The 87th Legislative Session is underway, and with it comes the opportunity to fight for smart solutions to child abuse and neglect. Now more than ever, the TexProtects policy team is laser-focused on strategies that strengthen families, prevent child abuse, and promote healing during these times of exponential need.
The Plan
COVID-19 has dramatically impacted our already vulnerable child protection system, put unimaginable strain on families with young children, and exacerbated root causes of child maltreatment like substance use and behavioral health concerns. 5,300 more children may be at risk of entering the Texas foster care system as a result and many more will be impacted. Texas cannot afford that additional $4.4 billion price tag nor can our children. Texas must invest in proven programs that prevent abuse and save $1.26-$8.08 per $1 invested by supporting community and family efforts to create safe and nurturing environments for the 7.5 million children who call Texas home. Together, it is time to do more of what works and less of what doesn’t for Texas children and their families across party lines. [link full agenda]
Meet the Team Behind the Plan
Sophie Phillips, TexProtects CEO, has a background in social work. Her passion and interest are in addressing the root causes of child abuse and neglect and creating partnerships to advance state policies and practices.
Jennifer Lucy, Managing Director of Programs, provides leadership, strategy, and coordination for TexProtects policy, research, education activities, and staff. She partners with legislators, staff, and community partners to execute a policy agenda that prevents child abuse and neglect and helps families thrive.
Kerrie Judice, CPS Researcher and Analyst, monitors key CPS and Foster Care issues for the team. Her prior experience as a worker in the CPS system and connections to other child protection partners provides invaluable insight as she advocates for improvements to the Texas child protection system.
Michelle Wittenburg is an external lobbyist whose strategic consultation and connections to the movers and shakers in the Capitol are an invaluable resource to TexProtects.
Jess Trudeau serves as the Director for the Texas Prenatal to Three Collaborative while providing coordination and direction for policy, advocacy, and funding efforts to support Family Connects.
Beth Cortez-Neavel provides organizational and administrative support for the policy team. She uses her journalism background to communicate the most important issues for child protection advocates.
Gloria manages communications strategies for TexProtects and the Texas Prenatal to Three Collaborative. Her goal is to connect the community to our policy recommendations and educational resources.
Why We Do What We Do
Safeguarding today’s children from abuse and neglect is essential to protecting tomorrow’s Texas. If you want to get involved in the process, we put together the six ways you can take action today. Visit [link https://www.texprotects.org/legetoolkit/ ] to view the list. The TexProtects team is committed to resourcing you well to use your voice to be a champion for children. Please don’t hesitate to contact our team with questions. We are here for you!
The work of the 87th Legislature is already well underway, and TexProtects’ staff is hard at work alongside agency and legislative leaders in ensuring that Texas keeps child safety and family wellbeing at the top of the priority list this session.
Late last month, TexProtects provided recommendations in response to the Department of Family and Protective Services’ (DFPS) Legislative Budget Request (LAR). The agency’s LAR will serve as the foundation for the appropriations bill and state budget for 2022 – 2023. With the ongoing challenges of COVID-19 and the prospect of a session much more limited in scope, now more than ever, public participation and feedback on the budgetary process is critical to ensuring that communities and families can benefit from strategic investments and proven programs that ensure every child has a bright tomorrow.
You can read our comments and recommendations here, and stay tuned for more opportunities to let lawmakers know that now is the time for us all to step up and be champions for children.
TexProtects’ Stakeholder InputDepartment of Family and Protective Services Legislative Appropriations Request 2022-2023
Submitted November 24, 2020
TexProtects appreciates the opportunity to offer comment on the Department of Family and Protective Services’ Legislative Appropriations Request for 2022-2023. As the only statewide organization singularly focused on child protection and preventing abuse and neglect, we applaud the Department’s investments in prevention and family preservation approaches that are proven to keep children safe and keep families together.
Investments by the 85th and 86th Legislatures and innovative approaches by DFPS leadership have resulted in substantial shifts in approach that have the potential to change the landscape of child welfare in Texas in a way that is beneficial for children and families. The rollout of Community Based Care and the potential funding available through the Family First Prevention Services Act offer Texas the opportunity to invest in proven strategies, leverage community strengths, and keep kids safe.
However, despite these significant improvements, the DFPS budget still reflects a prioritization of reaction to abuse and neglect rather than prevention and family preservation. Only 5% of the 2021 budget is spent on prevention with 87% spent on Child Protective Services. The investments in CPS have increased much faster than investments in prevention without any accompanying decreases in reports, investigations, or confirmed victims.
Texas has not created a system that is effectively rolling out evidence-based practices to prevent removals and address risk before a crisis.
Despite increasing child fatalities resulting from child abuse and neglect (specifically in children under age 5), only 3.8% of families in highest need have access to voluntary evidence-based programs through the Prevention and Early Intervention Division that could help prevent such tragedy.
