On December 17, 2015, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Janis Graham Jack ruled that Texas violated the constitutional rights of foster children to be free from an unreasonable risk of harm caused by Texas. The Judge wrote, “Texas’ conduct shocks the conscience.” The Court found that Texas was “deliberately indifferent” to the harms occurring to children in Texas’ care, and that those harms were “a substantial departure from professional judgment.”
So far, things don’t seem to have changed much. At a hearing on March 21, 2022, legislators listened to hours of often-conflicting testimony in which law enforcement and social services leaders described a child protective system that proliferates rules and regulations, but somehow never seems to come any closer to gaining public trust or hitting key benchmarks.
As Texas enters the next chapter in its ongoing struggle to protect vulnerable kids, it’s worth going back and looking at what Judge Janis Jack directed state leaders to do almost seven years ago.