TEXAS, USA — Attorneys representing the State of Texas in its nearly 13-year ongoing foster care lawsuit have filed a motion with hopes of lifting some of the federal oversight of the state's system.
The motion argues that the state has achieved nearly complete compliance with several remedial orders that were handed down from U.S. District Judge Janis Jack in 2018 after Judge Jack ruled the state violated foster children's constitutional rights by placing them in an unsafe system.
Two court-appointed monitors were tasked with monitoring the state's progress on dozens of remedial orders and beginning in 2020, produced reports detailing their findings every six months.
The state is requesting relief from judgment from 12 of those remedial orderings, stating that more than $100 million have been spent to address them.
In the motion, attorneys cite a number of findings from the monitors' reports that indicate compliance from the state in specific improvement areas including caseworkers taking professional development training, caseload standards for caseworkers, and timely investigations following allegations of abuse or neglect in both foster homes and child care facilities.
A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services said, "Texas has made significant progress in the all-hands-on-deck effort to improve foster care. More than $100 million has been spent. Caseworkers are better trained, their caseloads are lower, and investigators respond more quickly to protect foster children and youth. These improvements are clearly documented and have resulted in the state’s compliance with all remedial orders. We believe now is the right time to narrow the scope of this litigation by moving for relief on a subset of remedial orders the state feels strongly it has fully satisfied."
The state's attorneys asked the attorneys representing the nearly 9,000 children in "permanent" foster care in the state, who are the plaintiffs in this case, whether they were opposed or unopposed to the request presented in the motion. The attorneys for the plaintiffs were opposed, according to court documents.
Paul Yetter, the lead plaintiffs' attorney, provided this statement to WFFA:
"The state's motion ignores the harsh realities for these children. In fact, the motion barely mentions child safety. Nothing will improve until the state gets serious about fixing its broken system."
The next step is for Judge Jack to rule on the motion. If she denies the motion, the state will likely go to the Court of Appeals which many have expected since the state hired private lawyers to beef up the defense in this case last May.
There is a status hearing in the case scheduled for Friday morning following the monitors' update involving the state's failure to provide records involving the safety issues for children who are placed in unlicensed settings.
