Recently, we have been reading about foster children sleeping in Child Protective Services offices as if sleeping in offices is our child welfare crisis. Sleeping in CPS offices is a symptom of the real crisis, which is that today 524 children don’t have foster care placements. This shortage of placements is a symptom of even deeper and more complex challenges that put the entire foster care system, which cares for 30,000 children, at risk of cratering. Many factors have led us to these dire circumstances.
First, the Texas foster care system has been the subject of litigation since 2011, alleging violations of children’s rights. The case is before federal Judge Janice Graham Jack, who ruled that Texas was in fact violating children’s rights in foster care by subjecting them to abuse, overmedication and repeated placements.
The system needed reform, and although well-intentioned, there have been many unintended consequences resulting from Judge Jack’s orders.
For example, additional regulations ordered by the judge have resulted in increased citations for infractions, some minor, with little to no due process. While such citations are meant to improve safety, it has not been transparent as to how providers can remedy such infractions.
These regulations have driven up costs, with the expectation that the state will continue to pick up the ever-increasing tab. Meanwhile, the new regulations have shifted provider attention away from providing quality care, the intent of the lawsuit, to chasing the ever-changing and elusive paper tiger of compliance.
As a result, several providers of poorer quality have been rightfully shut down, but we also are losing much of the existing quality capacity that was insufficient to begin with.
Concurrently, the Texas Legislature is moving ahead with privatizing the foster care system, known as community-based care, in which the state pays regional private entities to administer foster care instead of the state. Given this new environment, entities that receive contracts may not receive sufficient reimbursement to care for children, cover costs and absorb the regulatory risk. We must be prepared in case of failure and question what the alternative will be if the privatization is not successful.
We cannot keep pointing fingers for the situation we are in because of our collective inability to solve the problem. Immediate action is needed.
“The Annie E. Casey Foundation has released the 2021 Kids Count Data Book. This annual report with state rankings presents a comprehensive picture of child well-being before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It identifies multiyear trends — comparing statistics from 2010 to 2019. In addition, the report shares data on how families endured throughout the pandemic. The report is accompanied by state data profiles for all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.” Texas-specific data can be found here.
TexProtects Takeaway:Texas continues to rank near the bottom – number 46 among all states – in child health and well-being. We are number 49 when it comes to child health! With one in every ten American children living in Texas, we must do so much more to ensure that kids count when decisions are made regarding policy, investments, and strategies. A strong Texas tomorrow is dependent upon our investment in children today.
This newly developed website by the ACE Resource Network offers a detailed explanation of Adverse Childhood Experiences – how they affect our lives, why we should care about them, the science behind their impact, and opportunities for prevention or healing, including those being piloted by leading healthcare providers and medical professionals in the field.
TexProtects Takeaway: Do you know your number? Positive and negative early childhood experiences affect our biology, behavior, and health and understanding why and how is critical! We LOVE this resource for the way it makes this robust and impactful science easy to understand and for its focus on how you can help create healing and resilience for yourself, your children, and your community. Check it out!
“To document the cumulative childhood risk of different levels of involvement with the child protection system (CPS), including terminations of parental rights (TPRs)”, the authors of this article “linked vital records for California’s 1999 birth cohort (n = 519 248) to CPS records from 1999 to “The scientific evidence is clear and growing: racism imposes unique and substantial stressors on the daily lives of families raising young children of color. Understanding how these stressors affect child health and development provides a compelling framework for new ideas about how communities, policies, programs, and funding streams might confront and dismantle these inequities and build a stronger future for us all. This new brief discusses how racism creates conditions that harm the well-being of children and families, and the need to go “upstream” and create policy solutions to address the source of structural, cultural, and interpersonal forms of racism.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Once again, the answers are upstream! Reducing cultural racism, investing in place based interventions, and increasing economic supports are just a few of the recommendations included here that would provide meaningful focus and impact on reducing the impact of racism on our families of color.
