Congressional Hearing Targets Foster Care
Failures in the foster care system put children in Texas and across the nation at greater risk of falling into the sex trade, activists and lawmakers asserted Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Full Story
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![U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble.]()
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Senate Backs Bill on Psychotropic Drugs for Foster Children
UPDATED: The Texas Senate on Wednesday approved legislation that would require a foster child's guardian to give informed consent before that child could be put on psychotropic drugs. The Senate will now conference with the House on a final agreement. Full Story
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House Backs Regular Checkups for Foster Kids on Psychotropic Drugs
The Texas House on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation that would require medical checkups for foster children who are prescribed psychotropic drugs. Full Story
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Family Services Agency Requests Funding for Redesign
Agency commissioners rarely get applause when they ask the Legislature for an additional $263 million. But that’s what happened on Thursday when John Specia asked to for money to redesign the Department of Family and Protective Services. Full Story
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Rate of Foster Kids on Psychotropic Drugs Falls
Though reforms have improved the state’s health care system for foster children, child welfare advocates say, the rate of foster children prescribed psychotropic drugs remains high. Full Story
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State Must Alert Parents in Person When Seeking Child Custody
Texas' high court has ruled that state officials must personally notify parents when suing to deprive them of custody of their children. Full Story
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Updated: Lawsuit Can't Cover All Kids in Long-Term Foster Care
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the national child advocacy group Children's Rights cannot file its class-action suit on behalf of all 12,000 youth in Texas' long-term foster care system. Full Story
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Senate Committee Tackles Rural Child Welfare
Child Protective Services officials got an earful on Wednesday at a Senate hearing on improving the caseworker retention rates in rural communities. And they got a minor scolding from Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville. Full Story
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In Travis County, Aging Foster Children Find Aid
More than 16,000 children are in foster care in Texas. And when those children become adults, they’re often left to fend for themselves. But as Nathan Bernier of KUT News reports, the amount of help available to foster children in Travis County is on the rise. Full Story
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Report: Psychiatric Drug Use Higher Among Foster Kids
Children in foster care are several times more likely to be prescribed psychotropic drugs, according to a new Government Accountability Office report on five states. As Matt Largey of KUT News reports, investigators found high rates of potentially risky practices in Texas. Full Story
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Child Abuse Reports Up as Economy Falters
Experts speculate that a key factor in the increase in reports of child abuse and neglect is the struggling economy. The number of reported cases of abuse has grown 6 percent in Texas since 2008, before the recession. Full Story
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![The Emergency Shelter for Teen Mothers and Young Children-one of several protective care units at the Austin Children's Shelter, Thursday, November 17, 2011.]()
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Weekend Insider: Need for Foster Care, Family Accused of Murder
In this episode of Weekend Insider, Claire Cardona explains the rise in the state's need for foster care, and Brandi Grissom introduces us to a family accused of murder. Full Story
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Child Welfare Commissioner Announces Retirement
Anne Heiligenstein, the commissioner of the Department of Family and Protective Services, is retiring from the agency after three years. Full Story
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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. Full Story
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![A 2011 photo of Melissa and Gary Gates with seven of their 13 children on the Gates' 150-acre property in Richmond, Texas. From left to right: Melissa, Marcus, Gary, Cassie, Sarah, Cynthia, Andy, Raquel and Lexi.]()
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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. Full Story
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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. Full Story
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![James and his adoptive son wait to board the DART train in Dallas on January 30, 2011. The son, who is 15, is on a state registry of people who abuse children.]()
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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. Full Story
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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. Full Story
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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. Full Story
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![Crystal Martinez sits with items recovered from Child Protective Services at her home in North Austin, Dec. 21, 2010.]()
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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. Full Story
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Credit: Nick de la Torre / The Houston Chronicle
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