Jack on Tuesday said the Health and Human Services Commission — the regulatory body for foster care facilities — has prematurely removed facilities from what’s called heightened monitoring and inadequately investigated violations.
“It takes such a callous mind and a callous operation to interpret the heightened monitoring standards to take these facilities off when the children are still at risk,” Jack said. She followed her ruling with orders for the foster care agency, which the state challenged and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals partially upheld. Among the orders that were upheld: The state must increase oversight of residential facilities that house kids, speed up state investigations into abuse and neglect in foster homes, and build software to alert caregivers about child-on-child sexual aggression.