“Child poverty rates have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among Latino and Black children and among children in female-headed families, according to a new Child Trends analysis of recently released national data from the Current Population Survey. These newly released data provide a first nationally representative look at how the pandemic has changed child poverty. We find that child poverty increased by an average of 1.8 percentage points—from 15.7 percent in 2019 to 17.5 percent in 2020—based on families’ reports in 2020 and 2021. This translates to roughly 12.5 million children living in poverty in 2020, or 1.2 million more than in 2019.”
TexProtects Takeaway: The pandemic has not only reversed what was a downward trend in child poverty but it has increased disparities based by race/ethnicity and family structure. However, the changes to the Child Tax Credit implemented through the Federal American Rescue Plan have the potential to dramatically decrease child poverty (45% reduction in Texas according to research at Columbia University) and minimize the disparities in poverty according to race/ethnicity.
This report — part of the first phase of the Expanding Evidence on Replicable Recovery and “Researchers at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago and Howard University conducted a study to examine previously untold stories of the pandemic among young people. They focused particularly on food and housing insecurity, mental health, and the racial dimensions of those adversities. The researchers analyzed a large, nationally representative dataset available through the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, which has collected data over the course of the pandemic.” Findings show that young adults have experienced distressing levels of food and housing insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, with these challenges disproportionately affecting BIPOC youth. Given that these adversities have negative implications for young people’s healthy development and stable transitions to adulthood, the authors conclude with several recommendations for policymakers to ameliorate pandemic-related hardships.
TexProtects Takeaway: Study after study is demonstrating that not only are the effects of COVID challenges likely to outlast the physical pandemic but the impacts have been more severe and supports less accessible in populations and communities already disproportionately challenged. These adversities have important implications for young people’s healthy development and positive transitions to adulthood and demand holistic and innovative approaches to minimize barriers and increase access to resources.
“The Quality Improvement Center on Family-Centered Reunification (QIC-R), led by The Institute for Innovation & Implementation at the University of Maryland School of Social Work in collaboration with the Children’s Bureau (CB), will work with five to seven sites to install, implement, and evaluate selected practices and interventions to support the timely, stable, and lasting reunification of families by preserving, nurturing, and strengthening parent-child relationships and supportive community connections and resources, including through meaningful engagement of birth parents, foster families, youth, alumni of foster care, and other stakeholders… The purpose of this scoping review is to provide applicants with relevant background information on the reunification interventions and best practices that could guide the design of the applicant’s intervention. This report offers an overview of the state of the research evidence about interventions designed to promote reunification and presents a catalogue of reunification programs that outlines each intervention’s: Programmatic approach, service population, level of research evidence, implementation considerations, and outcomes studied.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Children belong in families – their own, when it is safe However, in 2020, only 34% of the exits from conservatorship resulted in family reunification. Check out this evidence-based summary of interventions and programs that could improve the services we offer families and ultimately result in more families staying safely together. How many are offered in your community?
“The Fathers and Continuous Learning in Child Welfare (FCL) project used a methodology known as the Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) to improve placement stability and permanency outcomes for children by engaging their fathers and paternal relatives. A BSC is a continuous learning methodology developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement that is used to test and spread promising practices to help organizations improve in a focused topic area (IHI 2003)… Six Improvement Teams representing five state or county child welfare agencies participated in the BSC. Throughout this BSC, each team identified, implemented, and studied a unique group of strategies to engage fathers and paternal relatives. Teams developed processes to collect, organize, and report data to gauge whether the engagement strategies were producing improvements on specified metrics. This pilot study report describes insights into the implementation of a BSC and potential strategies for increasing father and paternal relative engagement in child welfare.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Father involvement and extended family support both improve child wellbeing and increase protective factors, however many child welfare systems may be underinvesting in dads or inadvertently creating barriers to participation. Learn more about the great work around fatherhood engagement happening at the Child and Family Partnership at UT here.
“Early intervention services are funded through a complex blend of federal, state, and local sources, and are part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). States have to make difficult decisions about how to fund critical IDEA services, including early intervention services, because Congress vastly underfunds IDEA. This often results in stricter eligibility requirements and other cost-saving measures that sometimes lead to a decrease in the number of children receiving services. There are several strategies states can use to address systemic racial inequities in the health and education systems in which early intervention services take place. In this report, we identify the strengths of state approaches and opportunities for increasing equity in providing early intervention services.”
