AUSTIN (KXAN) – Several bills sitting on Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s desk could impact the state’s foster care system and the agency tasked with caring for children in its custody. Others have already been signed and will go into effect this year.
For more than a decade, lawmakers, a federal judge and even court monitors — appointed through a lawsuit over the care of these kids — have kept a close eye on the actions of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) and providers in the system.
At times, the agency struggled to find family placements, saw a dramatic decrease in beds at residential treatment facilities and even reported hundreds of kids sleeping in state office buildings and hotels in 2021.
Neither the governor nor Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick named issues facing the child welfare system as priority issues in 2023, but dozens of bills filed during the 88th legislative session targeted specific changes within the system.
Some have been signed, and a handful still await the governor’s signature. Even without it, these bills will automatically become law next week — as long as he doesn’t veto them.
Funding ‘all the way through’
Lawmakers did approve more funding for the system in its budget this session.
“It was a very impactful session for the entire continuum of care,” said Jesse Booher, the Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer of DePelchin Children’s Center, which provides foster care and adoption services in Texas. “From the prevention, all the way through the foster care and kinship and adoption, and even through on to independent living.”
He pointed out the effort to modernize the reimbursement structure for these children’s care “for the first time in over 35 years.” Booher believes the new funding model is “more driven toward the needs of the family.”
In a recent report, the advocacy group Texans Care for Children echoed the sentiment and praised an increase of $65 million for Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI). In a blog post promoting the report, CEO Stephanie Rubin also highlighted a budget rider that “ensures more kids can be placed with grandparents or other ‘kinship care providers’ instead of strangers in foster care.”
Their report highlighted a number of other efforts that passed, such as Senate Bill 1379 by Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, which will establish a pilot program to help youth set up a checking or savings accounts as they age out of foster care.
Residential treatment facilities
Another bill noted in the report was Senate Bill 1930, by Senator Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, which enhances legal representation while children are living in residential treatment facilities (RTCs).
According to the Department of Family and Protective Services, only five percent of children in Texas foster care are placed in RTCs. However, as the bill’s analysis states, one-third of all abuse, neglect, or exploitation that occurs in the foster care system, happens in an RTC.
The analysis goes on to say this bill “seeks to ensure children in foster care spend more time with families rather than in facilities” by setting out new duties for attorneys representing these children. For example, it requires them to review whether the placement in an RTC is appropriate for the child’s specific needs and requires that they meet the child in person before providing a recommendation.
The bill also requires the court to consider whether this placement is in the child’s best interest and whether “the child’s needs can be met through placement in a family-like setting.” It asks the court to look at a child’s current treatment plan, the progress they’ve made, and the program’s plan to discharge the child after treatment, among other factors.
Tracking misconduct
A 2022 investigation into claims of abuse and exploitation at a Bastrop facility for sex-trafficking victims sparked several legislative efforts — including Senate Bill 1849.
The bill, also authored by Kolkhorst, will create one search engine to connect existing databases for tracking misconduct across different state agencies, “to ensure that workers fired in one of these settings for reportable conduct cannot gain employment in another setting,” according to its analysis.
The agencies include the Texas Education Agency (TEA), the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD), the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), and the DFPS Central Registry of Abuse and Neglect Findings.
In 2022, Kolkhorst chaired a special committee on Child Protective Services, convened by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick amid the investigation into The Refuge claims. There, lawmakers discussed how to better vet and train employees who work with these children, across the system.
While laying out the bill on the Senate floor earlier in the session, Kolkhorst said these hearings revealed that the employee at the center of The Refuge investigation had been previously fired from a state juvenile justice facility.
“Individuals that seek to harm the most vulnerable among us will often, as I call it, ‘fish where the fish are,'” she said. “This bill aims to close the information gap for employers that are looking to care for our children and our elderly.”
SB 1849 also requires foster care and other service providers to search these registries when they are hiring someone.
“To make sure the people that they hire are the right people to hire,” Kolkhorst said.
