{"id":8026,"date":"2018-02-09T19:37:03","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T19:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=8026"},"modified":"2018-02-09T19:37:03","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T19:37:03","slug":"kids-advocates-blast-states-appeal-of-foster-care-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=8026","title":{"rendered":"Kids\u2019 Advocates Blast State\u2019s Appeal of Foster-Care Ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A federal judge has ordered changes to the Texas foster care system, and appointed people to monitor and report on its progress for the next three years. Photo: Yazolino\/GettyImages<\/p><\/div>\n

by Mark Richardson<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Children\u2019s advocates are crying foul after state officials appealed\u00a0a federal judge\u2019s ruling<\/a>\u00a0mandating numerous changes to the state\u2019s foster care system.<\/p>\n

The order describes the system as \u201cstill broken,\u201d and lists additional steps to protect abused and neglected children. The Texas Legislature approved a package of improvements last year, but the court says the measures failed to address all the problems.<\/p>\n

Will Francis, government relations director with the Texas Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, says\u00a0Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2019s immediate appeal<\/a>\u00a0to block the order shows that state officials are not yet committed to doing the right thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, they made sure that child welfare was a primary focus. And the fact that our attorney general is saying, \u2018Well, that\u2019s enough,\u2019 and that we\u2019re really not owning these really horrible outcomes for kids in the long-term care of the state \u2013 it does not send the message that we really want to fix things,\u201d says Francis.<\/p>\n

The same US District Court Judge \u2013 Janis Jack in Corpus Christi \u2013 ruled in 2015 that the Texas foster care system violated children\u2019s civil rights. The new ruling orders that caseworkers must visit each foster child at least once a month, puts limits on their caseloads and mandates an increase in staffing levels.<\/p>\n

In his appeal, Paxton criticized the ruling, saying an unelected judge had \u201cimproperly assume(d) control of a state institution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Francis says the 65,000 victims of abuse or neglect seen each year in Texas are poorly served when everyone involved isn\u2019t working toward a common goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that we\u2019re all not at the table together fixing this, I think, is really just a disservice to kids,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I think that\u2019s going to be a major stumbling block going forward, to really and truly transform this.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds the state must provide better immediate and long term help to kids in crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, I think that everybody needs to have a voice and this \u2013 advocates need to be at the table, the state needs to be at the table, I think the judge\u2019s concerns need to be part of what we talk about,\u201d says Francis. \u201cAnd from my own perspective as a social worker, I know that we have to have the right people out there doing this job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge also appointed two special masters to monitor and report on the state\u2019s progress in implementing the order over the next three years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Richardson CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2013\u00a0Children\u2019s advocates are crying foul after state officials appealed\u00a0a federal judge\u2019s ruling\u00a0mandating numerous changes to the state\u2019s foster care system. The order describes the system as \u201cstill broken,\u201d and lists additional steps to protect abused and neglected children. The Texas Legislature approved a package of improvements last year, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8026"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8028,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8026\/revisions\/8028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}