Document Type
Arguendo (Online)
Abstract
Texas currently allows Child Protective Services to remove children and place them in foster care for up to two years based only on probable cause of abuse or neglect. Removal itself is traumatic for children and foster care puts children at an unconstitutional risk of harm. Allowing courts to put children through the trauma of removal and foster care for years based only on probable cause departs substantially from the national norm for standards of proof, enables Texas to terminate parental rights at a high rate, and subjects children to a risk of harm for which the child welfare system is unable to compensate through other procedural protections. To better prevent children from being unnecessarily plunged into an unconstitutional purgatory in which they must wait to be reunified with their birth families or adopted by new families, Texas should raise its standard of proof for child removals from probable cause to a preponderance of the evidence. Raising the standard of proof to a preponderance of the evidence would better balance the state’s interests in protecting children from harm both in foster care and in their homes.
DOI
10.37419/LR.V11.Arg.6
First Page
67
Last Page
104
Recommended Citation
Meagan Corser,
Plunging Children into an Unconstitutional Purgatory: Why Texas Should Raise Its Standard of Proof for Placing Children in Foster Care,
11
Tex. A&M L. Rev.
Arguendo
67
(2024).
Available at:
https://doi.org/10.37419/LR.V11.Arg.6
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