The vast majority of investigations are for neglect rather than abuse, demonstrating that most families are need of support rather than protection.
78% of removals from the home (and entry intro foster care) are occurring straight from investigations without the family receiving family preservation services.
42% of families who have received services in Family-Based Safety Services (FBSS), which are intended to prevent removals, are re-reported for abuse or neglect within five years of completing services.
44% of children are subsequently alleged as a victim in a new investigation within five years of exiting CPS custody.
Disparities by race persist with African-American families 1.9 times as likely to be investigated and African-American children 1.6 times as likely to be removed than Anglo children.
Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Child Abuse and Neglect
Now more than ever, it is critical that the state respond correctly and provide families with proven strategies to meet their needs and to stay together safely, otherwise there is a risk of putting more stress on the system. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only negatively impacted Texas’ budget, it has caused families to face an unprecedented amount of stress, financial difficulties, and social isolation. Research during the Great Recession found significant correlations between unemployment and physical and emotional abuse. If those correlations hold in the current crisis, Texas could see a 15% increase in physical abuse cases and 12% increase in emotional abuse cases for every one-point increase in the unemployment rate.
For many families experiencing unemployment, untreated substance use and mental health challenges can increase the risks to child safety and family well-being. According to the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, a 5% increase in the unemployment rate could result in 300 additional lives lost to suicide, 425 additional lives lost to drug overdoses, and an additional 50,000 cases of Substance Use Disorder each year. With more than 70% of CPS cases involving mental health and substance abuse challenges prior to COVID-19, we expect to see an even more substantial impact.
Now more than ever, protecting children requires better support for families who are facing unprecedented challenges that can impact child safety and well-being.
DFPS’ Legislative Appropriations Request (LAR)
DFPS is entering into the next biennium with a $4.5 billion baseline request, which reflects growth forecasts but is impacted by the previous 5% reductions. According to DFPS, this required making some additional funding asks just to get back to a maintenance level of operations. In a typical legislative budget cycle, one would expect numerous exceptional items above DFPS’ baseline request. However, with the current economic climate amid a pandemic and a costly ongoing federal lawsuit, DFPS’ approach to the budget is narrow in scope and only aimed at initiatives they consider to be most necessary. DFPS’ LAR includes requests for an additional $192 million to carry these out.
It is promising to see two opportunities for additional prevention investments to keeping families safely together and preventing removals reflected in the Exceptional Item Requests.
$10 million is requested for investment in Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) services, specifically Project HOPES (Healthy Outcomes through Prevention and Early Support), the Family and Youth Success Program (formerly known as STAR), and the Military Families Program. Citing the costs of each program in comparison to the cost of foster care services, DFPS acknowledged these services as a “cost-effective alternative to foster care.”
DFPS also included a placeholder to discuss how to leverage the funding opportunities in the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA).
These initiatives and associated dollars are focused on keeping children safe and supporting families to ensure that reports, investigations, and child abuse/neglect rates decrease. The only path toward a better Texas tomorrow and decreasing costs spent on CPS is to shift the paradigm by investing in cost-effective and proven programs BEFORE crisis. Prevention saves dollars and make sense. It’s the right approach for children and the smart approach for taxpayers.
TexProtects’ Recommendations
1 Exceptional Item Request #4 – Fully fund Prevention and Early Intervention toward Strategic Growth
While the CPS system plays a vital role for children who have endured abuse and/or neglect, the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS)also plays a critical role in the prevention of abuse and neglect and the strengthening of families through effective prevention programs. The Prevention and Early Intervention Division at DFPS has established innovative and effective community-based strategies for delivering proven programs to families who choose to enroll.
The immense research done on the health implications of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)[i]—including abuse, neglect, family violence, or growing up with a caregiver who is incarcerated, mentally ill, or engaging in substance use—makes clear that what happens in early childhood literally lasts a lifetime. The prevention of ACEs holds incredible potential for ensuring healthy development and impacting societal challenges and taxpayer costs across multiple domains.
The cost of inaction is clear. ACEs like child abuse and neglect are associated with negative outcomes for individuals across the lifespan including poorer health, lower educational attainment, and higher likelihood of experiencing unemployment. Individuals and governments incur significant costs as a result. Bellis et al. (2019) estimate that annual healthcare costs attributable to ACEs across North America are approximately $748 billion with 82% of costs resulting from individuals who had two or more ACEs.[ii] With one in 10 American children living in Texas, we can expect to incur a significant percent of those costs if we aren’t better able to prevent child abuse, neglect, and other severe childhood trauma.
To create the most effective and efficient systemic change, interventions should occur in early childhood and should rely on evidence-based approaches that decrease risk and increase protective factors within family and community systems.
We fully support the DFPS request in exceptional item #4 to increase investments in prevention initiatives including Project HOPES (Healthy Outcomes through Prevention and Early Support), the Family and Youth Success Program (formerly known as STAR), and the Military Families Program.
