It’s been more than three years since a federal judge ruled that Texas dumps some of the state’s most vulnerable children into a foster care system “where rape, abuse, psychotropic medication and instability are the norm.”
Following a 2015 trial in a lawsuit brought by children’s advocacy groups, federal district judge Janis Jack of Corpus Christi also concluded that state leaders can’t be trusted to reform the system on their own. Her blistering, 260-page verdict delivered in December 2015 accused state officials of deep-sixing an internal review that revealed “staggering” failures in child abuse investigations. She scolded one state witness who attempted to manipulate department data, including lowering child fatality stats. The judge chastised another state expert who, in an attempt to debunk the plaintiffs’ claims, further traumatized a teenage girl who’d already been battered by the system.
Since then, lawyers with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office have spent millions fighting the suit in court, where they’ve mostly lost. Until this month, when a ruling in the state’s latest challenge delivered a victory of sorts. Last week, a federal appeals court blocked a major piece of Jack’s order that would’ve required the state to revamp its dysfunctional computer system for tracking kids in foster care. Paxton’s office hasn’t said whether it plans to file more appeals in the case.
