Type: Articles

By Pamela McPeters
TexProtects Vice President of Public Affairs

The budget is one of the most significant responsibilities of the Texas Legislature. The Senate Finance and House Appropriations Committees of the 86th Legislature will soon be underway crafting the fiscal years 2020-2021 General Appropriations Act. As these committees work on competing interests, including school finance, Hurricane Harvey obligations and many others, it is imperative they prioritize the safety and well-being of Texas children. The child protective services system is experiencing increased pressure which requires investments to continue and build upon the progress made in the 85^th Legislative Session. Pressure includes:

• Abuse/neglect reports are projected to increase by 2.1% in FY 2020 over FY 2019 and 2.3% in FY 2021 over FY 2020.
• Investigations are projected to increase by 2.5% in FY 2020 over FY 2019 and 2.6% in FY 2021 over FY 2020.
• The number of confirmed findings of child abuse and neglect is projected to increase by 1.2% in FY 2020 over FY 2019 and 0.9% in FY 2021 over FY 2020.
• Client Services Adoption Subsidies and Permanency Care Assistance caseloads are projected to grow 4.2% in FY 2020 and 8.6% in FY 2021 above FY 2019.
• Day Care is projected to increase 7.1% children served in FY 2020 and a 13.5% in FY 2021 above the projected FY 2019 levels.
• Purchased Client Services are projected to increase 5.0% in average monthly client caseloads in FY 2020 and 10.0% in FY 2021 above FY 2019.
• Foster Care caseloads (FTEs) are projected to grow by 0.3% in FY 2020 and by 0.4% in FY 2021 relative to FY 2019 projected caseloads.

Below are some key priorities for funding:

#1 Expand Prevention Services (DFPS Exceptional Item 8)

Additional Details may be found on pages 534-536 of the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) Legislative Appropriations Request (LAR). 

$18.5 million to expand HOPES program into additional counties and increase families served from 4,660 families expected to be served in fiscal year 2019 to 7,060+ families served in fiscal years 20 and 21, an expansion of 26%.

Healthy Outcomes through Prevention and Early Support (HOPES) is a flexible, community-based approach to child abuse and neglect prevention in high-risk counties by increasing protective factors of families served. Currently serves families in 55 Texas counties with children ages 0-5 at risk for abuse and neglect. Families are commonly referred to HOPES by community organizations, clinics, school districts, or self-referral. Families generally participate in HOPES services for 3-12 months.

$12 million provide for a targeted expansion to increase the number of families served through Texas Nurse-Family Partnership from 2,725 families in fiscal year 2019 to 3,975+ families in fiscal years 2020 and 2021, a 20% increase.

Texas Nurse Family Partnership (TNFP) is a voluntary program in which registered nurses regularly visit the homes of low-income women pregnant with their first child. Families must start services with TNFP by their 28th week of pregnancy and can receive services until the child reaches two years of age. TNFP Serves expecting parents, new parents, and caregivers of children under the age of 2. Families are commonly referred by WIC, community clinics, school districts, and health plans. Families generally participate in TNFP services for two years.

In addition we have additional background on HOPES and TNFP here.

#2 Maintain Client Services (DFPS Exceptional Item 2)

Additional Details may be found on pages 516-518 of the DFPS LAR. 

 $79.3 million for Day Care Services to address growth for fiscal years 2020 and 2021.

Day care services for children while biological parents are receiving services to preserve the family and/or when a child is placed with a relative, along with while a child is in foster care, increase safety. These services may provide for immediate or short-term safety from abuse and neglect; prevent the child from being removed from the home; allow the child to be reunited with the family; address the developmental needs of a child whose physical, social, emotional, cognitive, or language developmental delay is a significant factor in the risk of abuse or neglect in the home; and help stabilize the family.

 $52.3 million for Client Services for children and their families starting from intake, relative caregiver homes, foster and adoptive homes and post-adoption.

These services may include evaluation and treatment services, parent/caregiver training, and substance abuse assessments and treatment (individual, family and group counseling).

#3 CPS Initiatives and Operations (DFPS Exceptional Item 5)

Additional Details may be found on pages 525-530 of the DFPS LAR. 

$17.8 million to support CPS initiatives including, preparation for adult living skills assessment for older youth, determine eligibility, improve permanency and other frontline staff, case management for certain youth in extended foster care, services for children post-adoption and post-permanency, and medical services staff.

In addition, funding will support case management for youth with complex needs in extended foster care, behavioral health services to promote permanency, and support medical wellbeing.

 #4 Maintain Caseloads (Exceptional Item 1)

Additional Details may be found on pages 513-5515 of the DFPS LAR.