Another bill, Senate Bill 182, requires employees at DFPS and TJJD, or one of their contractors, to report any criminal offense committed by another employee against someone receiving agency services. According to the analysis of the bill, authored by Senator Borris Miles, D-Houston, there is currently no requirement for employees or contractors to report these offenses.
Banning anonymous reporting
Governor Greg Abbott has already signed a bill banning anonymous reports of child abuse or neglect, which will go into effect on September 1.
According to the bill’s analysis, “many people nationally have raised concerns that the current system for reporting alleged child abuse is prone to exploitation by misinformed bystanders witnessing a meltdown by a child with a disability, vengeful parents in a custody dispute and other bad actors.”
The analysis also noted that the current reporting system can make DFPS investigations more complicated and can create “needless hours” of investigating false accusations.
Several lawmakers authored the bill, but Rep. Valoree Swanson, R-Spring, answered questions about it from her colleagues during a committee hearing earlier this session.
“False reporting ruins lives,” she said.
She cited national data that states with anonymous reporting options have three times the number of inaccurate or unsubstantiated reports than states which collect that information from people. She also noted that non-anonymous, but still confidential, reporting is already the “norm” for teachers, clergy and other professions.
Rep. Candy Noble, R-Murphy, asked about what protections will exist under the bill to keep callers’ personal information confidential. Committee Chair Rep. James Frank asked about the 19 other states who have passed similar laws.
Rep. Toni Rose, D-Dallas, acknowledged that false reporting happens, but said her biggest concern was that people might “fall through the cracks.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Ana-Maria Ramos, D-Richardson, pressed Swanson over whether “perpetrators would benefit” from the change.
“The way the bill is written is, they won’t investigate unless you — the reporter — are providing those facts,” Ramos said.
“We have to have some system, where they need to have some bit of evidence,” Swanson said in response. “The person calling in does not have to have done this investigation. They just need to say, ‘I think this because…’ That gives CPS a place to start.”
AUSTIN (KXAN) – Several bills sitting on Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s desk could impact the state’s foster care system and the agency tasked with caring for children in its custody. Others have already been signed and will go into effect this year.
For more than a decade, lawmakers, a federal judge and even court monitors — appointed through a lawsuit over the care of these kids — have kept a close eye on the actions of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) and providers in the system.
At times, the agency struggled to find family placements, saw a dramatic decrease in beds at residential treatment facilities and even reported hundreds of kids sleeping in state office buildings and hotels in 2021.
Neither the governor nor Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick named issues facing the child welfare system as priority issues in 2023, but dozens of bills filed during the 88th legislative session targeted specific changes within the system.
Some have been signed, and a handful still await the governor’s signature. Even without it, these bills will automatically become law next week — as long as he doesn’t veto them.
Funding ‘all the way through’
Lawmakers did approve more funding for the system in its budget this session.
“It was a very impactful session for the entire continuum of care,” said Jesse Booher, the Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer of DePelchin Children’s Center, which provides foster care and adoption services in Texas. “From the prevention, all the way through the foster care and kinship and adoption, and even through on to independent living.”
He pointed out the effort to modernize the reimbursement structure for these children’s care “for the first time in over 35 years.” Booher believes the new funding model is “more driven toward the needs of the family.”
In a recent report, the advocacy group Texans Care for Children echoed the sentiment and praised an increase of $65 million for Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI). In a blog post promoting the report, CEO Stephanie Rubin also highlighted a budget rider that “ensures more kids can be placed with grandparents or other ‘kinship care providers’ instead of strangers in foster care.”
Their report highlighted a number of other efforts that passed, such as Senate Bill 1379 by Sen. Tan Parker, R-Flower Mound, which will establish a pilot program to help youth set up a checking or savings accounts as they age out of foster care.
Residential treatment facilities
Another bill noted in the report was Senate Bill 1930, by Senator Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, which enhances legal representation while children are living in residential treatment facilities (RTCs).