TexProtects Takeaway: One significant win for Texas infants and toddlers this session, was the legislature’s increased investment in Early Childhood Intervention. Alongside this investment, promising practices include strengthening Child Find and including evidence-based comprehensive screening and referral services like Family Connects and Healthy Steps which ensure families get screened and get access to services early when the impact is greatest.
“For more than 25 years, federal law has guaranteed enrollment for babies born to Medicaid beneficiary mothers, known as deemed newborn coverage, which begins at birth and continues uninterrupted through the first year of life. Policy changes in the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 removed some outstanding limitations to strengthen state application of this requirement. As described by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in a letter to states, the changes ‘effectively… means that all newborns born to women covered by Medicaid for the child’s birth are now covered as mandatory categorically needy.’” However, various challenges to maintaining infant enrollment protection have resulted in a wide variation of states’ approaches to and success in implementing the policy. This report identifies gaps in Medicaid enrollment for eligible babies born 2010-2018 and makes recommendations for how states can better implement infant EPSDT coverage through effective administration and communication between the prenatal period and children’s first birthdays.“
TexProtects Takeaway: Medicaid and CHIP provide coverage for approximately half of all births, and approximately 2/3 of Black, Native American and Hispanic infants nationwide. Having both maternal and infant coverage be continuous for one year following a birth is a major step to end disparities in maternal and infant mortality and give our children an equitable start. This legislative session, critical improvements were made by the passage of a bill to allow eligible children to remain enrolled in Medicaid insurance by reducing inaccurate mid-year eligibility reviews and extending postpartum coverage to 6 months.
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“The child welfare system is overdue for substantial transformation. Families and communities of color have experienced the brunt of the failings and limitations present in current policy and “To inform maternal and child health policy and practice, this brief applies a racial and ethnic equity lens to the review of data from the State of Babies Yearbook: 2021. Specifically, this brief aims to explore why there are disparities in maternal and child health; what disparities exist, and for whom; and how policymakers and practitioners can promote racial and ethnic equity to improve maternal and child health. We use racial and ethnic equity to refer to the process of involving those most impacted by institutional racism in the creation and implementation of policies and practices that impact their lives, and to outcomes in which race and ethnicity do not predict a person’s life course.5 This approach offers recommendations that are discussed in detail in the Recommendations section.” The brief also features multiple state-level data tables, which highlight where Texas has strengths and/or faces challenges.
TexProtects Takeaway: A baby’s future health and potential to thrive begins to take shape even before conception. This connection between maternal and child well-being is especially important among women of color, due to intergenerational trauma and the lived experience of institutional and interpersonal racism. Research has shown that racism can influence maternal health before and during pregnancy – ultimately having a negative impact on a baby from the beginning. The US also continues to struggle with extremely high rates of maternal mortality, in relation to all other high-income countries. In the 87th Texas legislature, TexProtects advocated for an expansion of voluntary nurse home visiting programs, such as Family Connects, to help combat maternal mortality and connect new moms and babies to the resources they need at the right time. Although legislation to expand these home visiting programs did not pass, HB 133 was signed into law, which expands Medicaid coverage for new moms post-partum from 2 months to 6 months. Texas still has a lot of work to do in protecting new moms and babies, but this is a huge step forward!
“Child welfare professionals can play a critical role in helping identify possible substance use disorders (SUDs) and supporting families in overcoming barriers to safety and permanency related to substance use. This factsheet reviews what SUDs are, how parental substance use affects families, and how child welfare professionals can support these families. It also considers how collaboration between child welfare professionals and SUD treatment providers, as well as others, is an essential component to assisting families. This factsheet is intended to serve as a brief primer on the intersection of parental SUDs and child welfare rather than a comprehensive guide. Additional information and resources are provided throughout to help readers explore the topic in more detail.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Almost 9 million children in the US live with at least one parent struggling with a substance-use disorder (SUD) – over 12% of all children in the US. Living with a caregiver suffering from an SUD is considered an adverse childhood experience (ACE), and increased exposure to ACEs can cause a host of negative outcomes for children later in life. Substance abuse is a major factor in many child welfare cases and research has shown the existence of a parent with SUD is associated with an increased belief by child welfare workers that the children are experiencing severe risk and harm, regardless of actual risk or harm. This is troubling as a child welfare worker’s assessment of the severity of harm affects the type, intensity, and duration of services offered. Under the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA), states may now use title IV-E funds for substance use and mental health services, that may ultimately prevent a child from being placed in foster care. TexProtects will continue to work with Texas DFPS Prevention and Early Intervention to ensure FFPSA funds are used in the most efficient and effective way possible – to intervene with these families to prevent child abuse and neglect before a crisis occurs.