Specifically, we applaud the increase in Project HOPES and the Military Families Program which have implemented evidence-based home visiting strategies for families with young children. These programs are proven to have significant impacts on maternal and child health, school readiness, and child safety during the most critical years for development and have been a lifeline for families during the COVID-19 pandemic.
HB1549 (85R) directed the agency to create a strategic plan to scale prevention programming. The current PEI strategic plan indicates that to adequately protect families, a 20% increase in prevention funds is needed every biennium.
While this exceptional item does reflect a 6% increase for PEI budget and an 11% increase in the number of families who could be served by PEI, it still offers less than 4% of families with young children and 3 or more risk factors access to proven evidence-based home visiting.
In order to maximize impact, ensure access for families in need, and realize savings across our state systems in this budget cycle and the many yet to come, our investment must demonstrate a true commitment to strategic expansion.
$18 million additional dollars (on top of the request) would allow Project HOPES to expand so that they could reach at least 5% of families most likely to benefit, would be more in line with the growth goals in the PEI strategic plan, and would create a meaningful path toward statewide scale of proven prevention programs.
2 Exceptional Item Request #5 – Prioritize Prevention in Appropriating Funds for Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA)
FFPSA provides Texas with a tremendous opportunity to transform the system from one that primarily responds after a crisis has occurred to one that invests in prevention to ensure families can remain together when safe and appropriate, have the supports they need, and avoid the trauma of a removal. In fact, FFPSA is the greatest investment and shift in the child welfare system from the Feds in the past five decades and if Texas doesn’t act, we will miss out on the opportunity to shrink our foster care system. FFPSA creates a funding mechanism for prevention services so that states can now be reimbursed at a rate of 50% for trauma-informed and evidence-based substance use, mental health, and in-home parenting services that have been approved by the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse. Federal eligibility criteria broadly include children at imminent risk of entering foster care and their caregivers, as well as pregnant or parenting foster youth. The goal is to keep children out of the Child Protective Services (CPS) system by utilizing providers in the community who specialize in prevention.
DFPS released their strategic plan on September 1, 2020 which includes an overview of existing prevention services and agency activities that align with FFPSA, as well as implementation considerations and options for the prevention services and congregate care components of the bill using federal dollars already in hand from the Family First Transition Funds Act (FFTA). The plan does not require additional appropriations from the 87th Legislature and does not propose investment of any state dollars to receive the federal match that FFPSA affords. It does little to set up a framework for how to take advantage of this potentially transformational federal funding on an ongoing basis; therefore, there will still need to be planning in the 88th Legislature if this is not addressed now. Much can be done now to ensure Texas leverages this federal legislation and funding opportunities. The Department is awaiting direction from the 87th legislature on how to spend the recommended $33.9 million on prevention services for families whose children are at imminent risk of entering foster care.
Support the Department’s plan to leverage $33.9 million in FFTA funds toward prevention efforts.
The prevention provisions of FFPSA are ultimately optional, so the Department’s plan to use $33.9 of the $50.3 million in FFTA funds on prevention efforts shows great promise. Prior to FFPSA, states focused dollars on measures that are expensive and reactive rather than proactive, protective, and cost-efficient. The further into the system a case flows, the more expensive it is. In 2019, there were 18,615 children who entered foster care. Preventing 3% of those removals would save the state $20 million. By investing earlier, Texas can prevent removals, save money, and keep children safe.
Prioritize effectiveness and be strategic about which prevention options to pursue.
DFPS laid out a wide range of options in their strategic plan. In partnership with lawmakers during this session as well as future sessions, it is essential to identify which strategies are most effective and can be replicated well in diverse communities around the state.
The most promising options leverage the expertise that has been developed within DFPS’ PEI division. These services are not staffed or carried out by employees of DFPS. Instead, PEI contracts with community providers who are highly-skilled in prevention work to provide voluntary services. Similar approaches can be utilized to fund community block grants and targeted approaches to reach families at higher risk while still empowering community leadership, strengths, and choice.
Options 2D, 2E, and 2F in the FFPSA plan are most poised to deliver proven programs to the FFPSA defined population in the coming biennium and as written could offer pilot programming to over 3,000 families at risk of removal including pregnant and parenting foster youth.
These options leverage established and successful infrastructure and programs with experience, serving FBSS families, who fit the eligibility definition. Additionally, several of the programs already implemented by PEI are approved by the Clearinghouse, including Healthy Families America, Nurse-Family Partnership, and Parents as Teachers and could be used to draw down the federal match.
Increased investment in those three options from available FFTA funds could empower pilots in more communities as well as exapnsion into rural communiites through tele-health and in-person modalities. A more focused investment in pilot approaches most likely to succeeed would result in closer to 5,000 families served before the next legislatative session. This would provide the next legislature more information to decide how and where state general revenue investments could be most impactful to communities and the budget by maximizing the federal match.