 $106 million to maintain average daily caseloads at manageable levels for CPS Investigations (13.9 cases), Conservatorship (23.1 cases), Foster/Adopt (17.3 cases), and Kinship (31.4 cases) and reduce statewide intake hold times by about half.

Here is a side-by-side comparison of key Child Protective Services line items from the House and Senate proposed budgets. After each chamber passes its respective version of the budget, they will then have to agree on a final version to send to Governor Greg Abbott.

	House Bill 1	Senate Bill 1	Difference in SB1 from HB1	DFPS LAR Base Request	DFPS Exceptional Item Request
	2020-21	2020-21	2020-21	2020-21	2020-21
STATEWIDE INTAKE	45,903,260	45,903,260	0	45,903,260	16,868,045
A.1.1. Statewide Intake Services	45,903,260	45,903,260	0	45,903,260	16,868,045
CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES	3,702,740,868	3,698,484,378	(4,256,490)	3,629,796,180	323,927,022
B.1.1 CPS Direct Delivery Staff	1,478,091,278	1,536,903,280	58,812,002	1,517,333,763	143,204,700
B.1.2 CPS Program Support	89,541,930	90,159,264	617,334	90,508,294	12,444,948
B.1.3 TWC Contracted Day Care	197,539,038	197,539,038	0	140,245,446	84,278,580
B.1.4 Adoption Purchased Services	19,563,842	19,563,842	0	19,563,842	7,056,161
B.1.5 Post – Adoption/Post-Permanency	6,976,442	6,976,442	0	6,976,420	5,854,961
B.1.6 PAL Purchased Services	17,987,420	17,987,420	0	17,987,420	386,672
B.1.7 Substance Abuse Purchased Services	16,344,380	16,344,380	0	16,344,380	24,234,694
B.1.8 Other CPS Purchased Services	78,271,948	78,271,948	0	78,271,948	10,640,296
B.1.9 Foster Care Payments	779,127,440	1,041,748,299	262,620,859	1,049,176,063	29,108,240
B.1.10 Adoption/PCA Payments	612,413,881	612,413,881	0	615,753,103	–
B.1.11 Relative Caregiver Payments	80,576,584	80,576,584	0	77,635,479	6,717,770
B.1.12 Community-Based Care Payments	326,306,685	–		–	–
PREVENTION PROGRAMS	209,424,985	209,424,985	0	209,424,985	31,242,687
C.1.1 STAR Program	48,624,721	48,624,721	0	48,624,721	9,228,000
C.1.2 CYD Program	16,845,117	16,845,117	0	16,845,117	4,083,600
C.1.3 Child Abuse Prevention Grants	6,574,786	6,574,786	0	6,574,786	800,000
C.1.4 Other At-Risk Prevention	59,179,881	59,179,881	0	59,179,881	9,955,634
C.1.5 Home Visiting Programs	63,319,104	63,319,104	0	63,319,104	5,530,800
C.1.6 At-Risk Prevention Program	14,881,376	14,881,376	0	14,881,376	1,644,663

The 86^th Legislative Session will begin January 8, 2019, and in preparation, the Department of Family and Protective Services released its Legislative Appropriations Request (LAR) for Fiscal Years 2020-2021 on August 31.

First, let’s review the previous session:

Before the 2017 Texas Legislative Session, Child Protective Services was plagued with problems. Governor Greg Abbott declared child protection an emergency, asking lawmakers to approve structural reforms and increase funding. The 85^th Legislature responded by providing additional investments for Fiscal Years 2018-2019. Some of these investments were for: 1) prevention and early intervention, including home visiting programs, 2) additional caseworkers and meaningful salary increases to better ensure manageable workloads and retain caseworkers, 3) new relative caregiver monthly financial payments to reduce reliance on the foster care system and help keep children with their extended family, and 4) foster care payments for the legacy system and to expand Community Based Care to help stabilize the foster care provider base.

Due to the investments and legislation passed by the 85^th legislature, DFPS has made significant advances:

• Turnover in Investigations has dropped more than 14 percent, from 30.5 percent in July 2016 to 26.2 percent in July 2018. Similarly, investigative average daily caseloads have dropped more than 22.5 percent, from 16.4 in July 2016 to 12.7 in July 2018. Family-Based Safety Services (FBSS) and Conservatorship (CVS) have seen similar decreases and both are now below 20.0 percent.
• More children are being seen by caseworkers in a timely manner with contacts for highest priority cases improving by almost 15 percent.
• 36 percent more youth are completing the Preparation for Adult Living training, and the average number of months for foster children to permanency has decreased by 6 percent.
• More children are being placed with relatives, an increase from 44 percent to 46 percent. The national average for relative placements is 32 percent.
• Expansion of prevention services to increase the level of evidence-based programs and community initiatives to support children before they are abused and neglected. In the FY 2018-19 biennium, PEI projects to serve 128,000 families and youth, more than 98% of whom it expects to defer from both child protection and juvenile justice.

