Keeping Families Divided

Texas State Bill HB 2084, Primary Author State Rep. Phil King R-Weatherford, relating to a suit for access to a child by a grandparent, filed on March 2, 2009 strongly endorsed by Gov. Rick Perry, has grandparents, kinship caregivers and all supporting agencies and organizations in an uproar. The bill was introduced before the House Human Services Committee due to home-schooling parent’s desire to protect their rights against litigious grandparents who disagree with how their grandchildren are being educated. State Rep. King said grandparents have more income to spend on dragging out the litigation. Texas Home School Coalition’s Group President, Tim Lambert said, “Our position is that parents should not be sued into bankruptcy to defend their right to raise kids how they want to”.

Sounds reasonable; the problem with this bill is that it does not address anything regarding suits by grandparents on the basis of education or other frivolities. In very general terms throughout the entirety of the bill everywhere ‘possession of or access to’ a child is mentioned ‘possession’ is striked and ‘access to’ remains. The bill states that it is presumed that parents will act in the best interest of their child(ren) and the evidentiary burden must fall on the grandparent requesting access, who must prove by ‘clear and convincing evidence that the child’s parent does not provide adequate care…and has engaged in culpable conduct that endangers the child’s physical health or significantly impairs the child’s emotional development’. However, if the right of possession is removed, which this bill insists, then once clear and convincing proof is provided against the parents who gets the child(ren); the State?

According to a 2007 study done by Texas Appleseed, there are 43,520 children who are the legal responsibility of the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), the governing agency of Child Protective Services (CPS). It also states that as a result of a number of flaws in Texas’ foster care system, children in the system are at risk of significant harm. A study prepared by former Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn released a report in 2004, Forgotten Children, which states that DFPS frequently moved children from one caregiver to another; had heavy caseloads and high caseworker turnover that prevented the agency from performing required visits with foster children; mixed potentially dangerous children, such as sexual offenders and those with violent criminal records, with others; failed to adequately serve children with special needs, such as the medically fragile and children with mental retardation; failed to address the educational needs of foster children; and had an insufficient plan for preparing foster children for adulthood, or for even tracking what happened to them when they left the foster care system. The question begs to be asked, is this the desired alternative for children who have grandparents and relatives willing and able to provide care but have been prohibited because of a bill that has removed possession of a child by a grandparent as an option?