Couple with 2 kids on bus makes progress

SPLENDORA, Texas (AP) — The parents of two young children discovered living virtually unsupervised in an old school bus in Southeast Texas had been looking forward to the prospect of regaining full custody of their kids.

Child welfare officials have said they are delighted with the commitment Mark and Sherrie Shorten have shown since their kids were found last year while the couple was in federal prison.

But the Shortens were left puzzled after Child Protective Services officials told them a court hearing Tuesday was unlikely to result in them regaining full custody of their 12-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son.

Agency spokeswoman Gwen Carter said last week the children had been attending school and the parents have complied with CPS care plans, evaluations and therapy.

Last March, a postal worker, after repeatedly spotting two disheveled children in the Montgomery County neighborhood about 35 miles northeast of Houston, became concerned and notified authorities. Welfare officials quickly arrived and placed the kids in foster care while media coverage led with images of the outwardly dilapidated bus on a trash-littered lot.

Carter said officials are accustomed to poor families living in tough conditions and while it’s not illegal to live in a bus, “sadly, that was the sensational part, the condition of their living environment and they were left there all day.”

At the time, Shorten and his wife were in separate federal prisons both serving 18 months for convictions for conspiracy to embezzle money from victims of Hurricane Ike, which struck in 2008. They had arranged for their children to be supervised by an aunt, who told authorities she became overwhelmed between working 12-hour days and trying to care for them.

“There was a lot of emotional and mental anguish put on the kids,” said Sherrie Shorten, who was released from prison several weeks after the children were removed. “And that’s what we were upset about.”