Session Outcomes

The TexProtects Team established five primary policy priorities for the 2023 regular session of the Texas Legislature and is pleased to report having made material progress on four of the five.

Increase Funding for Home Visitation

Access to home visitation services is a proven child maltreatment prevention measure that helps keep families out of the state child welfare system. We are thrilled that the enacted state budget includes a $65 Million increased investment in these programs, a historic increase.

With this increase in funding, we expect an estimated 20,000 additional families will be served with community-based prevention and family support programs over the next 2 years.

This funding was tied via a contingency rider in the biennium state budget to the passage of SB24, which was signed into law on June 18, 2023. TexProtects advocated to ensure that the final version of the bill included language that prioritized evidence-based home visiting programs. This is important because we know these programs have the best outcomes for families and will ensure Texas can continue to draw down federal funds, such as the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program funding. The bill does many things, including moving the Prevention and Early Intervention division (PEI) from DFPS to HHSC and changing the name of PEI to Family Supports Division. We will closely monitor the transition and ensure continuity of services and continued support for evidence-based programs.

Increase Funding and Supports for Kinship Placements

We know from the data that outcomes for children placed with relatives are generally better than for children placed with other types of substitute caregivers. The Legislature recognized this in elevating financial support for kinship caregivers by appropriating $6.9 million to allow them to access up to $1,000 to meet any immediate needs and reimburse kinship caregivers for some of the costs to become licensed.

Additionally, $3 million was approved for Community-Based Care contractors to build out capacity for kinship caregivers providing care to children with higher acuity needs. The Legislature also instructed the state to prepare for kinship-specific licensure, which is intended to make it easier for kinship caregivers to become licensed, which is coming down from the Feds in the next couple of years. Finally, the Legislature approved funding for unlicensed kinship caregivers to ensure they receive the full 5O% reimbursement rate. It should be noted that overall, all caregivers are going to be better compensated based on the rollout of foster care rate modernization over the next couple of years. By FY 2025, those payments for unlicensed kinship caregivers will go from approximately $386 a month to $604 a month.

Ensure Monthly Data is Available on Critical Child Protection Measures

Real-time data is essential to increase the transparency, accountability, and effectiveness of DFPS. We are pleased that the Legislature not only renewed an important rider from the previous session that requires monthly public reporting of key data points but amended a separate bill with an additional data point that measures how long children are temporarily separated from their parents when the state does not have custody.

Retain a High-Quality Workforce and Elevate High Producers into Leadership

Retention of a high-quality workforce is critical to the safety of children in substitute care and quality leadership is a key factor in retention. Requirements that DFPS publicly report twice annually on promoting employee morale and retention have been expanded through our advocacy to include what it would take to hire, retain, and promote a high-quality workforce into leadership positions and more detailed information on employee turnover and promotion rates.

Improve the Delivery and Availability of Prevention Services for Children to Prevent Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

As to our fifth priority, the development of an inventory of programs and services that contribute to the prevention of child abuse, neglect, and other adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), we will explore opportunities to develop such an inventory privately during the interim.

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