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.

The investigation revealed that the man was preying on children in chatrooms such as Kik and Discord while also showing sexual interest in one of his minor female relatives.

The move is designed to reduce some of the rotating overtime shifts expected of agency caseworkers at group homes and motels, which have been criticized as dangerous for the children who live there.

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.

A report from Department of Family and Protective Services watchdogs paints a picture of a roughshod safety-net system that is unprepared to protect its youthful charges from predators and unable to keep them from endangering themselves.

Lawmakers were assured that outsourcing management of foster care services would fix the state’s troubled child welfare agency. But the rollout of the new model, set to be completed by 2029, has been complicated by setbacks.

House Bill 63 is an attempt to reduce the amount of vindictive or false child abuse reports made to the state, but child advocates say it will deter valid reports, too.

Harris County Resources for Children and Adults will join several local organizations to launch Child Abuse Prevention Month Friday morning.

Texas lawmakers and a federal judge say attorneys in the case against the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services should not hire lobbyists using funds won in court.

Former DFPS commissioner Anne Heiligenstein was tapped by Abbott in June to serve as the agency’s executive deputy commissioner. Last month, she was out. Now she’s back.

Residential treatment centers are meant to be a last resort for children in the state’s care, reserved for those with histories of severe trauma caused by neglect or abuse.

Texas Department of Family and Protective Services leaders instructed employees to avoid written communications about the cases and barred low-level employees from handling the investigations, according to internal agency communications.

A spokesperson told The Texas Tribune that all employees are trained before supervising youth. DFPS Commissioner Jaime Masters apologized to the child and her mother.

As we know, a great way to beat the heat is by jumping into a pool, lake, or even the bay. Sadly, it’s during the summertime that drowning is a leading cause of accidental death for children younger than five.

The agency investigated the family just five days prior to the girl’s death in 2020 after the child arrived at school with a black eye. That was one of four previous occurrences in which Texas DFPS investigated the family dating back to 2018 with cases in both Bexar County and Harris County.

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.

Most of the deaths were attributed to “preexisting medical conditions” or abuse suffered before the children entered the system, according to the DFPS report. The numbers are on par with those reported in previous years.

In this week’s episode, Matthew speaks with Reese and Mitchell about the fallout from sexual abuse allegations at a state-contracted children’s shelter and Russian threats against Texas’ energy infrastructure.

Some child welfare workers in Texas say they’re quitting over a new directive that allows abuse investigations into parents of transgender kids.

The Department of Family and Protective Services has been under federal court monitoring for over a decade for violating the civil rights of kids in foster care. Now, the short-staffed agency has to investigate parents who provide their children with gender-affirming care.

State officials say employees at a foster care center under a state contract to shelter children who have been trafficked for sex have been trafficking those children themselves.

The children were sexually abused and neglected while at The Refuge, a facility located in Bastrop contracted by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, according to a report from a current employee.

A Texas judge was scheduled to consider a statewide injunction on investigations of parents over obtaining gender-affirming care. The appeal now puts the hearing on hold.

The Department of Family and Protective Services is investigating 3 cases for going against Governor Greg Abbott’s recent directive to gender-confirming care for kids as abuse.

The parents of a transgender teenager in Texas say in a lawsuit that the state is investigating them after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ordered officials to look into reports of gender-confirming care for kids as abuse.

People are calling for action and justice after shocking video surfaced showing what appears to be a teen girl being assaulted by a teen boy while in Children's Protective Services custody.

For so many parents, the long wait is now over.

Medical experts say gender affirming care for transgender children rarely, if ever, includes use of the surgeries Abbott cited in his letter to the head of the Texas Department of Family Protective Services.

Gender-affirming care, which leading health care organizations in Texas say is the best way to provide care to transgender children, is emerging as a top target of state Republicans and lies at the heart of brewing political and legal battles.

A Houston-area nonprofit organization is accepting donations of new bedding for children without a permanent home.

Two 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. Ad“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.

Huey Hamilton, 53, and Shawanda Hamilton, 36, are each charged with injury to a child in connection with the beating death of Tarija Carter. The little girl died in January 2020, and it took months of investigation to determine the cause and circumstances of her death. Tarija was left with the Hamiltons by her birth mother, Rhodashinique Phillips. She said CPS decided to place Tarija and her 1-year-old sister with the Hamiltons for safety. When Phillps complained, she said her CPS caseworker told her she might lose custody if she tried to go get them.

HOUSTON – A 3-year-old girl was found safe Tuesday night after she and her mom went missing Tuesday. According to police, the girl’s mom dropped her off with a friend in Houston, who notified the Department of Family Protective Services of the girl’s whereabouts. Officials were asking for the public’s help in locating a missing 3-year-old girl and her mother who were suspected to be traveling to Dallas and Houston areas, according to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Elly’Anna Garcia and her mother, Christina Kaput, were last seen Monday in Plainview, Texas. Kaput was ordered by a Randall County judge to hand Garcia over into state custody Monday.

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.

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.

After an hours-old infant was dropped off at a fire station in southwest Houston Tuesday morning, officials said the baby's parents won't be investigated because the woman transferred the baby...