After paying $150K fine, state officials say they are following foster care order

After paying a $150,000 fine for being in contempt of court, state officials say they are now complying with court-mandated changes to the state’s foster care system.

U.S. District Judge Janis Jack has called a hearing in Dallas on Monday to evaluate whether state officials have done enough.

Last week, Jack found state officials violated a court order that prohibited children in the state’s permanent care to be placed in homes with more than six children without supervision from an adult at all times. The state would incur a $50,000 fee for each day it was out of compliance, Jack ordered.

Jack previously had found that children in large homes without supervision had physically and sexually abused one another.

“The harm against PMC children is dire, it is obvious, and it is grave,” she said in a Nov. 7 order.

Trevor Woodruff, acting commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, said in a Wednesday court filing that the agency has paid three days’ worth of penalties — $150,000 — to the court. He also said staff members spent the days after Jack’s order coming into compliance with her order, according to court documents filed Wednesday.

Agency leaders dispatched 500 personnel to conduct unannounced visits to foster homes and facilities across Texas as well as in states where Texas foster children are located. The agency also has contracted with nonprofits to provide supplemental supervision services. As of Monday, officials have determined all but one licensed foster home had 24-hour supervision as required by Jack, according to court documents. The exception was Boles Children’s Home in North Texas. Agency officials said they have asked the court for direction in regards to that facility.

The agency is required to give the court updates about whether the supervision remains in place.

Paul Yetter, a Houston-based attorney representing those suing the state, told the American-Statesman he questions whether the state is truly following Jack’s orders because of the noncompliance of Boles Children’s Home.

“It’s inexcusable after four years the state has not been prepared to obey the court ruling,” Yetter said.

The state was supposed to start complying with the order for 24-hour supervision in July when the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down some aspects of Jack’s 2015 order to make what she called needed fixes to the foster care system, but upheld others.

During an Oct. 9 conference call, state officials admitted they were not in compliance, Jack said in court documents.

“This came as a surprise and as a shock to everyone in that conference,” she said.

Jack’s monitors conducted unannounced visits to 15 foster care facilities in October, and only one of them was in compliance with the supervision order. They also documented consensual and nonconsensual sexual activities happening in the homes without 24-hour supervision.

Jack also said that state officials had provided false information in court, effectively convincing the 5th Circuit Court that the state was in compliance with Jack’s original 24-hour supervision order.

In 2015, Jack found the state’s foster care system for children in their permanent care to be unconstitutional, delivering a scathing ruling that suggested children were better off before they entered the system.

The system for years has been plagued by high caseworker turnover, high caseworker caseloads and insufficient foster homes.

Jack said in last week’s order the agency missed a Sept. 28 deadline to conduct a study on the appropriate workload of caseworkers, although she didn’t hold the state in contempt of court over the requirement.