AUSTIN, Texas — Every single new Child Protective Services (CPS) case that arises in Travis County is overseen by 126th Civil Court District Judge Aurora Martinez Jones. Years ago, child welfare cases were tossed around to different judges, but now she has the primary focus for the county.
"I handle the administration and oversight of all of the CPS cases. I'm seeing the cases from the very beginning," Martinez Jones said.
KVUE'S Hannah Rucker sat down with Jones to discuss some of the challenges currently being faced by parents, children and caseworkers in Texas.
"There are some moments in that child's life getting to that adoption that can be tragic and traumatizing," Martinez Jones said.
In 2022, due to a lack of placements for children entering Texas foster care, some children had to sleep in state offices. Now in 2023, as Rucker learned through interviewing children for KVUE's Forever Families segment, some children in Texas foster care have been living out of hotels.
"It is still a challenge for the State seeing children without placement. We had a law pass saying that they won't be in administrative offices but what that has meant is that they are sometimes in hotels," Martinez Jones said. "It's extremely upsetting,"
Another issue is high caseworker turnover within the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS). Burnout due to extra on-call shifts and complex cases are some of the reasons Martinez Jones said this is happening.
"Overwhelmingly, what I'm hearing from former caseworkers is having to spend the time doing on-call shifts at the Child Without Placement (CWAP) locations is what's causing them to leave," Martinez Jones said.
Rucker asked Martinez Jones why the everyday Texan should care about these issues with foster children.
"They're Travis County kids – they're my kids, they're your kids. And our community is not going to be healthy if we aren't caring for these kids," Martinez Jones said.
The judge also said there's a great need for more mental health resources for these children, and she would really like to see more funding and resources go directly to these kids.
"I have a tremendous amount of young people in my community who still have substantial mental health needs," she said.
Editor's note: The children who are in the Heart Gallery program and featured in KVUE's Forever Families segments are children who have had every effort made on their behalf to connect them with family or others in their community to provide options for permanent, adoptive homes. Through no fault of their own, that hasn’t happened yet, and so in partnership with the Department of Family and Protective Services, we collaborate to bring awareness to KVUE viewers about these children in the hopes of finding them permanency before they age out.