Texas focused more on fighting lawsuit than fixing foster care, child welfare advocates say

Major improvements to a foster care system that a federal judge has said fails Texas kids aren't likely to happen anytime soon, according to child advocates.

The state is fighting the judge's orders, they would cost tens of millions more per year and the Legislature is focused on school finance and property tax issues.

More >> Texas focused more on fighting lawsuit than fixing foster care, child welfare advocates say

Settlement OK’d in decade-long lawsuit against DCYF

PROVIDENCE — In a small federal courtroom Wednesday, a decade-long lawsuit that compelled Rhode Island to improve its child welfare services officially ended with handshakes among lawyers.

“Let’s hope this goes well,” U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith said as he approved the settlement agreement between the state and Children’s Rights Inc., a New York-based advocacy group.

More >> Settlement OK’d in decade-long lawsuit against DCYF

Arizona’s Top Child Welfare Leader Goes on Offensive Against Class Action Lawsuit

Lawsuits, particularly class-action lawsuits, can be used to force public systems to right wrongs and make reparations by ensuring mistakes of the past aren’t repeated.

In the case of child welfare, lawsuits are sometimes effective and other times they are not, but they nearly always cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

Arizona is currently embroiled in a class action suit, brought by New York-based Children’s Rights, that by the end of 2017 had cost the state $1.8 million, according to state records. The suit was filed in 2015, and is far from over.


More >> Arizona’s Top Child Welfare Leader Goes on Offensive Against Class Action Lawsuit

DCYF lawsuit reaches potential $1 million settlement

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Officials are predicting a settlement of more than $1 million in the near future in a decade-old civil rights lawsuit against Rhode Island's child welfare agency.

House Fiscal Advisor Sharon Reynolds Ferland told the House committee Tuesday to expect a legal settlement of $1.2 million. But she says the settlement might be "much larger."

More >> DCYF lawsuit reaches potential $1 million settlement

Federal Audit Finds More Lapses in Texas Foster Care System

A federal audit released Tuesday heaped more criticism onto Texas' troubled child welfare system and warned of foster kids potentially put in jeopardy over missed deadlines during abuse and neglect investigations.

More >> Federal Audit Finds More Lapses in Texas Foster Care System

• A federal audit released has heaped more criticism onto Texas' troubled child welfare system that a federal judge ruled constitutional

Texas argues it can fix foster care without judge's oversight

Texas’ Republican attorney general, faced with a mounting crisis in the state’s child welfare system, on Tuesday published a scathing critique of costly, court-ordered reforms meant to improve the conditions of children in the state’s long-term foster care system.

More >> Texas argues it can fix foster care without judge's oversight

• State fires back against foster-care reform plans

Suit over NYC foster care system continues

Beatings, sexual abuse, neglect and malnutrition. That’s what countless kids in the city’s foster care system have experienced on a daily basis, according to Marcia Robinson Lowry.

More >> Suit over NYC foster care system continues

Judge doubles workload for team working on foster care overhaul

A federal judge, frustrated by the lack of progress overhauling Texas' "broken" foster care system now has investigators cramming a year's worth of work into four months.

More >> Judge doubles workload for team working on foster care overhaul

• Editorial: Texas is playing politics while kids’ lives are at stake

Texas fighting judge’s order to fix foster care system on every front, in ways other states haven’t

Texas is pulling out all the stops to keep control of its problem-plagued foster care system.

More >> Texas fighting judge’s order to fix foster care system on every front, in ways other states haven’t

Lawsuit forces better treatment for SC’s abused, neglected kids

A negotiated settlement that parties said will better the lives of South Carolina’s vulnerable children was filed Friday in federal court.

More >> Lawsuit forces better treatment for SC’s abused, neglected kids

DSS settles lawsuit over caseloads, foster care

The SC Department of Social Services (DSS) has settled a class action lawsuit brought by Children’s Rights and SC Appleseed Legal Justice Center.

More >> DSS settles lawsuit over caseloads, foster care

Mississippi foster care system takeover deadline approaching

The director of Family and Children Services is fighting to keep a judge from handing Mississippi's foster care system over to the federal government.

More >> Mississippi foster care system takeover deadline approaching

Federal government stepping in with foster care reform efforts for Texas

The federal government is stepping in to possibly overhaul the Child Protective Services system here in Texas.

More >> Federal government stepping in with foster care reform efforts for Texas

Courts Rebuff Texas Bid to Slow Foster Care Reform

The state of Texas lost two intermediate battles Monday in its fight to block a federal judge's efforts to reform a foster care system that she found has violated children's civil rights by subjecting them to rampant neglect and abuse.

More >> Courts Rebuff Texas Bid to Slow Foster Care Reform

CPS WORKERS CALL FOR STATE TO DROP APPEAL OF FOSTER CARE REFORM

A group of Child Protective Services caseworkers are calling for state officials to drop their appeal of a federal judge's order to reform the troubled foster care system.

More >> WORKERS CALL FOR STATE TO DROP APPEAL OF FOSTER CARE REFORM

• Texas CPS workers still overloaded
• Floyd: The intolerable job of a Texas CPS caseworker
• Texas Caseworkers Call For Foster Care Reforms
• New report points to a path forward for Texas foster care

CPS workers urge Texas leaders to drop appeal of federal judge’s foster care ruling

Current and retired Child Protective Services workers urged Texas leaders Wednesday to drop the state’s appeal of a federal judge’s ruling that its long-term foster care is “broken,” with part of the solution having to be reduced caseloads for CPS workers assigned to watch over foster children.

More >> CPS workers urge Texas leaders to drop appeal of federal judge’s foster care ruling

• Texas Caseworkers Call For Foster Care Reforms

Mississippi trying to fix foster care crisis

Mississippi trying to fix foster care crisis

Gov. Phil Bryant and the executive director of the Division of Family and Children’s Services David Chandler are taking each other seriously.

• Director: Foster System Needs More Funding and Staffing to Protect Children
• Head Of Mississippi Foster Care Program Needs Social Workers, Supervisors
• Mississippi Child Welfare Institute Conference continues
• Chandler seeks to hire nearly 250 for child welfare agency

Texas AG Ken Paxton: Federal judge’s plan to repair broken foster care system is ‘judicial takeover’

Texas AG Ken Paxton: Federal judge’s plan to repair broken foster care system is ‘judicial takeover’

Texas state Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) accused a federal judge of trying to implement a “judicial takeover” with her ruling highlighting extreme deficiencies in the state’s foster care system, the Dallas Morning News reported.

• Floyd: Broken foster care system is breaking lives

Mississippi Foster care woes

Foster care woes

Mississippi's foster care system is in jeopardy of a federal takeover

• Mississippi's foster care system is in trouble

Texas Fights Back Against Judge's Foster Care Reforms

Texas Fights Back Against Judge's Foster Care Reforms

Despite a federal judge's scathing finding last month that Texas has failed to protect foster children in its care, reform advocates are steeling themselves for a lengthy battle to force state officials to make fixes ordered by the court.

• Paxton asks federal appeals court to stop “judicial takeover” of Texas’ foster care system
• State officials want foster care reform requirements blocked
• Abbott should call a special session to fix foster care