New Laws Impact Educators Regarding Students In Foster Care—How Can Attorneys Help?

Educators, families, and attorneys working together can help ensure that the education environment for a child in foster care is welcoming, safe, and productive. There are almost 30,000 Texas children in foster care, many of whom attend school.  Many of these children will need an Individual Education Program (IEP), a plan tailored to meet the needs of students with physical or learning disabilities. These specially tailored supports will aid every individual child make the maximum progress they can. Because of numerous confidentiality and privacy issues and other legal requirements, the involvement of an attorney — whether that attorney represents the school or the child — may be necessary to guarantee access to these services. Teachers may find themselves at a moral crossroads as never before, based on some new Texas and Federal legislation.

New legislation for teachers and administrators to be cognizant of:

1. Changes to the Texas Education Code were embodied in House Bill 3979. Social studies classes are to address a list of founding documents that Texas social studies students must be taught, including the U.S. Constitution, the Federalist papers, and some of the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville, yet:
   1. No teacher can be compelled by a policy of a state agency, school district, open enrollment charter school or by school administration to “discuss current events or widely debated and currently controversial issues of public policy or social affairs”.
   2. If teachers discuss current events, teachers are mandated by the new law to explore such issues from diverse perspectives.
   3. Students will be prohibited from getting credit or extra credit due to participating in demonstrations that include political activism, or lobbying elected officials on a particular issue. Will this hold up to First Amendment scrutiny?

2. Changes to Texas Family Code Chapter 107 mean that attorneys are perennial students: attorneys must familiarize themselves with a minimum of three hours of study related to trauma, and the impact of trauma on children in the foster care system. Texas Family Code Chapter 107.004(b-1)(2)-(b-4) has been added to mandate that attorneys who seek to be on a judge’s list for potential court appointments as an ad litem in a child protection proceeding must complete a minimum of three hours of training in trauma dealing with:

(1)  the symptoms of trauma and the impact that trauma has on a child, including how trauma may affect a child’s development, emotions, memories, behavior, and decision-making;

(2)  attachment and how a lack of attachment may affect a child;

(3)  the role that trauma-informed care and services can have in a child’s ability to build connections, feel safe, and regulate the child’s emotions to help the child build resilience and overcome the effects of trauma and adverse childhood experiences;

(4)  the importance of screening children for trauma and the risk of mislabeling; and inappropriate treatment of children without proper screening, including the risks and benefits associated with the use of psychotropic medication;

(5)  the potential for re-traumatization of children in the conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective Services; and

(6)  the availability of:

(A)  research-supported, trauma-informed, non-pharmacological interventions; and

(B) conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective Services, to: (i) trauma-informed care; and

(ii) trauma-informed mental and behavioral health services.