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A teenage foster child was transported nearly 300 miles from home and had his psychotropic drugs changed, violating a court order requiring him to be kept locally. Now a private contractor in charge of the child’s care may have to pay.
Workers from 2Ingage, one of nine private regional providers of foster care and adoption services contracted with the state, took the child out of an Abilene hospital and transported him to a treatment center in Houston rather than in the same region, according to court records.
They didn’t tell the court or the child’s attorney.
Judge Elizabeth Watkins, an associate Child Protection Judge in Concho Valley and Brown County, said 2Ingage’s actions violated a standing order — applying to all foster children in the county — prohibiting such moves that she’d put in place the year before.
Now, she has reprimanded 2Ingage for its actions and ordered it to create and conduct legal training for all employees for four hours. If it doesn’t comply, it will face what appears to be weekly fines of $3,000.
“It’s shocking,” said Lori Duke, co-director of the Children’s Rights Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law. “What stuck out to me as a child's attorney is how appalling it is to move a child without talking to their attorney first about what the plan is.”
The Texas Newsroom has learned this isn’t the first time 2Ingage has been found in contempt.
According to documents provided by sources with direct knowledge of the cases, 2Ingage was found in contempt in 2023 for similar issues around not finding foster homes in the counties the children live in. Contempt records are not often public in child welfare cases.
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In an email, 2Ingage said it "remains deeply committed to serving Texas children,” but it declined to respond to specific questions on this or other cases, citing confidentiality.
As part of the state’s move to privatize the child welfare system, regional child welfare providers or Community-Based Care providers like 2Ingage have taken over much of the responsibility for caring for foster children. The Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) controlled the placement, family services, and other aspects of child welfare programs in the past. The transition has been difficult with children’s attorneys in the region complaining the area has actually fewer places to house and care for foster children.
DFPS said it is currently assessing what if any corrective action should be taken for 2Ingage.
According to the state’s website, 2Ingage has been running the region for nearly seven years and is one of the longest serving regional providers in Texas. Many of the other regions have just come online as in Dallas and San Antonio. Austin still has no contracted provider, meaning the state is still handling the care of foster children in this area.
The most recent contempt finding against 2Ingage, dated July 10, said 2Ingage’s Permanency Supervisor, Corey Jacobs, knew what the court order was and that the decision to move the child would violate it. She continued anyway.
Another 2Ingage employee, Jacob Trujillo-Keahey, testified that he was “aware” of the orders but did not understand “what it meant to violate a court’s order,” according to the contempt order.
“I'm fluctuating between using phrases like ‘completely incompetent’ to ‘just thinking they can do what they want’,” said Duke. “I don't know if it's arrogance or ignorance.”
2Ingage’s past behavior is part of the reason the judge wrote her standing order in June of last year — to stop the practice of moving children out of Region 2, which stretches across 30 counties from the Red River to Brown County.
It is also one of the tenets of the privatization movement in Texas.
“Community-Based Care,” reads the DFPS website, “Keeping Texas Children in foster care closer to home and connected to friends and family.”
DFPS did not respond to questions The Texas Newsroom sent to them in an email before the time of publication.
Standing orders around child welfare cases are common throughout Texas’ counties. For instance, in Travis County, a child may not be removed from a placement — a foster home, relative’s home or group home — without the approval of the child’s attorney.
This rule is much stronger than Watkin’s in Brown County.
Watkins did not respond to The Texas Newsroom’s request for an interview.
