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The Latest Breaking News from Department of Family and Protective Services

Texas foster care agency chief to step down this summer

Two years after Stephanie Muth became Department of Family and Protective Services commissioner, staff turnover is down and the number of children without a placement has dropped.

The Texas Tribune

Appeals court blocks $100,000 daily fine for Texas’ troubled foster care program

Jack’s order to fine Texas Health and Human Services on Monday was the third time the state has been found in contempt over foster care conditions since 2011.

The Texas Tribune

Caseworkers hampered by ’90s-era foster care software that the state hasn’t replaced

Caseworkers and foster care providers often get incomplete and inaccurate information about foster kids in their care because of the state child welfare agency’s archaic technology system.

The Texas Tribune

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Texas’ foster care system is plagued with problems. Here’s how lawmakers want to fix it.

Texas legislators are considering increasing the Department of Family and Protective Services’ budget, giving extended relatives more money to care for kids and notifying the subjects of child abuse investigations of their rights.

The Texas Tribune

Lawyers representing children in federal foster care lawsuit rebuked for hiring lobbyists

Texas lawmakers and a federal judge say attorneys in the case against the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services should not hire lobbyists using funds won in court.

The Texas Tribune

New family and child welfare commissioner foreshadows change as agency plans to outsource case management

Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Stephanie Muth told lawmakers Friday the agency will require a different set of skills from its employees as it changes how foster children’s cases are managed.

The Texas Tribune

In after-hours notice, Gov. Greg Abbott announces another leadership change for the Department of Family and Protective Services

Former DFPS commissioner Anne Heiligenstein was tapped by Abbott in June to serve as the agency’s executive deputy commissioner. Last month, she was out. Now she’s back.

The Texas Tribune

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Transgender student, 13, interrogated in school by Texas agency over ‘child abuse’ order

The state’s Department of Family and Protective Services is still investigating families over the governor’s directive despite court orders to shut them down, filings reveal

The Independent UK

Investigating parents of transgender youth has agency on ‘brink of collapse,’ staff warns

AUSTIN, Texas — Continuing to investigate the parents of transgender youth could put Texas’ child protection agency over the brink of collapse, a group of its staffers said in a new court filing.

Tribune News Service

Texas’ child welfare agency told staffers to keep quiet about gender-affirming care investigations, documents show

Texas Department of Family and Protective Services leaders instructed employees to avoid written communications about the cases and barred low-level employees from handling the investigations, according to internal agency communications.

The Texas Tribune

Texas has a law that allows parents to give up newborns at fire stations or hospitals. Hardly anyone uses it.

The Supreme Court cited safe haven laws as an abortion alternative when it overturned Roe v. Wade. But Texas’ policy lacks funding and just 172 infants have been relinquished since 2009.

The Texas Tribune

Texas Supreme Court says governor cannot order trans child abuse investigations

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Supreme Court on Friday struck down a statewide injunction halting child abuse investigations into the parents of transgender youth, while keeping in place a block on the case of one family who sued the state.

Tribune News Service

Texas appeals court again halts child abuse investigations into parents of transgender youth

AUSTIN, Texas — A Texas appeals court has again temporarily blocked the state from investigating parents solely for providing gender affirming care to their transgender children.

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