Now, the legislative appropriations request for 2019:

In its baseline request of $4.2 billion for fiscal years 2020-2021, DFPS requests funds to continue essential agency operations and a minor increase of 1.64 percent for Child Protective Services due to growth. The agency also includes exceptional items as an additional funding request to maintain current services levels, continue legislative initiatives, and fill in gaps in its service system and critical agency operations.

The Legislative Budget Board and the Governor’s Budget Office will hold a hearing for the public to weigh in on the agency’s LAR at 11am on Friday, Sept. 14, at the Texas Capitol, in room E2.016.

The additional funding requests include:

Prevention

• $30.8 million to expand prevention services. Investment in prevention reduces the increasing demand for costly foster care by devoting resources to preventing maltreatment before a child is traumatized by abuse or neglect or separated from their family. PEI services also provide cost avoidance in juvenile justice and high Medicaid costs in adulthood. Some specific programs included in the request:

• • STAR – increased investment of $9,228,000 or 19% increase to expand its available programming across the state to serve an additional 6,000 families.
  • CYD increased investment of $4,083,600 or 24% increase to serve an additional 4,100 families.
  • HOPES – increased investment of $9,420,000 or 17% increase to serve an additional 1,200 families. HOPES could expand to serve contiguous counties of existing HOPES contracts. The Prevention and Early Intervention division of DFPS would also explore existing community need for increasing program capacity.
  • Nurse-Family Partnership – increased investment of $5,530,800 or 18% increase to serve an additional 550 families. Expansion of this program would blend geographic and programmatic expansion. While some programs may be poised to expand their geographic coverage to serve contiguous counties of existing TNFP contracts, other communities may increase the number of individuals they can serve.

Child Protective Services

• $116.7 million for additional caseworkers, intake specialists, and support staff to maintain the caseworker and statewide intake workload levels and to lower the average hold time at the statewide abuse call center to 8.5 minutes.
• $1.9 million for Employee Support Services to create a team to address the impact of trauma on direct delivery staff. As required by HB 1549, 85R, the proposed team will focus on development of a secondary trauma program and supports for caseworkers, including incident stress debriefing.
• $4.4 million for a salary increase of $500/month for Statewide Intake staff to improve retention, thereby enhancing tenure and enabling improved performance.
• $9.7 million to strengthen Child Protective Investigations outcomes, provide key investigations support, and prevent human trafficking.

Family Preservation

• $136.6 million to meet the increased demand for day care, CPS client services, and relative caregiver financial assistance.

Foster Care

• $62.6 million to support the continued phased in expansion of the Community Based Care foster care model to a total of nine geographic catchment areas covering approximately 74% of children in paid foster care by the end of fiscal year 2021. This request would continue and expand four existing catchment areas and fund five new catchment areas over the course of the biennium.

Child Healing

• Funding for Medical Services Well-Being Staff to support CPS caseworkers and caregivers through initiating appeals, monitoring fair hearings, and facilitating resolution as part of the STAR Health processes associated with denials. Staff will also monitor data to analyze issues and coordinate with HHSC to resolve.

Preparation for Adulthood

• $19.7 million for key initiatives and client support, including: Preparation for Adult Living staff and Regional Youth Specialists, additional case management for youth who have complex needs in Supervised Independent Living, and behavioral health services for children in post-adoption and post permanency relative homes.

Family First Prevention Services Act

The request for additional investment also includes a placeholder to address the new requirements from the federal Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA).

In February 2018, the United States Congress passed the FFPSA. The purpose of the bill is to provide investment further upstream to strengthen and preserve families and prevent children from entering the foster care system. The bill also better ensures children in foster care receive the most appropriate care for their individual needs in the least restrictive environment.

Implementation of FFPSA will help Texas attain its goals by 1) investing in results-proven programs and reducing child neglect and abuse fatalities; 2) promoting healthy biological families and supporting children with their relative families; 3) improving foster care to provide children with nurturing and safe foster families; and 4) ensuring children receive services to address their emotional, behavioral, and medical needs and heal their trauma.

Implementation of the Family First Prevention Services Act will have a significant positive effect on the lives of children and families in Texas.