By Sandy West
Originally appeared in the Texas Tribune
Recently, on her 18th birthday, a Texas foster youth with an IQ of 70, an inability to safely care for herself and an extensive history of hospitalizations for mental health issues was told by law enforcement to leave the unlicensed facility where the state’s child welfare agency had housed her.
Next, “client took her dolls and began walking down the road,” reads a letter Child Protective Services disability specialist Gina Magliolo sent to state officials on June 24.
Ultimately, Magliolo helped the teen find a bed in a homeless shelter for adults, and later a foster care placement for older youth. But for that work, she wrote, she was “admonished by my boss for doing extra work for this youth as she is 18 and ‘needs to learn.’”
In the letter, obtained by The Imprint from a third party, Magliolo states that the case is not unique: Texas foster youth with cognitive disabilities and mental health challenges housed in churches, hotels and other unlicensed facilities as “children without placement” are being cast out of the system when they turn 18, leaving them in potentially dire circumstances.
Although Texas and states across the country can serve young adults who’ve grown up in foster care until they turn 21, Magliolo stated that “there are many...
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