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Texas lawmakers have filed more than 100 bills aimed at improving the state’s long-troubled Department of Family and Protective Services, which cares for the state’s most vulnerable children.
DFPS has struggled for years to care for kids in state custody who have been removed from their parents’ homes. The agency routinely can’t find enough space with foster families, childrens’ relatives or licensed centers for all of the kids for which it cares. Caseworkers have left in droves. The lengthy list of problems have been documented in a long-running federal lawsuit against the state. The judge in that suit found caseworkers were stretched thin, residential facilities housing kids were not in compliance with safety standards and the agency was not tracking child-on-child abuse, and for years has demanded improvements. Nearly 20,000 kids are in the state’s conservatorship.
The governor, the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the House all have significant influence over what legislation gets passed in any given legislative session. Yet as of early March, none have indicated that fixing the state’s foster care system will be a priority for the session that ends May 29. That lack of support means proposed changes will be competing against other pressing issues for lawmakers’ attention — and state dollars.
“Everyone says … ‘I’m very concerned about kids in foster care and all the bad things that happen, but don’t ask me what to do about it. And don’t ask me to take away my funding priorities to pay for that,’” said state Rep. Gene Wu, a Houston Democrat and an attorney who represents parents battling Child Protective Services cases. “They won’t ever say that publicly. But that’s what is going through (legislative) members’ minds.”
For the 2022 and 2023 state budget cycle, DFPS was allocated $4.58 billion. For the two-year budget that lawmakers are writing for 2024 and 2025, that could go to $4.89 billion. So far, both the House and Senate are proposing giving $300 million of a state budget surplus to DFPS. As of early March, a significant chunk of that additional money is proposed to increase pay for foster care providers that house and support many kids in facilities. Lawmakers are also looking to fund an expansion of what’s called community-based care, which outsources part of Child Protective Services’ duties to a local third party.
Lawmakers have also put forth bills that would pay relatives who take in kids more money. Currently, foster parents who are trained and licensed to care for kids in the system get paid more money for doing so than the relatives who can take the kids in without any training. Legislators are also considering making college tuition free for foster youth and requiring Child Protective Services to tell birth parents their rights during ongoing child abuse investigations.
Disclosure: Texans Care for Children and TexProtects have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
