U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack has warned she may impose huge fines on Texas because the state's dragging its feet on obeying her foster-care...
U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack has warned she may impose huge fines on Texas because the state's dragging its feet on obeying her foster-care improvement edicts.AUSTIN — A federal judge in the long-running Texas foster care lawsuit said Monday she may slap the state with such huge fines for failing to obey orders that it could invoke a criminal defendant’s right to a jury trial.
For the protective-services department, which is effectively the “parent” for about 10,000 children in long-term foster care, Jack cited failures to avoid unsafe placements, adequately check on the backgrounds of caregivers and prevent victims of sexual abuse from being violated again. After a couple of years of ordering crackdowns on shoddy foster care providers, Jack has been emphasizing other systemic woes since January, when she convened an expert panel on “children without placements,” the most troubled youth in foster care.
Jack had just finished questioning state officials about the deaths of three foster children from gun violence in the final five months of last year; a 5-year-old foster boy’s drowning last July; and a 17-year-old foster girl’s death 18 months ago from an overdose of acetaminophen while on runaway status from an unlicensed, “fictive kin” caregiver.
“The caseworkers had a high level of compliance,” Jack said. But because of “data deficiencies,” the monitors can’t tell about the employees of child-placing agencies and general residential operations, she said. Fewer than half of sampled records involving 656 children last year showed caregivers have signed to certify they’ve received “Attachment A” forms, which describe children’s histories of being sexually abused or sexually aggressive, before a placement began, the monitors said.The judge responded, “We’ve been talking for several years and at the end of this hearing, I’m going to give you notice that I expect to have a contempt hearing.
For most of the past two years, providers and some of the groups that represent them have protested Jack’s orders on heightened monitoring as overkill. Several GOP lawmakers have blamed the lawsuit for driving some child-placing agencies and congregate-care facilities to stop taking foster children.
Österreich Neuesten Nachrichten, Österreich Schlagzeilen
Similar News:Sie können auch ähnliche Nachrichten wie diese lesen, die wir aus anderen Nachrichtenquellen gesammelt haben.
Texas State knocks off No. 2 Stanford in NCAA regionalThe Bobcats have won two games to open an NCAA regional for the first time in program...
Weiterlesen »
Texas A&M rallies past Louisiana for berth in College Station Regional finalAustin Bost’s two-run homer in the eighth inning broke a late tie, and No. 5 overall...
Weiterlesen »
Texas takes down Louisiana Tech to advance to Austin Regional finalPlaying in front of the largest college baseball crowd in the history of Disch-Falk...
Weiterlesen »
Mother who ran into Texas school during shooting discusses moments insideWhen Angeli Gomez heard there was a man shooting people at her sons' school in Uvalde, Texas, she knew she had to go rescue her kids. CBS News Correspondent Lilia Luciano spoke exclusively with Gomez about the moments she spent inside the school, and why Gomez says police warned her to stop telling her story.
Weiterlesen »
Teachers after Texas attack: 'None of us are built for this'For any teacher standing in front of a classroom in 21st century America, the job seems to ask the impossible. Teachers are sometimes called on to be protectors, too.
Weiterlesen »
Texas school gunman’s early target recounts terror in sermon: ‘I was screaming, screaming at 911′Gilbert Limones preaches in both Spanish and English. He was animated before the congregation, which meets just one right turn and another left away from Robb Elementary School and Hillcrest Memorial Funeral Home.
Weiterlesen »