AUSTIN, Texas — A federal lawsuit is looking into the living conditions of children in long-term foster care in Texas.
Another hearing was held with a federal judge this week in connection to the lawsuit, which spans 13 years and analyzes the conditions of the most vulnerable children in Texas foster care – the ones who don't have placements.
Judge Aurora Martinez Jones oversees foster care cases in Travis County and said it's mainly teens and kids with more extensive health needs who end up without a place to live. She said currently, some of those children live in hotels or houses leased by the State, where caseworkers take shifts to watch them.
"Some of our teenagers have situations where they leave those locations. We've had some situations where our kids have been trafficked from those locations, and it's really just not the ideal place for them to be," Martinez Jones said. "Some of them are very frustrated that they're in a location that doesn't give them a lot of dignity. It's not very clean, doesn't feel safe – and I agree with them."
If you would like to help these children either by fostering, adopting or providing resources, you can learn more by visiting Partnerships for Children's website.
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KVUE launched the Forever Families segment with Partnerships for Children (PFC) in June 2020 to highlight children in the Heart Gallery of Central Texas who need secure and permanent families. Every day, there are nearly 1,000 children waiting to get adopted in Central Texas, according to PFC.
Editor's note: The children who are in the Heart Gallery program and featured in KVUE's Forever Families segments are children who have had every effort made on their behalf to connect them with family or others in their community to provide options for permanent, adoptive homes. Through no fault of their own, that hasn’t happened yet, and so in partnership with the Department of Family and Protective Services, we collaborate to bring awareness to KVUE viewers about these children in the hopes of finding them permanency before they age out.