Foster Care and Child Welfare Week in Review – April 10, 2023
Here are some news items from last week related to foster care, adoption, and child welfare that caught our eye:
Dallas couple Rodney and Temecia Jackson claim CPS workers removed their baby late last month. A legal document used to remove a less-than 2-week-old Dallas baby from her parents late last month had the wrong family’s name on it. The parents of Mila Jackson says the Texas Department of Family Protective Services took their daughter after a routine postpartum hospital visit. The removal petition shows the names of two parents listed. But neither of those names are Rodney or Temecia Jackson, the child’s birth parents.
The Texas Senate on Monday unanimously passed a bill meant to keep people from caring for kids in the state’s foster care or juvenile justice systems if they’ve previously committed what amounts to criminal conduct within one of those agencies. The legislation comes nearly a year after a Bastrop foster care facility hired a caretaker whom the Texas Juvenile Justice Department previously fired for having inappropriate relationships with children in her care.
Children are suffering from an explosion of mental health issues because modern moms and dads are too controlling, suggests a new study. Researchers say that parents’ good intentions to protect their children deprive them of the independence needed for mental well-being. They found that over decades there has been a drop in opportunities for children and teens to play, roam and engage in activities independent of direct oversight and control by adults.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services has awarded 4Kids4Families, a division of Arrow Child and Family Ministries, a contract to become a Single Source Continuum Contractor (SSCC) for the Piney Woods region, which includes Harrison and Marion counties. DFPS said this move sets “in motion first-ever local control to boost capacity and essential services for children and youth in the state’s conservatorship.” 4Kids4Familes “can now accept foster children (through age 17) from DFPS and be responsible for placement in a foster home or residential facility, as well as necessary services,” a press release said.
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