“To document the cumulative childhood risk of different levels of involvement with the child protection system (CPS), including terminations of parental rights (TPRs)”, the authors of this article “linked vital records for California’s 1999 birth cohort (n = 519 248) to CPS records from 1999 to 2017. We used sociodemographic information captured at birth to estimate differences in the cumulative percentage of children investigated, substantiated, placed in foster care, and with a TPR.” Results are as follows: “Overall, 26.3% of children were investigated for maltreatment, 10.5% were substantiated, 4.3% were placed in foster care, and 1.1% experienced a TPR. Roughly 1 in 2 Black and Native American children were investigated during childhood. Children receiving public insurance experienced CPS involvement at more than twice the rate of children with private insurance… Conservatively, CPS investigates more than a quarter of children born in California for abuse or neglect. These data reinforce policy questions about the current scope and reach of our modern CPS.”
TexProtects Takeaway: The authors of this groundbreaking article used records for California’s 1999 birth cohort and CPS records to show cumulative percentages of children investigated by CPS, placed in foster care, and those with parental rights terminated. This study found that while the number of children placed in foster care is small, the number of children investigated by CPS is substantial. Roughly half of all Black and Native American children in this California cohort were investigated by CPS for maltreatment at some point in their childhood. These groups also experienced all levels of CPS involvement at more than twice the rate of White children in the same cohort. Finally, this study also found children receiving public health insurance and missing paternity were strongly related to all levels of CPS involvement. We must continue to dig into the institutionalized and systemic racism that is present at all levels of the child welfare system and enact policies that are equitable and supportive of all families.
4. 2021/2022 Prevention Resource Guide (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Children’s Bureau; Child Welfare Information Gateway; FRIENDS National Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention)
The authors created the first resource guide of this type over 15 years ago, “with the goal of raising awareness about emerging child abuse prevention concepts. It was created primarily to support community-based service providers who work to prevent child maltreatment and promote family well-being. However, over the years many others—including policymakers, health-care providers, program administrators, teachers, child care providers, parent leaders, mentors, and clergy—have found the resources useful… This guide has traditionally focused on primary and secondary prevention activities, which endeavor to stop maltreatment before it occurs.” In exploring prevention concepts, the guide uses a framework comprised of the following six protective factors: Nurturing and attachment; knowledge of parenting and of child and youth development; parental resilience; social connections; concrete supports for parents; and social and emotional competence of children.
TexProtects Takeaway: The Administration for Children and Families published this report to “support families all year long in ways that promote and build upon their strengths and enable them to care for their children safely before maltreatment is even a possibility.” This goal is directly in line with one of the top priorities for TexProtects – to prevent child abuse and keep families together. The 2021/2022 guide highlights many innovative ways communities across the US are engaging in purposeful prevention work to keep children safe and strengthen families.
“This report — part of the first phase of the Expanding Evidence on Replicable Recovery and Reunification Interventions for Families (R3) project — describes features of select interventions that use recovery coaches in the child welfare system, characterizes their current stage of readiness for replication and further evaluation, and informs a long-term effort by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to build high-quality evidence on recovery coaching interventions for families involved with the child welfare system.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Parental substance abuse continues to be one of the most common risk factors for families involved in the child welfare system. Research has shown that parents who participate in and complete SUD treatment are more likely to be reunified with their children. Recovery coaching is one solution to increase the likelihood of family renunciation. Recovery coaches work with parents struggling with SUD who have or are at risk of having their children removed. Coaches increase engagement in treatment and other needed services to support the parent’s recovery, while also coordinating with child welfare agency staff. The 2018 Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatmentfor Patients and Communities (SUPPORT) Act required HHS to replicate a family SUD recovery and reunification intervention that used recovery coaches and conduct a three-part evaluation. As a first step, nine eligible interventions were considered for further study. Of these nine, three interventions showed some promise of efficacy. The most effective program with the greatest potential for replicability was the Oregon Parent Mentor Program and Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Teams (START). While more research needs to be done on the evidence of these programs and interventions, this is an excellent start and shows the importance of investing in innovative and evidence-based approaches.
