The Texas foster care system has been in decline for many years. Here’s how lawmakers want to fix it.

TEXAS, USA – This story originally appeared in the Texas Tribune.

Texas lawmakers have filed more than 100 bills to improve the state’s long-troubled Department of Family and Welfare, which cares for the state’s most vulnerable children.

The DFPS has struggled for years to care for children in state care who have been taken from their parents’ homes. The agency usually cannot find enough space with foster families, relatives of the children, or licensed centers for all the children it cares for. The social workers left in droves. A long list of problems has been documented in a lengthy federal lawsuit against the state. The judge in that lawsuit found that social workers were overreaching, the residences the children were living in did not meet safety standards, and the agency did not monitor child abuse and demanded improvements over the years. Approximately 20,000 children are under state care.

The governor, lieutenant governor, and speaker of the house have significant influence over which legislation is passed in any given legislative session. However, as of early March, no one indicated that fixing the state foster care system would be a priority at the meeting, which will end on May 29. The lack of support means the proposed changes will compete with other pressing issues for legislators’ attention—and state money. .

“Everyone says…“I’m very worried about foster children and all the bad things that happen to them, but don’t ask me what to do about it. And don’t ask me to give up my financial priorities to pay for this,” said Rep. Jin-Woo, a Democrat from Houston and an attorney who represents parents fighting Child Protective Services cases. “They will never talk about it publicly. But that’s what’s going on in the minds of the (legislative) members.”

The DFPS has been allocated $4.58 billion for the 2022 and 2023 state budget cycle. For the two-year budget that legislators are making for 2024 and 2025, it could be $4.89 billion. So far, both the House of Representatives and the Senate are proposing $300 million from the state budget surplus for the DFPS. As of early March, much of this extra money is being offered to increase the pay of caregivers who place and support many children in institutions. Legislators are also seeking to fund an expansion of so-called social assistance, which outsources some of the duties of Child Protective Services to a local third party.

Legislators have also put forward bills that would pay relatives who take in children more money. Currently, adoptive parents who are trained and licensed to take care of children in the system receive more money for this than relatives who can take in children without any training. Lawmakers are also considering making college tuition free for foster youth and requiring Child Protective Services to inform biological parents of their rights during ongoing child abuse investigations.

The House and Senate have allocated $128.1 million in their provisional budgets to expand community-based childcare, a model adopted in 2017 that aims to bring foster children closer to their homes.

Under this model, the DFPS devolves agency responsibilities to specific regions of the state. This includes finding relatives to stay with or foster families for children in state care. This also includes the involvement of third parties to manage institutions where there are several children at the same time.

In the six years since Texas first implemented residential care, by February only four DFPS counties had adopted the model: the Panhandle, the Hill Country, the area tied to Fort Worth, and the area including Wichita Falls. and Abilene. These districts together are responsible for 24% of children in public care. Each of these regions is currently in the second phase of rolling out a program that expands the role of an outside contractor to run a common case, supervise children living with relatives, and prepare families for the return of children to the custody of biological parents or legal entities. guardians.

DFPS Commissioner Stephanie Muth told lawmakers at a Feb. 10 Senate Finance Committee meeting that the agency will likely need fewer full-time social workers. This in turn will require more internal attention to contract management and less to case management staff.

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate are seeking to expand community-level aid to new regions. In February, contracts were signed in Piney Woods and parts of North Texas.

Lawmakers could also clarify how the state pays facility operators that house and provide services for multiple foster children.

For each day of care, DFPS currently pays these providers a rate based on an assessment of the child’s “level of care”. There are five levels of care: Basic, Moderate, Specialty, Intensive, and Intensive Plus. Most children in foster care fall into basic and moderate levels of care. But when a child has more complex needs—for example, intensive mental health care for those at risk of hospitalization and support for older people who are about to leave care—the state pays the provider a higher rate.

An advisory group hired by the government found that current foster care figures are based on data more than ten years old and “do not reflect realistically the time and effort of staff involved in providing care.” Without sufficient funds, caregivers are limited in the resources they can offer foster children.

The House of Representatives and the Senate are proposing to raise rates and have allocated $100 million each over two years to fund the hike. The DFPS plans to propose new rates to lawmakers in the coming weeks.

Child protection experts have recommended decoupling rates from assessed levels of care.

“Children’s needs fluctuate, which means payments can fluctuate,” Jamie McCormick, vice president of communications for the Texas Alliance for Children and Family Services, wrote in a statement. “These fluctuations create financial instability. Worse, the leveling system can disrupt a child’s treatment or limit their ability to maintain progress.”

If approved by the Legislature, the new system will determine the various services a child needs and rates will be tied to specific foster care facilities that can provide those services.

Once removed from home, children experience less trauma when they are in the care of relatives or close family friends. But when these people come to the rescue, in what the DFPS calls “kinship care,” they receive far less compensation than foster parents who open their home to temporarily care for children they don’t know. Family caregivers do not need to be licensed or trained. They receive $12.67 a day. Foster parents must be licensed and trained. They receive at least $27.07 per day.

Related caregivers may qualify for higher payments if they complete the training program. Completion of training means that the agency considers them “verified”.

But some lawmakers want to remove that verification requirement so that extended family members like grandparents can take over the care of children taken from their parents without making ends meet.

“Their pensions are sometimes barely enough to cover their own expenses, let alone the expenses of a growing child. Think about the cost of diapers, the cost of food, the cost of formula,” said State Senator Jose Menendez, Democrat of San Antonio, author of Senate Bill 107.

Rep. Vicki Goodwin, D-Austin, filed an identical bill, House Bill 304. These proposals received support from key child protection groups such as TexProtects, Texas Alliance of Child and Family Services, and Texans Care for Children.

The legislature last increased payments to relatives to the current rate in 2017, but advocates such as Kerry Judis, child protection policy manager at TexProtects, say the increase was not enough.

“We want to make sure that [kinship caregivers] are actually adequately supported,” Jadis said. “We want this 50 percent tariff to be removed.”

Parents under investigation for child abuse must make decisions that affect whether they keep their children or lose them. But most of these parents do not have legal assistance and are unaware of their rights. Rep. James Frank, R-Wichita Falls, is trying to change that by increasing legal protections for parents involved in Child Protective Services cases.

House Bill 730 would require social workers to notify parents of their rights. For example, they may refuse to share medical records or take drug tests, and they have the right to speak with a lawyer. If parents refuse interviews or allow social workers into their homes, the bill will also require the DFPS to provide a possible reason, which requires more evidence than the current standard to obtain a court order.

“I think there is really a lack of due process in the CPS arena. And I think a lot of my colleagues agree with that,” said Frank, chairman of the Texas House of Representatives Committee on Social Services. “Parents need to understand what is at stake, that we are investigating and that they have rights.”

Rep. Jaycee Jetton, R-Richmond, also wants to see a change in how CPS investigations are started. According to the agency, the DFPS finds evidence of abuse in only 22% of investigations. Many investigations begin with anonymous reports of abuse or neglect. The Jetton House Act of 1667 would put an end to anonymous reporting.

As part of the bill, teachers, health care providers, and day care workers can refer families identified as “low risk of abuse” to community-based services rather than calling CPS.

“Bill 1667 will allow families to access these services without the added stress of dealing with CPS,” Jetton said in a statement. “It will also help increase the effectiveness of investigations into reports of suspected child abuse and neglect by enabling CPS to prioritize children at risk.”

Disclosure: Texans Care for Children and TexProtects provided financial support to The Texas Tribune, a non-profit, non-partisan news organization funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial sponsors play no role in Tribune journalism. Find their full list here