Texas legislators passed a bill last week to create an ombudsman who will independently address issues foster youth have with the Department of Family and Protective Services.
The ombudsman will work for the Health and Human Services Commission and oversee and review complaints submitted by any of Texas’ 30,000 foster youth.
Katherine Barillas, the Director of Child Welfare Policy at One Voice Texas, said that former foster youth had come to her expressing their issues with the current system.
“They really felt there weren’t enough protections for them in foster care,” Barillas said. “We recognized immediately there needed to be better shape and definition in the office in that it had to be independent.”
Prior to the creation of this ombudsman, the Department of Family and Protective Service ran the office to investigate complaints against itself. Sarah Crockett, the public policy coordinator for Texas Court-Appointed Special Advocates, said this model of internal investigation wasn’t effective.
“It was clear [foster youth] didn’t feel comfortable calling the department about the department,” Crockett said.
One Voice Texas worked with Texas Court-Appointed Special Advocates to push the bill into legislation. The organizations gained the support of Republican Sen. Lois W. Kolkhorst and Democrat Rep. Harold Dutton Jr. to champion the bill.
The bill, SB 830, establishes an independent, full-time ombudsman to specifically monitor and field complaints from foster youth about the Department of Family and Protective Services. It details policies including how the ombudsman should report complaints, file a yearly report on its services and prohibit retaliatory action against foster youths’ complaints.
The Department of Family and Protective Services’ system currently handles concerns of abuse, neglect and exploitation of children and adults with disabilities or people who are older than 65, according to its website. It does not have a specified person for complaints from foster youth.
This legislation will go into effect on Sept. 1, 2015. At that point, the Health and Human Services Commission will appoint an ombudsman for foster youth filing complaints against the Department of Family and Protective Services.
Meiling Bedard is a journalism intern for The Chronicle of Social Change and a junior at Boston University.
Written By Chronicle Of Social Change
Texas Passes Legislation Creating Ombudsman to Serve Foster Youth was originally published @ The Chronicle of Social Change and has been syndicated with permission.
Our authors want to hear from you! Click to leave a comment
Related Posts
