Federal Judge Issues Final Order To Require Texas To Fix Its Foster Care System, But State Gains A Temporary Stay

On January 19, 2018, the federal judge overseeing the State of Texas compliance with a ruling in M.D. v. Texas issued a final order requiring the state to overhaul the foster care system. The order includes 44 items; in total it directs the state to establish a better distributed and managed array of foster homes and residential treatment center beds, avoid placing unrelated children together if they have differences in service level or more than three years difference in age, and place sexually aggressive youth into single-child placements. Some of these orders would remove children from existing placements . . .