DALLAS-The problematic Texas foster care system, which is dealing with recent losses of residential treatment center beds for troubled children, is now contending with the sudden retirement of its top decision maker on child placements.
Over a six-month period, Texas officials have lost nearly 200 residential treatment center beds where they used to be able to place foster children with complex emotional and behavioral problems, The Dallas Morning News reported Sunday.
The bed losses come as Melanie Cleveland, placement director for Child Protective Services, announced she will retire and step down from her position on July 27. They're also occurring as many children continue to sleep in the agency's offices because there is no available placement that's suitable.
Last week, Sinclair Children's Center in Woodville announced it is voluntarily closing two residential operations in Southeast Texas. This will result in CPS having 53 fewer beds for abused and neglected children it has removed from their birth families.
Earlier in the year, the Department of Family and Protective Services took enforcement action against four other residential treatment centers, including two in the Panhandle, where a mass removal of seriously disturbed children drew criticism.
The department told the newspaper on Thursday that in late January, it also refused to renew the contracts of The Treehouse, a 25-bed facility in Conroe, and Avalon Center Inc., a 32-bed facility in the Central Texas town of Eddy, because of concerns about the quality of care.
For a time, the department suspended additional placements of children with Carter's Kids Inc., a 60-bed treatment center in Richmond, citing deficiencies. Last week, though, it lifted the placement hold on the facility, saying conditions had improved. The center is run by former NFL player Tim Carter.
The resignation of Cleveland, who has been with CPS for 30 years, comes at a very inopportune time for the agency.
"Melanie has done a terrific job under very trying circumstances," department spokesman Patrick Crimmins said. "It's a really tough job, but she has been laser-focused on finding the right home for every child in foster care, regardless of the circumstances. In terms of her motivation for leaving, it was a strictly personal decision, nothing else."
The state agency is working on a formal study to look at an imbalance in the location of residential treatment centers around the state, which officials say are not distributed well geographically to align with demand.
Officials acknowledge it's increasingly hard to place children in their home community, especially in rural Texas.
"We don't have any cushion," Crimmins said. "We don't have any (centers) opening as these are closing."
A federal judge in December declared the Texas foster care system unconstitutionally flawed and ordered an independent overhaul.