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Explosive allegations are being made against a state agency trusted to protect Texas kids.

Are children being left in danger because they are black?

Some attorneys and Harris County judges sure think so, concerned that kids are kept in life-threatening situations all because the color of their skin -- and all to drive the statistics of blacks in the system down.

Children should mean everything when they’re in harm’s way.

And for most, that means all children

“A child in danger is a child in danger,” attorney Gary Polland said.

But something may be wrong in Texas.

“In essence, we’re treating African-American children as second class citizens,” Polland said.

Consider what happened one Sunday last August..

Among all the babies born healthy at Ben Taub Hospital, one little girl was not.

“When I had her, I was positive for drugs,” mother Melinda Simien said. “It wasn’t like I was strung out and every penny I got went on drugs or anything.”

But she admits the temptation was too much.

“I’m not denying it; I’m not in denial about it or anything,” she said. “I did it”

In fact court records show during the pregnancy she smoked marijuana every week, used cocaine and smoked crack the very day before she gave birth..

11 News

And her newborn daughter? As a result, she showed drugs in her system.

“The baby is exposed to extraordinary danger,” Dr. John Sargent said.

Which is why with any drug-exposed birth case, “we’ve got to make sure the baby is growing well,” Dr. Sargent said. “It’s not likely that the baby is going to be able to be well cared for, and that baby needs to be removed and put in safe place.

That’s the job of Children’s Protective Services, which already knew all about Simien from a dozen prior abuse investigations of her other children.

So CPS took custody of this latest child, right?

Wrong.

In fact, 11 News discovered that a CPS program to supposedly help black children may sometimes be putting them in danger.

Polland, the court-appointed attorney for the Simien baby girl, couldn’t believe the CPS’ decision.

“We’re gonna let mom go with the child voluntarily to a drug program,” he said.

But mom never showed at the drug treatment center and instead went on the run for more than a week, using drugs along the way.

“We unnecessarily put a baby at risk,” Polland said.

And what’s more, Polland said, “I think it smacks of racism in the way this case was handled by the agency”

It turns out the Simien case was handled under an experimental CPS project to reduce something called “disproportionality:” the high percentage of black children in the child welfare system.

But some CPS workers said it soon came down to: “Do anything to prevent bringing an African-American into custody,” an anonymous worker said.

This CPS regional director said it was all to, “keep the numbers down.”

First, she said they were told: “We needed to start asking the race of the child” -- before even considering removing them from a questionable home.

“We needed to apply a different set of standards to the African-American population,” she said.

They were standards she said sometimes left children in dangerous conditions.

“I think it’s horrible,” she said. “I think that we are sending a message that we do not value African-American children.”

11 News Investigates found other questionable cases, like that of a 4-month-old black boy who had a spiral fracture of his arm.

His mother claimed his 1-year-old brother caused the injury.

“There is no possible way that a 1-year-old would have the strength to cause this type of injury,” Justice for Children spokeswoman Angela Felder said. “There is no possible way that a 1-year-old would have the strength to cause this type of injury.”

Felder: “Child abuse 101.”

11 News: “That simple?”

Felder: “Real simple.”
11 News: “No brainer?”

Felder: “No brainer.”

Felder, a former caseworker herself, said CPS should have removed the infant immediately.

But instead: “This baby was kept in harm’s way,” Felder said.

And then there’s this case: a woman who had a history of cocaine, PCP abuse and mental illness who didn’t know she was pregnant until her seventh month.

“And the mother was trusted to go and seek her own mental health treatment, and that didn’t happen,” Felder said.

CPS even acknowledged mom was “placing her child in danger.”

But the baby girl was black, and CPS did not take immediate custody.

Felder: “If the child is at risk, you remove the child.”

11 News: “No matter the skin color?”

Felder: “No matter the skin color.”

No matter? How about a mother addicted to cocaine, marijuana and opiates  who was found ignoring her newborn’s medical needs, but CPS only removed the baby two months later after she wound up at hospital emergency rooms numerous times.

And the race? Black.

“If the child is at risk, you act,” Felder said. “If not, we’re going to keep seeing children being killed.”

And there are others troubled as well. 

In an internal CPS Audit 11 News obtained, judges expressed concern that black children could be left in hisk-risk environments, jeopardizing their safety as result of the disproportionality project.

11 News had some questions for the director of CPS, Joyce James.

11 News: “Are you still going to ask the race from now on?.

James: “Yes.”

11 News: “You think that’s a proper and good thing to do?”

James: “Yes I do.”

James defends her agency’s actions, saying it helps workers to be “culturally competent.”

“Our work related to disproportionality is to improve outcomes for children and families,” James said.

But what about the dangerous situations 11 News found?

11 News: “A crack baby being handed back to a mother who admits using crack the day before she gave birth?”

James: “That would not be an ideal situation.”

In fact, in a letter to a judge, CPS wrote, “in hindsight, we should have immediately taken custody of this child.”

“We do make mistakes, however our case decisions are not based on race,” James said.

And what about the other allegations?

11 News: “Treating African-American children as second class citizens, does that bother you?”

James: “Absolutely it bothers me.”

But James insisted that for all the cases 11 News examined: “These cases were not handled any differently than we would have handled any other case.”

And that leaves critics wondering.

“Am I missing something here?” attorney Polland said. “And this is supposed to be a good thing?”

CPS’ Director James said in light of the recent audit, the agency will be drafting a corrective action plan, which she said she’ll make public.

As for the case of Melinda Simien, CPS finally caught up with the mother after a week on run and took her baby girl into state custody. Simien said she’s now in a drug treatment program.

On Tuesday night the 11 News investigation continues, we examine why CPS may be failing thousands of kids of all races.