According to the Department of Family and Protective Services, only five percent of children in Texas foster care are placed in RTCs. However, as the bill’s analysis states, one-third of all abuse, neglect, or exploitation that occurs in the foster care system, happens in an RTC.
The analysis goes on to say this bill “seeks to ensure children in foster care spend more time with families rather than in facilities” by setting out new duties for attorneys representing these children. For example, it requires them to review whether the placement in an RTC is appropriate for the child’s specific needs and requires that they meet the child in person before providing a recommendation.
The bill also requires the court to consider whether this placement is in the child’s best interest and whether “the child’s needs can be met through placement in a family-like setting.” It asks the court to look at a child’s current treatment plan, the progress they’ve made, and the program’s plan to discharge the child after treatment, among other factors.
Tracking misconduct
A 2022 investigation into claims of abuse and exploitation at a Bastrop facility for sex-trafficking victims sparked several legislative efforts — including Senate Bill 1849.
The bill, also authored by Kolkhorst, will create one search engine to connect existing databases for tracking misconduct across different state agencies, “to ensure that workers fired in one of these settings for reportable conduct cannot gain employment in another setting,” according to its analysis.
The agencies include the Texas Education Agency (TEA), the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD), the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), and the DFPS Central Registry of Abuse and Neglect Findings.
In 2022, Kolkhorst chaired a special committee on Child Protective Services, convened by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick amid the investigation into The Refuge claims. There, lawmakers discussed how to better vet and train employees who work with these children, across the system.
While laying out the bill on the Senate floor earlier in the session, Kolkhorst said these hearings revealed that the employee at the center of The Refuge investigation had been previously fired from a state juvenile justice facility.
“Individuals that seek to harm the most vulnerable among us will often, as I call it, ‘fish where the fish are,'” she said. “This bill aims to close the information gap for employers that are looking to care for our children and our elderly.”
SB 1849 also requires foster care and other service providers to search these registries when they are hiring someone.
“To make sure the people that they hire are the right people to hire,” Kolkhorst said.
Another bill, Senate Bill 182, requires employees at DFPS and TJJD, or one of their contractors, to report any criminal offense committed by another employee against someone receiving agency services. According to the analysis of the bill, authored by Senator Borris Miles, D-Houston, there is currently no requirement for employees or contractors to report these offenses.
Banning anonymous reporting
Governor Greg Abbott has already signed a bill banning anonymous reports of child abuse or neglect, which will go into effect on September 1.
According to the bill’s analysis, “many people nationally have raised concerns that the current system for reporting alleged child abuse is prone to exploitation by misinformed bystanders witnessing a meltdown by a child with a disability, vengeful parents in a custody dispute and other bad actors.”
The analysis also noted that the current reporting system can make DFPS investigations more complicated and can create “needless hours” of investigating false accusations.
Several lawmakers authored the bill, but Rep. Valoree Swanson, R-Spring, answered questions about it from her colleagues during a committee hearing earlier this session.
“False reporting ruins lives,” she said.
She cited national data that states with anonymous reporting options have three times the number of inaccurate or unsubstantiated reports than states which collect that information from people. She also noted that non-anonymous, but still confidential, reporting is already the “norm” for teachers, clergy and other professions.
Rep. Candy Noble, R-Murphy, asked about what protections will exist under the bill to keep callers’ personal information confidential. Committee Chair Rep. James Frank asked about the 19 other states who have passed similar laws.
Rep. Toni Rose, D-Dallas, acknowledged that false reporting happens, but said her biggest concern was that people might “fall through the cracks.”
Meanwhile, Rep. Ana-Maria Ramos, D-Richardson, pressed Swanson over whether “perpetrators would benefit” from the change.
“The way the bill is written is, they won’t investigate unless you — the reporter — are providing those facts,” Ramos said.
“We have to have some system, where they need to have some bit of evidence,” Swanson said in response. “The person calling in does not have to have done this investigation. They just need to say, ‘I think this because…’ That gives CPS a place to start.”