Some kids are languishing in hospitals for as many as 700 days.
Turbulence continues for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services: Recently, a federal judge in Corpus Christi condemned the organization, calling it “broken.” Department commissioner John Specia, Jr. is leaving in May. And add to that an investigation showing that a shortage of space in foster care homes is leaving some children – some as young as two years old – stranded in state psychiatric facilities.
The Texas Tribune’s Terri Langford says there’s nowhere else to house these children.
“These are the most traumatized children in the foster care system,” she says. “They’re being held there longer because they are a harder child to place. You can’t just take a child in a psychiatric setting and move them to what we know as a typical foster parent setting. You need a more enhanced skill set for those foster care parents, or a foster care facility.”
Hear the audio and read the rest of the post at Texas Standard.