Strengthen family preservation services.
Family-Based Safety Services (FBSS) is the stage of service within DFPS that is tasked with providing services to families who have experienced child abuse and neglect but that has not risen to the level of requiring a removal. This stage of service is meant to keep families together and strengthen their ability to be healthy without further CPS intervention.
DFPS has proposed that families participating in FBSS are one of the primary targets for FFPSA prevention services. Unfortunately, DFPS does not publicly report which supports and services are provided to these families. Anecdotally, DFPS has shared that these services are primarily not evidence-based. FFPSA provides an opportunity to do something different by providing these families with evidence-based, trauma-informed services.The state spent $94 million on FBSS to serve 18,000 families in 2019. That money should be spent more wisely. Taking advantage of the opportunities in FFPSA could allow Texas to ensure that families are receiving evidence-based services proven to keep children safe. By doing so, we could finally decrease the recurrance rate among FBSS families. Diverting 5% of families from FBSS could save approximately $9.4 million.
Better align across systems to increase access to substance use and behavioral health programs.
The match available through FFPSA is for mental health, substance use, and in-home parenting supports; however, the strategic plan does not provide a meaningful pathway toward increasing access to behavioral health services which are both severely lacking in our state and clearly identified as root causes of abuse and neglect.
Texas should ensure that the budget of each state agency who provides these services to families has been considered to see if there are any missed opportunities to draw down federal funds. Cross-agency work should be mandated to ensure that future funds can be invested in ways that capitalize on the federal match.
Ensure there is state investment now in order to draw down the federal match in this biennium.
We know families are in need of services now, so the state should consider investing its own dollars, not just the federal dollars it already has, to ensure more families can be served and to provide a meaningful and sustainable path forward for these critical prevention services.
Carrying out the opportunities provided by FFPSA requires a drastic perspective shift. The intent of FFPSA is to transform the current system, not keep it the same. FFPSA aims to invest early in effective measures that will keep families together and out of the CPS system. Every dollar Texas invests should be spent with this in mind. With their current plan, DFPS has taken strides in the right direction for the children and families of Texas. However, it is essential that the Texas Legislature supports these efforts, makes a plan beyond this legislative session, and ensures the focus remains on child abuse and neglect prevention and family preservation.
TexProtects looks forward to serving as a resource and partner as you continue your work. Thank you for your commitment to these issues and to the families and children of Texas.
[i]Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., Koss, M. P., & Marks, J. S. (1998).
As part of our home visiting campaign, we’re bringing you stories from home visiting programs in Texas. Read our full home visiting landscape report here. This story comes from DePelchin Children’s Center, a nonprofit accredited foster and adoption agency with locations in Houston, Austin, Lubbock, and San Antonio. As one of the lead contractors for Project HOPES, DePelchin is utilizing state funds through the Prevention and Early Intervention Division (PEI) at the Department of Family and Protective Services to provide a continuum of evidence-based prevention programs that best meet the needs of their local communities. To learn more about Project HOPES, you can access our one pager here. To learn more about the amazing work of DePelchin Children’s Center, read on.
DePelchin Children’s Center has a history of providing prevention services to families through counseling and parenting programs. In talking with parents, they would often report that they were feeling isolated and “at their wits’ end” with their children. They simply felt they did not have the tools they needed to parent effectively. Some parents even shared the fear that they were at risk of handing their children over to the state because they just didn’t know what to do. They would say things like “I yell, I spank, I take things away and nothing works.” Parents were afraid to ask for help because asking for help meant that they were a “bad parent” or taking a class meant they were involved with CPS. The Healthy Outcomes through Prevention and Early Support (HOPES) program changed all that.
DePelchin’s HOPES program, which we call Parenting Help, allows parents to normalize parenting issues and makes it easy to ask for help. It shows the community that parenting is hard for all people. Struggles in parenting cross all racial and socioeconomic lines. Parents truly love their kids but just do not know what to do with them. We recognized that parents were not happy with how they were raising their children but did not know a different way. People would laughingly say that “my kids don’t come with an instruction manual–what am I supposed to do?” This is what helped us create the idea of Parenting Help and the tagline “Kids don’t come with instruction manuals – we can help. Parenting Help.”
Many say that it takes a village to raise a child, and we realized it would take a collaboration. We created partnerships with other child and family service agencies to provide a menu of options under the HOPES program to give parents what they need instead. In addition to the formal partnership funded by HOPES, the agencies involved connected with other child serving agencies throughout the community to form the Parenting Help Collaborative. This group meets regularly to support and leverage resources and make sure HOPES families receive what they need.
Families complete the HOPES Parenting Help program and report that they enjoy coming home from work and spending time with their child rather than avoiding them. This program gives us the opportunity to see parents encourage change in their children’s behavior so things like going to the grocery store after a long day are no longer a struggle. They learn how to count apples and sing songs down the aisle while praising their children and how this increases positive behavior while also managing misbehavior. Parents learn they can manage their children’s behavior, teach their children a skill, and spend quality time all in the same moment. It is so empowering for these families who at first felt so out of control with their children to realize that they now have the ability to help their child behave in positive ways. They now know they are the most important person in that child’s life and can make a huge impact.
