SAN ANTONIO – Family Tapestry, the wing of The Children’s Shelter responsible for its community-based care initiative, has canceled its contract with the Department of Family and Protective Services, a DFPS spokesperson confirmed late Monday.
The move, ironically, comes two weeks after shelter leadership submitted an action plan to the state in order to keep its contract from being terminated by DFPS. That plan aimed to improve its operations and ensure “safe placements for children in its care.”
State officials late last month instituted a placement hold at the shelter’s emergency shelter, citing “unacceptable” conditions and an ongoing capacity problem.
The shelter was required to remove all children in its care at the emergency shelter and place them in other facilities.
Over the past several weeks, one report after another has detailed the troubling history at both the shelter and its Whataburger Center, which relinquished its state license in early January.
Incidents at the now-shuttered Whataburger Center included a 16-year-old in their care who attempted suicide by ingesting a metal bolt and a 15-year-old girl who used a spring from a toilet paper holder to harm herself in her breast area, according to a federal monitor’s report.
After the 15-year-old was taken to a psychiatric facility, she ran away from staff and picked up a glass bottle from a construction site and threatened to harm herself again, the report states.
The monitor’s report described that incident as “neglectful supervision.”
A Children’s Shelter spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
The future of the state’s community-based care initiative is expected to be discussed during a House Human Services Committee meeting at the Texas Legislature Tuesday.
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