e312445a2fb9bce034c587fb0e/Bastrop%20Refuge%20JV%20TT%2015.jpg)
![Brooke Crowder, Founder and CEO at The Refuge in Bastrop on Apr. 12, 2022]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Distraught over orders to investigate trans kids’ families, Texas child welfare workers are resigning
Other investigators don’t want to follow an order they believe harms families but worry about the impact of a mass employee exodus on the state’s most vulnerable children. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/9205a014bb5f66a565339c36df74b408/CPS%20Resignations%20LW%20TT%2001.jpg)
![Randa Mulanax and Morgan Davis both decided to leave the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. "Things are just not getting better," Mulanax said.
"I morally realized that I couldn't do it - that my being present was more of a hindrance than it was a help. And so it was almost validating that this was okay," Davis said.
"Now we're basically saying any parents that were supportive of these children is abusive, when a lot of those kids that are in care, that's all they wanted. That's all they needed," Mulanax said.]()
Credit: Lauren Witte/The Texas Tribune -
Analysis: Texas candidates’ silence allows persistent foster care problems to fester
Candidates hardly ever talk about improving the safety net for kids — unless the holes in the safety net have become big enough to get the attention of voters. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/a563f8e339e4a73376e98cfde6145043/Texas%20DFPS%20EG%20TT%2016.jpg)
![Heart Galleries, portraits of adoptable children, on display at the Child Protective Services office at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services in Austin on Nov. 14, 2019.]()
Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune -
Over 100 children have died in Texas’ child welfare system since 2020, report says
Most of the deaths were attributed to “preexisting medical conditions” or abuse suffered before the children entered the system, according to the DFPS report. The numbers are on par with those reported in previous years. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/556cc096eadd330fe522324987082a19/Bastrop%20Refuge%20Hearing%20JV%20TT%2002.jpg)
![Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Jaime Masters listens to invited testimony during a House Human Services Committee hearing at the Capitol on March 21, 2022.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
TribCast: Layers of scandal in the Texas foster care system
In this week’s episode, Matthew speaks with Reese and Mitchell about the fallout from sexual abuse allegations at a state-contracted children’s shelter and Russian threats against Texas’ energy infrastructure. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/files/1e9e5ff54c44a618a2547291affcca22/TribCast%20April%201.jpg)
![A caseworker's badge hangs off her neck as she prepares to assist on a case for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) in June 2018.]()
Credit: Pu Ying Huang for The Texas Tribune