Texas child welfare agency changes policy

AUSTIN (AP)(8/27/08) - A federal appeals court ruling will force the state's child welfare agency to obtain court orders prior to removing allegedly abused children from their homes, unless their lives are in immediate danger, officials said.

The ruling last month by a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will affect child abuse investigations in the three states covered by its jurisdiction -- Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

"The decision will require us to make some extremely difficult decisions," Carey Cockerell, commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, said in an "urgent legal advisory" sent on Friday to all Child Protective Services personnel, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News reported Tuesday in online editions.

The ruling resulted from an ongoing lawsuit against the state of Texas filed by a Fort Bend County couple and their 13 children. The court said state and local officials who removed the children during a child abuse investigation may have acted improperly but were protected by government immunity.

Generally, CPS removes a child if there's a threat of immediate danger or sexual abuse and then heads to the court to seek a removal order from a judge.

The state must obtain parental consent or a court order prior to removal "unless life or limb is in immediate jeopardy or sexual abuse is about to occur," the memo states.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5968813.html

I guess the story doesn't mention just what kind of court proceeding it will be. In order to comport with Due Process, it seems that you have have to give the parents notice and an oppostunity to be heard - ex parte just isn't good enough.

I worry at the number of children who will be left for a day or days or weeks with abusive family members, when they could have been protected. Sadly, with time, a story will come forward that a child was sexually or physically abused due to this decision. And CPS will have to reply that this child's situation just didn't fit in the criteria of "immediate" abuse or neglect. Many children will go unprotected because of a few isolated incidents where CPS MAY have acted too quickly to protect children by removing them out of the home.

Shame on those who rejoice at this decision so they can exclaim for their own vanity that somehow Child Protective Services is an evil arm of the State.

In what other crime would you notify the perpetrator, giving him time to further frighten into silence the victim? Shame, shame.

As to taking a child from a school to a CAC for an interview, the opinion does not say that notice is required before a court may issue an order permitting temporary removal. After all, we don't give a defendant notice of a search warrant being issued. The opinion simply looks (in the absence of sufficient information to accomplish the task by consent or on reasonable belief) to obtain a court review of the outcry to judge that it is sufficient to continue investigating.

CPS has grossly overreacted, seeking to protect themselves rather than the child. RSmith, you are a fountain of misinformation and bias. Walk a day in the shoes of a child being physically or sexually assaulted by a parent.

[This message was edited by JB on 08-28-08 at .]

[This message was edited by JB on 08-28-08 at .]

[This message was edited by JB on 08-28-08 at .]

JB, I am with you on this. CPS isn't perfect, but the number of children actually saved from life threatening abuse, neglect and sexual assaults far outweighs the isolated problem cases.