HOPES has allowed us to implement these services in each county in a way that best meets the needs of that community. Not every community is the same and we can tailor each program to what the parents and children in that county need. We are so grateful for the HOPES program and blessed to be part of seeing these changes in families.
TexProtects would like to thank Julie Crowe, Charity Eames, and Megan Green at DePelchin Children’s Center for their tireless work for children and families and for sharing their Project HOPES story through this blog.
Most people feel lonely at some point in their lives, but two landmark Cigna studies found that more than half of respondents reported some degree of loneliness, with young people being the loneliest among all the generations studied. What happens when the loneliness epidemic converges with the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping many students at home away from their friends at school and tethered to their screens for e-learning? In the recent TexProtects Connects Lunch & Learn “Addressing Loneliness in Our Youth During COVID-19” presented by Cigna, Dr. Stuart Lustig, National Medical Executive for Behavioral Health at Cigna, discussed the challenges of e-learning for parents, kids, and teachers–and how to best support everyone involved.
Loneliness is a subjective term related to both body and mind. There is a vast difference between feeling lonely or experiencing loneliness and being alone. Feeling lonely is about wanting more social contact or different types of social contact than we may currently have. It’s not abnormal to be lonely at different times in our lives, but people who are lonely may have a greater number of physical ailments and experience greater depression and/or anxiety.
In Cigna’s Loneliness study [https://www.cigna.com/about-us/newsroom/studies-and-reports/loneliness-epidemic-america], conducted pre-COVID-19, they surveyed 20,000 adults online across the U.S. Researchers found that 54% of respondents reported feeling lonely based on the UCLA Loneliness Scale. Researchers also found loneliness increased with each younger generation. For example, 43.2% of the Boomer generation reported feeling lonely, and 49.9% of Gen Zers reported loneliness in 2019.
Loneliness is especially a big issue in our country right now, with kids largely being homeschooled due to COVID-19 (although some school districts across the country and in Texas are beginning to open to in-person instruction). The way a lot of our students are connecting now is through online tools. But lower-income students are less likely to have access to high-quality remote learning. Low-income students are also less likely to have an environment conducive to learning like a quiet space with minimal distraction or high-speed internet. The data shows that only 60% of low-income students are regularly logging into online instruction. This barrier to technology and education can have significant impacts down the road.
With the anxiety of the changes in how school is taught, how can we help our kids navigate the current COVID-19 pandemic and loneliness epidemic with resiliency? Dr. Lustig says children are naturally resilient, but we also need to remember to check in with them, listen without judgment, and without interrupting. Listen to your child until there is nothing else to be heard. Normalize difficult feelings and model that difficult emotions are okay by sharing how you manage your frustrations. Dr. Lustig says we must also help kids master the emotional ABCs: ambiguity, bumps, and change. We must help them practice accepting and not knowing, recognize they can’t control all the outcomes, permit imperfection, and remember how they’ve managed change in the past while staying in the present.
We can also help our kids prepare for online and in-person instruction through shifting routines and sleep schedules into school mode, talking about school differences and similarities, acknowledging their worries, and expressing confidence in their abilities to navigate school in whatever format it takes.
Dr. Lustig says to remember to care for yourself as well. Take a look at the Cigna Stress Plan [https://www.cigna.com/takecontrol/tc/stress/] to help you figure out how to manage stress, especially since many of us are grieving the freedom and stress reduction techniques we took for granted that are now no longer available to us.
We are unfamiliar ground, without a real playbook for parenting during the pandemic. Good enough is the standard – there are no perfect parents, and mistakes are how we learn. Not only can we help our children thrive through the pandemic, but we can also make sure we succeed as well. Watch the full webinar for more great information on loneliness and tips on parenting from Dr. Lustig.
While we can likely all agree that 2020 has been a year that has somehow simultaneously flown by and dragged on, one thing is certain: the 87th Legislative Session is right around the corner and will be here before we know it. This session brings with it lots of unknowns about how it will be conducted, and state departments have been preparing for a tight budget to carry out their operations. The Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) recently released their Legislative Appropriations Request (LAR) for Fiscal Years 2022-2023 which has given us some insight into their priorities for the children and families they serve.
