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Under the new standard, the state must obtain parental consent or a court order prior to removal "unless life or limb is in immediate jeopardy or sexual abuse is about to occur," the memo states.
Additionally, investigators now must weigh factors for each child living in a home before removing any of them based on allegations of abuse involving another child. The standard practice of removing all children in a household when abuse was suspected on any single child was the basis for removing more than 400 children from a West Texas polygamist group in April.
The Texas Supreme Court in late May held that removing all the children was not justified based on allegations that a few underage girls were married to older men.
Gary Gates, the Fort Bend County man whose lawsuit prompted the revisions, said the changes will protect families from having their constitutional rights violated.
"The whole reason we started the litigation was because we felt there were wrongs in the system," said Gates, an apartment building owner and founder of the Texas Center for Family Rights.
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