6. Young Child Risk Calculator (National Center for Children in Poverty – NCCP, at the Bank Street Graduate School of Education)
This newly updated calculator serves as a tool for determining young children’s longer-term socioeconomic outcomes, given the number and types of risk factors to which they are currently exposed. Users are able to choose the state, a child’s age range (all below age nine), a family’s income level, and seven different risk factors related to parents’ education levels, housing stability, employment, etc. The creators of the calculator note that “Children with three or more risks are exceptionally vulnerable. Information about the prevalence of young children experiencing these risks can inform policies aimed at improving outcomes for vulnerable children and reducing the number of children experiencing early risks.”
TexProtects Takeaway: There are 1,149,024 children in Texas under the age of 3 and 47% of them are considered low-income (<200% FPT). This tool focuses on several risk factors a child might experience, such as: unemployed parents, low parent education, and residential mobility. Children with three or more risk factors identified are especially vulnerable to negative health, educational, and developmental outcomes. Of children under the age of 3 in Texas, 46% have experience at least 1-2 risk factors and 17% have experienced 3+ risk factors. The prenatal to three period for children is critical for brain development and future outcomes. TexProtects is proud to lead the Texas Prenatal to Three Collaborative with the goal of increasing the number of infants and toddlers in Texas who are healthy, supported, and arrive at school ready to learn. Click here to learn more about the PN3 Collaborative and how you can get involved.
“NCCP’s Early Childhood Profiles were produced as part of the Improving the Odds for Young Children project. These profiles highlight two-generation state policy choices that promote health, education, and strong families alongside other contextual data related to the well-being of young children.” Texas’s state profile can be found here.
TexProtects Takeaway: NCCP’s Early Childhood Profiles highlight policies that are two-generational in their approach, meaning the policies support the well-being and opportunities of young children as well as their parents. One example of two-generation policy supports is investment in Pre-K programs and high-quality childcare, along with state policies such as the Earned Income Tax credit and raising the minimum wage for low-income workers. Another example is increased access to mental health screenings, along with increased access to quality health care for children and their parents. One concerning Texas data point highlighted in this profile is the number of children under age 6 in Texas without health insurance. The national average is 8% while Texas sits at 15% of children under 6 with no health insurance. Children who do not have access to health insurance are less likely to attend preventive care appointments and wellness checks that could deter chronic conditions earlier. This legislative session, HB 290 (passed as a provision of HB 2658), will allow eligible children to remain continuously enrolled in Medicaid CHIP for 6 months before a mid-year eligibility review. The passage of this legislation will ensure less eligible children are inaccurately kicked-off of their health insurance.
“The State of Babies Yearbook: 2021 compares national and state-by-state data on the well-being of infants and toddlers… We present this report after a year in which all of us, but especially families with young children, have faced unprecedented challenges from the pandemic, its economic fallout and social isolation, and nationally visible incidents of racial injustice that resonated in our study of babies’ lives in America… This year, we show how those inequities that pre-existed COVID-19 illuminate the disparate economic and social impacts of the pandemic on families of color and those with low income [as we supplement our usual data sources with data from the Rapid Assessment of Pandemic Impact on Development in Early Childhood survey].” Texas’s 2021 data can be found here.