Looking Back
Last session, DFPS started out with a $4.2 billion baseline request and was able to secure more funding in several key areas. With this additional funding, the Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) division expanded Project HOPES (Healthy Outcomes though Prevention and Early Support) and Texas Nurse-Family Partnership (TNFP) into four new counties each. DFPS also provided a $6,000 salary increase to Statewide Intake (SWI) staff, which has resulted in decreased turnover and hold times. Increased funding was allocated to increase staffing for the Child Protective Investigations (CPI) and Child Protective Services (CPS) workforce which, according to DFPS, has decreased caseload sizes. Additionally, Community-Based Care received funding to expand to a total of five catchment areas: three in Stage I and two in Stage II (case management). While DFPS achieved its goal to advance two areas into Stage II (Regions 3B and 2), only two areas currently operate in Stage I (Regions 8A and 1). They are re-procuring the contract in Region 8B to hopefully begin Stage I services in the summer of 2021. Provider rates were also increased to help serve the children in their care.
In light of a global pandemic, state agencies have since had to make adjustments due to the anticipated $4.6 billion shortfall to the entire state budget. State agencies were asked to reduce their expenditures by 5%. While parts of DFPS were exempt from this reduction, DFPS’ total estimated expenditures for Fiscal Years 2020-2021 are estimated to be $4.4 billion.
Looking Ahead
DFPS is entering into the next biennium with a $4.5 billion baseline request, which reflects growth forecasts but is impacted by the previous 5% reductions. According to DFPS, this required making some additional funding asks just to get back to a maintenance level of operations. In a typical legislative budget cycle, one would expect numerous exceptional items above DFPS’ baseline request. However, with the current economic climate in the midst of a pandemic and a costly ongoing federal lawsuit, DFPS’ approach to the budget is narrow in scope and only aimed at initiatives they consider to be most necessary. DFPS’ LAR includes requests for an additional $192 million to carry these out.
Prevention
While approximately $182 million in exceptional items focus on the functions once a family has experienced crisis, it was most promising to see requests for additional investments in keeping families safely together and preventing removals. DFPS specifically included an exceptional item request for an additional $10 million investment in PEI services, specifically Project HOPES, the Family and Youth Success Program (formerly known as STAR), and the Military Families Program. Citing the costs of each program in comparison to the cost of foster care services, DFPS acknowledged these services as a “cost-effective alternative to foster care.” DFPS also included a placeholder to discuss how to leverage the funding opportunities in the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA). Their FFPSA strategic plan provides numerous options to carry out the prevention provisions of this federal legislation, and they want the Legislature to weigh in.
Protection
DFPS has prioritized maintaining its current CPS operations to ensure they are keeping children safe and providing families with the supports they need. This $99 million request includes additional funding to restore the travel costs that decreased during the beginning of the pandemic, ensure they can continue providing services to clients at the current levels, and additional conservatorship (CVS) caseworkers to meet the target caseload sizes.
To comply with the decade-long federal lawsuit, DFPS included an additional request for $39 million. This amount includes additional staff to meet the heightened monitoring requirements to ensure facilities are adhering to minimum standards and additional staff for Residential Child Care Investigations (RCCI) to address the Court’s concerns about the timeliness and quality of their work. These additional funds also will cover the fees for the court monitors to oversee compliance and report back to the Court.
To continue the momentum of expanding Community-Based Care, DFPS has requested an additional $44 million in funding for the costs associated with expanding Stage I into four new areas and Stage II into two new areas.
We look forward to working with DFPS and the Legislature to protect and support investments in child abuse and neglect prevention, to promote family preservation, and to ensure the children and families in their care receive the services they need to be safe and successful. Stay connected with us for updates on budget discussions throughout the session and to find out how you can get involved.
TexProtects has been hard at work advocating for children and families. Recently, we submitted comments in response to Requests for Information (RFI) from three different legislative committees on how lawmakers can leverage the funding opportunities in the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA), invest in early childhood brain development, and ensure the trauma-informed training components of House Bill 18 and Senate Bill 11 from the last legislative session are implemented successfully.
The Texas House Appropriations Subcommittee on Article II and the Texas House Human Services Committee asked for the public to weigh in on how Texas is preparing for federal funding changes resulting from FFPSA. With the passage of this federal legislation, states now have access to a funding mechanism for families to be connected to evidence-based, trauma-informed prevention services in the community to prevent removals into foster care. We provided them with our assessment on the Department of Family and Protective Services’ (DFPS) strategic plan on how they plan to implement FFPSA, and we laid out opportunities we see for Texas to take advantage of this potentially transformative legislation. You can check out more specifically what we had to say in our RFI submissions here and here.
The Texas House Appropriations Subcommittee on Article II also asked for comments on how the state invests in early childhood brain development. Knowing how critical these early years are, we encouraged the committee to fund community-based, primary child abuse prevention programs for children prenatal to age 5. We also advocated for the expansion of universal prevention strategies in public health settings since healthcare settings remain one of the most universal touchpoints for families with young children and can connect families to critical services during a very vulnerable time. To strengthen families and ensure child safety prior to a crisis, we also took the opportunity to ask the committee to support our additional Prenatal to Three (PN-3) Collaborative agenda items. More information about our comments can be found here.
