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Texas Appleseed is examining the challenges faced by children in long-term foster care and will recommend ways in which the courts and legal system can improve the lives of these children once they leave the foster care system.
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Latest News
There are currently close to 15,000 children in Permanent Management Conservatorship (long-term foster care) in Texas. More than 80 percent of the children who have been in foster care for more than two years will "age out" at 18. Those who "age out" spend an average of five years or more in foster care, averaging more than eight different placements. Studies show that, later in life, children in long-term foster care are more prone to poverty, homelessness, drug abuse, early pregnancy, and involvement in the criminal justice system. At the request of the Texas Supreme Court's Permanent Commission on Children, Youth and Families, Texas Appleseed has spent the past year researching this issue and will publish a report in 2010 on how the courts and legal system can improve the life outcomes for these children. Texas Appleseed and our pro bono partners have interviewed nearly 150 stakeholders in Texas' six most heavily populated counties and in eight regions covered by the specialty docket Child Protection Court judges.
HEADLINES
Pro Bono Study Seeks Solutions For Children, Texas Lawyer, 9.11.2008
Fix Texas' Foster Care Fix", Houston Chronicle, 5.17.2008
MORE MEDIA COVERAGE
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Project Timeline
Current: Texas Appleseed is working with a team of experts -- including five judges, agency heads, and non-profit and foundation leaders from across the state -- to draft policy recommendations to include in a report on long-term foster care for publication in fall 2010.
May 2009 Texas Appleseed helps pass legislation to assure that court oversight can continue after a child turns 18, if the child wants or needs it.
April 2009 Texas Appleseed release preliminary data on children in Permanent Managing Conservatorship in Texas.
Foster Care - Preliminary Data Analysis, April 2009
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Read more...
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Pro Bono Partners & Funders
Texas Appleseed is grateful to Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. for their leadership role in supporting the foster care project. Our other pro bono partners are: Gilda Carbonaro; Susana Canseco; Gunderson, Sharp & Walke, L.L.P.; Laura J. Keltner, Attorney at Law; Littler Mendelson P.C.; McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore, L.L.P.; Laura Robertson; Law Office of Nancy A. Gordon, P.C.; Law Office of Steven K. Hayes; Law Office of Lori Ann Spearman; Nix, Patterson & Roach, L.L.P.; Perry & Kellogg, LLP; Kevin J. Schmid Law Office; Cotton Schmidt, L.L.P.; and Maria Weimann. We also are indebted to Research & Planning Consultants, LP, and to Tim Bishop, CLVS, with Legal Video Specialists -- as well as to Dewey & LeBoeuf, LLP for providing an initial analysis of foster care in Texas that was a starting point for our work. Funding from the Funding from the Rees-Jones Foundation, the RGK Foundation, the Meadows Foundation, and the Texas Bar Foundation makes this work possible. |
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