CPS refusing to answer questions after report details failures leading to death of 7-year-old Troy Khoeler

KHOU 11 News is working to get answers from CPS and state lawmakers, but few are commenting on what happened to Khoeler and how to prevent future tragedies.

HOUSTON — Questions are mounting about how a 7-year-old boy died and how the warning signs of abuse were missed as the agency tasked with protecting him isn’t giving any answers.

Troy Khoeler, 7, was found dead in his adoptive parents’ washing machine back in July. The adoptive parents, Jermaine and Tiffany Thompson, have since been arrested and charged in his death.

The agency tasked with protecting him, Child Protective Services, has yet to answer questions about the case.

“It’s a failure of the system,” said Bob Sanborn, the  CEO of the nonprofit organization Children at Risk.

Sanborn told KHOU 11 News that too many kids are slipping through the cracks and dying. He said the problem is poor state leadership and inadequate funding. 

“When you see more instances here than any other state, that should be an alarm for us,” he said.

We pushed for answers from the people elected to enact policies to protect Texas children, including Governor Greg Abbott and every member of the Senate Special Committee on CPS. Committee members include State Senators Lois Kolkhorst, Charles Perry, Brandon Creighton, Joan Huffman, Jose Menendez, Borris Miles and Angela Paxton. 

Each one either ignored the request or refused to comment, except for state Sen. Kolkhorst, who chaired the special committee, and state Sen. Miles. 

Kolkhorst issued the following statement to KHOU 11:

“The revelation that DFPS had previously investigated the allegation of abuse of 7-year-old Troy Khoeler twice before he was found dead last summer is tragic and my heart aches for another child lost to abuse. 

“This is yet another stark reminder of the need for serious reforms in this agency.  Investigations are a serious function that the state must always conduct with a high degree of accuracy and timeliness. It is vital that Texas do better when it comes to investigating instances of abuse and neglect so families get the interventions needed to keep children safe; but more importantly, that  the state is not needlessly traumatizing children with unnecessary removals.  

“It is this issue of investigation and response to serious abuse and neglect allegations that drove the Texas Senate to study DFPS more in depth through the Senate Special Committee on Child Protective Services.

“We recently released our findings, which stated that despite historic investments of state funds over the last three legislative sessions in DFPS, the agency is still struggling with management and human resources issues, workforce turnover and operational inefficiencies that degrade the quality of its work and performance.

“Our legislative committee made a number of recommendations including ways to improve the training and processes for investigating criminal abuse allegation. I will be working on these recommendations with my colleagues during the upcoming legislative session.”

Sen. Miles issued the following statement:

“The death of Troy Koehler is a tragedy and was the result of a systematic failure of the state. Unfortunately, this is not the first reported case of abuse with children that CPS has investigated with little to no action taken to protect the child. As a member of the Senate Special Committee on Child Protective Services, I have been outspoken on the need to improve training for those investigating abuse and a clear chain of command to report abuse when it potentially becomes a criminal offense.

“But the fact remains that children have been physically, sexually and mentally abused for years in the state’s system. The Legislature has been making recommendations to address the problems with foster care at DFPS and HHSC for years, but rarely is anything implemented because of the lack of resources and the lack of commitment to solve the problem unless the state is under court orders. With more than $30 billion in the budget surplus for next year’s legislative session, the state WILL have the resources to address the many problems at our state agencies. 

“The ugly and unfortunate truth is that these kids are in the care of the state and the state’s leadership needs to face the facts. CPS is broken and we need to tear it down and rebuild it with the budget surplus. It needs to be properly funded, fully staffed with highly trained employees that will give our kids a fair chance to succeed.  We need to stop the political theater and actually solve the problems that are affecting so many of our vulnerable kids.”  

Child advocacy groups say they’ve heard these things for years and Texas children continue to die. 

“All of these deaths happen yet we don’t do anything different to change the system,” said Sanborn. “We may pressure for change but we’re not seeing the change that needs to happen.”

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