The Texas Public Education Committee requested recommendations on the 86th Legislature’s House Bill 18 and Senate Bill 11 regarding school safety, student mental health, and trauma-informed training. We suggested providing additional guidance and incentives for pursuing activities that are evidence-based and have the potential to prevent future threats to school safety by preventing and mitigating the effects of adverse childhood experiences. We also provided recommendations on how to implement the trauma-informed training components. You can find more information on our recommendations here.
While we are passionate about making smart investments to ensure families have the resources they need and children are safe, we can’t do this work alone. We need your help to ensure these efforts move forward. Feeling motivated? We encourage you to reach out to your state representatives and talk to them about the importance of these issues and what they can do for the children and families of Texas. Not sure who represents you? You can find out by going here and entering in your information. We look forward to locking arms with you to make Texas better for the children and families who call this state home.
The Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) recently released their Legislative Appropriations Request. In a typical legislative budget cycle, one would expect numerous exceptional items. However, with the current economic climate in the midst of a pandemic, DFPS’ approach to the budget is narrow in scope and only aimed at initiatives they consider to be most necessary.
It was most promising to see requests for investments in keeping families safely together and preventing removals. DFPS specifically included an exceptional item request for an additional $10 million investment in Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) services, as well as a placeholder to discuss how to leverage the funding opportunities in the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA).
DFPS also prioritized maintaining its current Child Protective Services operations to ensure they are keeping children safe and providing families with the supports they need. The other exceptional items included funding to comply with the decade-long federal lawsuit and to continue the momentum of expanding Community-Based Care.
Stay tuned for our analysis coming on this page soon!
Mercedes Bristol is a grandparent raising five grandchildren after their involvement with Child Protective Services (CPS). She also advocates for the needs and rights of grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. Mercedes is what is known as a kinship caregiver.
According to the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), 276,800 children in Texas reside with an adult, like Mercedes, who is not their parent. This includes, but is not limited to, both informal (i.e. placement without CPS legal intervention) and formal (i.e. placement for children in state custody or a licensed kinship family home) kinship placements. For children in the state’s custody, more than 40% of children are placed in a kinship home across most regions.
Mercedes has been actively involved with kinship caregiver support groups in the San Antonio area and co-leads a group quarterly meeting alongside DFPS. Mercedes additionally lends her personal experience and expertise to the policy-making process by working closely with CPS to provide input and review policies, and she encourages other grandparents to get involved as well.
Kinship caregivers have unique needs and often do not know what services are available to them and the children in their care. Many kinship caregivers face financial challenges but do not receive the same kind of financial compensation as foster parents unless they decide to become licensed. However, that is only an option for children who are in the state’s custody.
But what about families who step up when CPS isn’t legally involved? There are even fewer supports, and it can be difficult to learn how to navigate multiple systems to obtain the services they need. They may not have anyone to help guide them. Regardless of the steep road of challenges, kinship caregivers rise to the occasion.
We spoke with Mercedes about her own experience, the opportunities for Texas to better support kinship caregivers, and the supports she can offer.
TexProtects: What has been the most rewarding thing about being a caregiver to your grandchildren?
Mercedes Bristol: When they all go to bed at night after saying our prayers and see that they are safe.
TP: You already got involved in a significant way by stepping up to meet the needs of your family. What made you want to take a step further and get more involved in community and policy work?
MB: One day I was struggling with the step I had taken. Then someone told me to not just let life happen to my grandchildren and me but to be proactive instead! I knew I was not the only one raising my grandchildren, and I decided to be a support to them. From there, I joined a support group called Abuelos y Nietos Juntos in 2012 run by Dr. Santos and received much needed support from this group. Knowing there were other grandparents like myself, I asked if we could start other groups and Dr. Santos helped me start one. We are now 12 support groups and growing. Besides the support groups, we thought that we needed to make people aware of grandparents’ needs, so we contacted state representatives and senators and Judge Peter Sakai in San Antonio. That is where the advocacy part started.
TP: What are the needs you hear about the most in the support groups you helped establish?
MB: Most of the support we give is around the CPS system because grandparents need information on how to navigate the CPS system. We hear about legal issues when a parent just drops off the children and leave without proper paperwork for the grandparent to provide educational, medical, or financial assistance for the children.
TP: With the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) implementation right around the corner, what opportunities do you see for Texas to take advantage of this legislation to meet those needs? [For more information on FFPSA and how it can be used to support kinship caregivers, see our report: Family First Prevention Services Act: A Shift in the Right Direction for Families.]
MB: The opportunity to draw from those federal funds would allow us to help children that have not entered the state’s custody who are placed with a grandparent or kinship caregiver. Those funds would immediately equip them by providing the necessary things so that the children enter a secure home that kinship caregivers will and can provide for them.
TP: How do you hope to see a kinship navigator program implemented in Texas?
