HOUSTON – Texas Department of Family Protective Services is investigating two Houston-area daycares after Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo brought children from the daycares to a Commissioners Court meeting last month, KPRC 2 has learned.
“DFPS will investigate whether or not abuse or neglect occurred in this case. Findings from our investigation will be turned over to the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), the state agency that licenses and regulates day care in Texas,” said Melissa Lanford, a DFPS spokesperson.
Austin-based attorney Lindsey Dionne said she made the report to Texas DFPS after seeing a broadcast of the Aug. 7 meeting.
“I understood there to be children there, and I thought it was really, really inappropriate,” Dionne said. “There are a lot of rules and regulations around daycares and who can bring children into what environments, what constitutes a field trip, and what is educational. And I didn’t see anything that would be thought of as educational or good for children in that video.”
Dionne said she followed up by contacting county offices to identify the daycares that participated. She later learned the children were from Right Fit Kids Academy and Our New Beginning Learning Academy.
KPRC 2 has reached out to both daycares. The owner of Our New Beginning Learning Academy, Dessie Mouton, said she was asked to speak at the meeting by East Harris County Empowerment to support Judge Hidalgo’s tax hike.
Mouton said none of the kids who were in attendance that day are foster kids and all of them had permission slips from parents to be in attendance, which included permission for them to be filmed.
Dionne told KPRC 2 that once a fight broke out between politicians, the children should’ve been taken out of the situation. She said both of these daycares receive federal funding, and they participated in the Commissioners Court meeting to talk about county funding.
“I don’t care what the politics are. These are children that really, really need to be in school, on fun educational field trips. They don’t need to be subjected to somebody losing their temper, yelling, and putting that kind of pressure on them,” said Dionne.
Judge Hidalgo could be heard in the meeting telling the children to “come on down” as Commissioner Lesley Briones criticizes the tax proposal.
DFPS typically completes investigations within 30 days, before forwarding findings to state Health and Human Services officials. At the time of reporting, the owner of Right Fit Kids Academy had not responded to requests for comment.
KPRC 2 is also waiting on a statement from Judge Hidalgo’s office.