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Texas foster care officials were accused in a September federal court filing of cashing in on the homelessness of foster children.
The state continues looking into the matter, but attorneys from the state’s long standing litigation over civil rights violations of foster youth confirmed to TPR they are also investigating.
In an email to the federal court, a former Department of Family and Protectives Services employee said managers were using miles and points accrued from hotel bookings for foster youth and using them for lavish trips.
Attorneys for Yetter Coleman — who represent foster children in the 12-year fight over the state system — are now seeking depositions from foster officials in their own investigation.
The state wouldn’t comment to TPR on the development, and it also declined to say what progress it had made in its investigation.
TPR confirmed through state documents that there are no policies barring workers from using personal hotel points programs on bookings for official business.
The practice is not illegal — according to the Texas Ethics Commission — but state agencies are allowed to bar it if they so choose.
Whether staff are using the hotel bookings to profit in points remains a question. DFPS documents cast some doubt on the allegation, with little more than $14,000 being recouped by staff in bookings they made on personal credit cards. The possibility of state credit cards or official state bookings being linked to personal hotel points programs remains possible.
The state has paid more than $7.3 million on hotels for children without placement (CWOP) since January 2021. The state has shelled out as much as $29 million for off-duty, certified law enforcement to act as security guards at these hotels and unlicensed placements. According to documents obtained by TPR, roughly $27 went to Premier Protections and Investigations and another $2.5 million going to Silver Shield Security inc.
In 2021 CWOP had grown to 416 children concurrently staying in unlicensed placements each night with one in four staying 36 nights or more. That number has dropped. More than 820 foster care youth spent a night in a hotel between Jan. 1 and Aug. 8 of this year. The Federal Court and its court monitors have continued to call the number unacceptably high.
Youth in CWOP are frequently in need of mental health services and exhibit physical aggression.
Children in CWOP have been tased by hotel security. One child was impregnated by a hotel staff member. Others have walked off without warning and without anyone being able to stop them. The hotels are often staffed by CPS workers in addition to their normal caseloads. Neither they nor security have in the past been allowed to stop the youth.
At least one has died after running away from unlicensed placements. Several others have reported being sex trafficked after leaving or being sexually assaulted while still living in CWOP hotels.
Lawyers for youth and judges dealing with kids in foster care have expressed reservations and outrage over the lack of progress on what the federal courts have called a dangerous situation.
