ABILENE, TX — Earlier this week a Taylor County District judge expressed his concern to the commissioners that they need a child protective services court.
“It’s really sad to see that we have a C.P.S crisis here in Taylor County," Judge Paul Rotenberry from the 326 District Court.
This district court by statute hears family cases which most of them are not C.P.S. related.
"There is a need for a child protective court for Taylor County because of the volume of cases that we have,” Judge Rotenberry said. “This has been building for time, we really needed a court two years ago."
Currently Judge Rotenberry has two associate judges helping with the case load, but he says it's not enough.
"We don't have the space on the calendar to hear the cases under the time limit that the legislature has mandated."
The numbers dont lie, Judge Rotenberry says in 2014 there were 112 new cps cases, 2015: 225, 2016: 259, 2017: 313. This year they're on target for 404. Most of them are drug related cases.
“That’s what's driven the increase and the number investigators went from 9 to 22 on January 1, 2015,” Rotenberry said. “About the same time is when methamphetamine use really started increasing in this area."
According to Rotenberry, 90 percent of those cases are related to meth use and about 80 percent of kids test positive for meth.
"What we've done is taken one week a month is all we've allocated for non-C.P.S cases,” Rotenberry said. “Because C.P.S. case load is taking 3 weeks out of the month."
If the legislature approves a new associate judge they would start October 1, 2019.