U.S. District Judge Janis Jack, the state’s de facto foster care czar, has been overseeing the case since 2011.

Texas Health and Human Services could face $100,000-per-day fines for violating a judge's orders. The state wants the judge off the case.

A federal judge has taken the Texas’ foster care system to task for 13 years. Reforms have been made. Now armed with private legal fire power, the state wants the judge off the case.

The request to remove several court orders marks the first time the state has made any major attempt to get out from under an injunction issued in the 13-year-old case.

U.S. District Judge Janis Jack on Monday considers whether state’s foster care agency has made progress caring for most vulnerable children or should be held in contempt for the third time in an ongoing 2011 lawsuit.

At least 48 Texas children are housed at facilities run by organizations under an investigation launched by two U.S. senators.

The judge in the 11-year federal lawsuit against Texas said the state has not properly punished or shut down unsafe child care placement facilities or curbed the rate of children who are sexually victimized while in the state’s care.

Candidates hardly ever talk about improving the safety net for kids — unless the holes in the safety net have become big enough to get the attention of voters.

U.S. District Judge Janis Jack said she is seeking a federal criminal investigation into allegations that children were sexually abused and trafficked at The Refuge, a state-licensed foster care shelter for victims of sex trafficking.

Judge Janis Jack, who oversees a years-long federal lawsuit into systemic issues within the state’s foster care facility, sharply criticized the Texas Rangers and Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw, who concluded earlier this month that no wrongdoing had taken place at the now-shuttered The Refuge.

As Texas’ long-running struggle to find enough placements for foster care children persists, more than 100 kids were sent out of state last year.

The state’s foster care system has been dangerous to children and embarrassing to the state for years. But with state officials constantly chasing other issues, it’s still suffering from neglect.

The federal judge overseeing the decadelong lawsuit against Texas for conditions in its foster care system cut this week’s hearing short. She proposed all parties involved, including the governor, “cut to the chase” to identify solutions.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services offices in Austin on Nov. 14, 2019. Credit: Eddie Gaspar/The Texas TribuneTwo years after U.S. District Judge Janis Jack ordered a long list of reforms for the Texas foster care system, state health and human services officials have made some improvements. In a quick morning hearing, Jack said she will give state officials until May to make progress on all of her orders, which resulted from a now decade-long lawsuit against the state filed by representatives for the more than 15,000 children in foster care in Texas. Greg Abbott’s recent budget proposal, he recommended that the Texas Legislature fund requests from child welfare officials to help reform the foster care system. “The agencies must be able to continue their efforts to protect children in the state's managing conservatorship from abuse and neglect,” Abbott wrote. None of the roughly 250 Texas facilities that provide 24-hour care for multiple children meet these requirements, Jack said.

Her announcement followed a two-day hearing, held by video conference, in which she frequently chided some of Texas top child welfare bureaucrats. Jack also urged state officials at the hearing to improve communication between two separate state agencies: one that oversees children in foster care, and one that licenses homes and facilities that house large numbers of foster children. Throughout the hearing, Jack echoed concerns raised by two-court appointed monitors in a 363-page report released in June that detailed substantial threats to childrens safety, particularly in large, privately-run foster homes. Texas foster care officials testified Thursday that they had recently stopped placing children in one facility where monitors identified problems. The home has yet to have its license pulled, though state officials indicated that was a possibility.

State officials described their efforts as a work in progress and resisted the sweeping terms Jack used to criticize the system they oversee. Greg Abbott and Texas health and human services leadership, paid particular attention to the death earlier this year of a 14-year-old girl, referred to as K.C. State officials said an investigation into K.C.s death was ongoing. State officials cited the facility more than 60 times for minimum standards violations between February 2017 and December 2019, according to the monitors report. Jack said it was unbelievable that state officials had continued to place foster children at Prairie Harbor for up to seven months after K.C.s death.

Suppose the child is one of many, and that the system putting them in danger is run by the state of Texas. Thats a reasonable description of foster care in Texas in 2020. Its in a report completed last week a description of a system run by state government right now. The report is full of the stories of foster children the state has failed. A 6-year-old in foster care when this lawsuit was filed is now 17 or 18 years old.