DALLAS -- Texas' foster care system is unconstitutional and
should be reformed, according to a class action lawsuit that was
filed against the state Tuesday.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Corpus Christi, claims
Texas forces thousands of children to live in poorly supervised
institutions and move frequently from one place to another. It also
contends that children languish for years without permanent
families, face a higher risk of abuse, are denied mental health
services and are routinely separated from their brothers and
sisters.
The suit was initiated by Children's Rights, a New York-based
child advocacy group that regularly supports such legal action. The
plaintiffs are nine children between the ages of nine and 16.
Marcia Lowry, the executive director of Children's Rights, said
the 85-page pleading is the product of five years of scrutiny of
Texas' child welfare practices by her organization. A ruling that
the Texas system is unconstitutional would pave the way to reform,
she said.
This is a system that's been bad for a long time, Lowry said
at a news conference in Dallas. It's not going to turn around
overnight, but it can be turned around.
According to Lowry, improving the system wouldn't necessarily
require major new funding, even though the suit contends that the
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is severely
understaffed.
It's a question of where the state wants to put its money,
she said. There are ways to redesign the system.
Anne Heiligenstein, commissioner of the Department of Family and
Protective Services, said Texas' foster children are safe,
well-cared for and in a system that's nationally-recognized for
seeking adoptive parents. The system has been subject to reform and
has received more than $1 billion in additional funding in recent
years, she said in a written statement.
We're on the right path and will continue to do everything we
can to protect Texas children, but I worry that a lawsuit like this
will take critical time and resources away from the very children
it presumes to help, Heiligenstein said.
According to statistics compiled by the agency, the number of
caseworkers in Child Protective Services has risen in the last six
years from 2,947 to 4,660. The number of adoptions consummated
during that time period also has increased dramatically, from 2,512
to 4,803.
The Texas suit is the 12th class action initiated by Children's
Rights seeking reform to the child welfare systems administered by
state or municipal governments. Three other suits remain in
litigation, and eight have been settled, according to the
organization.
The suit names Gov. Rick Perry, Heiligenstein and Thomas Suehs,
executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services
Commission, as defendants.
It contends that deficiencies in the system, including
overburdened case workers and poorly supervised contract providers,
have led to a number of harmful conditions for the 12,000 children
in long-term foster care. These children in the state's permanent
managing conservatorship have become forgotten, according to
the suit.
The suit cites statistics showing that, as of 2009, children who
had been in the state's custody more than three years had been
placed in an average of 11 different homes or other settings such
as shelters or residential treatment centers. Cycling children
through the system in this manner doesn't comply with reasonable
professional standards, the complaint alleges.
The suit also is critical of the state's use of foster group
homes that accommodate seven to 12 children. Those homes can be
little more than poorly supervised dormitories, and they
provide further evidence of how the Texas system differs from
conventional standards, according to the suit.
The suit draws much of its narrative from recent media accounts,
including an Associated Press story detailing how one foster group
home in East Texas was a collection of mobile homes and how the
state repeatedly ruled out allegations that young girls living
there were sexually abused by their foster father until he was
arrested on those charges.
(That type of home) is an unusual form of treatment and was
one of the things that surprised us when we began our
investigation, Lowry said.
