Texas Senate votes to close employment loophole after Refuge foster care scandal

The Refuge in Bastrop last year. (Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune)

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The Texas Senate on Monday unanimously passed a bill meant to keep people from caring for kids in the state’s foster care or juvenile justice systems if they’ve previously committed what amounts to criminal conduct within one of those agencies. The legislation comes nearly a year after The Texas Tribune reported that a Bastrop foster care facility hired a caretaker whom the Texas Juvenile Justice Department previously fired for having inappropriate relationships with children in her care.