MB: In practice, I want kinship caregivers to be able to call whichever agency is assigned as the kinship navigator, do an intake form, and then be assigned to a caseworker that can assess their needs. I want that same agency to have the ability to provide all the things that the family needs. For instance, many families need legal assistance and to be able to obtain vital statistics. They need to be counseled on the options they have. Families also need emotional support. They often need financial assistance or help paying for utilities or rent, so they need help applying for benefits. I have seen that families need access to clothing closets and food pantries. They need help with mental health assessments for the children in their care who have experienced trauma or need help meeting the needs of children with disabilities. Families need someone to help them with the necessary referrals to have these assessments done. They also need help with school enrollments. Any sort of kinship navigator program needs to connect them to those supports, not just give them a referral.
TP: For those in our audience that may be looking at how to get connected, can you tell our audience what your support groups look like and the benefits you have seen for kinship caregivers who attend? Also, how can kinship caregivers get connected to these?
MB: We invite a community resource to come and speak to the group and have some coffee and snacks. We introduce ourselves if there are new grandparents raising grandchildren. Then we allow them to tell why they are there, and the group takes different forms. I am there to facilitate the conversations. Sometimes there is crying and awareness that they are not alone and that there is hope to find help in their situation. We have a website and a Facebook page that will give them access to the support groups or other resources. I also co-facilitate a quarterly support group with DFPS that is offered to kinship caregivers that are in the CPS system.
Texas has moved one step closer to creating a state plan that leverages federal funding to prioritize prevention and family preservation.
In February 2018, Congress passed the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) which makes available a federal match for state investments in evidence-based and trauma informed supports to families at risk BEFORE a removal occurs. These services address the core drivers of child abuse and neglect including substance use, mental health, and parenting challenges. However, in order to successfully leverage this opportunity, state leaders have a number of crucial decisions to make.
Last legislative session, TexProtects championed Senate Bill 355 authored by Senator West which required the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to develop a strategic plan outlining how they intend to implement the provisions of FFPSA. That plan was released earlier this week.
DFPS’ strategic plan highlights the alignments between the goals of the Department and the goals of FFPSA and offers information and implementation options to support the budgetary decisions in the 87th legislative session that will largely determine the scope of FFPSA’s transformational potential. We applaud the prioritization of prevention and support of kinship caregivers in the state’s plan; however, the plan leaves many critical questions unanswered and may not do enough to target populations at risk of entering foster care.
For a quick overview of the top three items of good news in the plan and the top three areas of concern – see below.
First the good news:
DFPS was awarded $50.3 million in Family First Transition Act funds to help implement the provisions of FFPSA and they intend to utilize $33.9 million of those dollars on prevention. They will be spending the rest of the funds on a Qualified Residential Treatment Program (QRTP) pilot and on IT changes.
DFPS is investing in efforts to better serve informal kinship placements who don’t have as many supports. To ensure caregivers in informal kinship placements know what is available and can be better linked to services, DFPS has issued grants to four providers to complete needs assessments, evaluations, and pilots to support the development of a kinship navigator program. DFPS has also invested in training for 2-1-1 staff on the needs of kinship caregivers they plan to create a marketing campaign designed to ensure kinship caregivers are aware of the resources available to them through 2-1-1.
The DFPS plan includes seven options for expanding prevention services, each with varying degrees of complexity and cost. Approximately half of these options capitalize on and expand the innovative and effective community networks that have been built through the Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) division of DFPS. This is a smart solution that will enable Texas to quickly build on existing infrastructure to better support families.
Areas of concern within the DFPS plan include the following:
The state stands to lose $26 million in Title IV-E eligible dollarsper year unless there are increased placements available in family-like settings or a QRTP. This will need to be accounted for somewhere in the budget but must not be taken from children and families who are already receiving effective prevention services.
43% of families who have had an open Family Based Safety Services (FBSS) case have another case of child maltreatment within five years of completing services. DFPS’ definition of who is eligible for prevention services includes families participating in FBSS. While the children and families served by this stage of service naturally and most closely fit the broad federal eligibility criteria of children who are at imminent risk of entering foster care, DFPS acknowledged in this plan that many of the provided services are not evidence-based and do not meet the FFPSA standards. To use this funding as intended will require a significant shift in mentality and accountability for the quality and outcomes of services offered to families in FBSS.
DFPS can define who is eligible for prevention services; however, their suggested definition only captures families who are already engaging with the system. Their definition includes families with an open FBSS case, children who have already been in care but are now are at risk of placement disruption or re-entry, and pregnant and parenting youth in Child Protective Services (CPS) custody. There is room for improvement here to consider other populations at risk as well as more upstream options that support families BEFORE they have an open case and CPS involvement.
Now, it is up to lawmakers to decide the best way to move forward, and the potential impact on children and families will largely be decided on their willingness to prioritize prevention and family preservation. Be on the lookout for the release of our FFPSA Brief that will outline this federal legislation and the Texas plan in more detail later this month.
