By TERRI LANGFORD
Copyright 2011 Houston Chronicle
March 29, 2011, 10:59AM

Read the lawsuit here: http://blogs.chron.com/newswatch/2011/03/document_texas_foster_care_cla.html

Texas foster care children spend too long in poorly supervised facilities that make them prey to further abuse, and the state agency in charge should be forced to revamp the entire system, an advocacy group says in a lawsuit filed today.

The class-action suit, filed in federal court in Corpus Christi, lists the initials of nine child plaintiffs currently in the Texas foster care system, including "D.I.," a 9-year-old from Houston who was sexually abused in a state-approved foster home.

“This class action lawsuit is the collective cry of Texas’ forgotten children, now demanding to be remembered,” says the lawsuit filed by the New York-based advocacy group, Children’s Rights.

The lawsuit on behalf of 12,000 Texas foster care children names Gov. Rick Perry, Texas Health and Human Services Commissioner Thomas Suehs and Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Anne Heiligenstein as defendants.

It asks the court to force the state to revamp its system because the group says the system currently fails foster children.

terri.langford@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7495690.html

Emphasis added by H4K Editor