TexProtects Takeaway: The State of Babies Yearbook is an excellent tool to see where Texas stands versus other states on many key indicators of healthy and safe babies and toddlers. One policy area where Texas is lagging is an area the Yearbook calls Strong Families. These are policies designed to address disparities by race, ethnicity, and income. A few examples include safe and stable housing, home visiting services, and tax credits for families with young children. Texas falls on the lowest tier in this category compared with all other states and Texas is doing worse than the national average on indicators such as the percentages of families who report being resilient and babies living in crowded housing. One solution to this problem is increasing access to voluntary home visiting services. These programs have a strong return on investment and have been shown to increase protective factors and strengthen families by connecting them with the resources they need most. Click here to learn more about home visiting in Texas.
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“The child welfare system is overdue for substantial transformation. Families and communities of color have experienced the brunt of the failings and limitations present in current policy and practice. A transformed approach is needed that prioritizes maltreatment prevention, racial equity, and child and family well-being. The Family First Prevention Services Act is an important step in this effort, although its scope falls short of the significant changes that are needed to effectively serve children and families. Transformation requires intentional efforts to disentangle poverty and child neglect, and investments in communities to build robust, accessible continua of prevention services.” With the goal of transforming the child welfare system in mind, the authors of this policy brief offer five recommendations for policymakers: reconceptualize the mandatory reporting system; expand primary prevention programs to families in their communities; address institutional racism within child welfare programs; invest in evidence-based interventions; and allocate more resources for kinship caregivers, equivalent to what is available for nonrelative foster parents.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Since the establishment of formalized state child protection systems, the majority of funding and resources have been directed to child abuse/neglect investigations and out-of-home placements. In 2016, only 15% of the $30 billion invested nationally was directed toward prevention services. This is also true in Texas, where prevention makes up only 5% of the DFPS budget.
“The 2018 Family First Prevention Services Act (Family First Act) provides funding for kinship navigator programs that demonstrate evidence of effectiveness. Many agencies believe their kinship navigator programs benefit kinship caregivers and their families; however, to qualify for Family First Act funding, stronger research evidence is needed to understand whether and how families benefit. This brief identifies common challenges agencies face in building this evidence and suggests ways to address these challenges, including defining the program model; selecting a comparison group; ensuring an adequate sample size; selecting appropriate outcomes and reliable and valid measures; and collecting data.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Kinship Navigator Programs can be a critical lifeline for kinship caregivers involved with the child welfare system. While it is always the goal for children to remain with family members, kinship caregivers are often unprepared for the financial burden of caring for another child and are unable to navigate the complicated web of resources available to them. Investing in Kinship Navigator programs will help to mitigate child trauma by ensuring more children are able to remain with their family members.
“SCAN Policies Database includes data on select definitions and policies related to child maltreatment incidence for 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The data is organized into six variable domains: 1. Definitions of child abuse and neglect; 2. Reporting policies; 3. Screening policies; 4. Investigation policies; 5. Child welfare responses; 6. Child welfare system context.” Texas’ most recent profile, including data collected from May 2019 to July 2020, can be found here.
TexProtects Takeaway: Although federal law identifies certain acts or behaviors as child maltreatment, each state has their own legal definitions of child abuse and neglect. This leads to differing state policies and implementation in child maltreatment reporting and investigations. The SCAN database is able to be linked with other child welfare data sources, revealing important trends such as the incidence of child maltreatment, the child welfare system response, and ultimately child safety and well-being outcomes. At a time when the Texas child welfare system is under extreme strain due to COVID-19 and the on-going federal lawsuit, we must take the time to identify what is working in Texas and what is not, in order to better support and protect our children.
“Most of the research on child maltreatment focuses on children in urban areas since they outnumber those in rural areas. A recent article in Children and Youth Services Review emphasizes child maltreatment statistics in rural areas, comparing maltreatment reports, report sources, and service outcomes with those in urban areas. The study examines three research questions: Do maltreatment reports differ between urban and rural areas during the study period (2003–2017)? Do report sources differ between urban and rural areas? Does the probability of substantiation and post response outcomes differ by report source and urban or rural area? This is the first major study in recent years to examine and compare national data for child maltreatment reports, report sources, and services outcomes for rural and urban areas. It is important to note that there are several limitations to the study, such as that it relied on official child maltreatment data and screened-in reports, which may undercount the actual occurrence of maltreatment.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Most research on child abuse/neglect reporting has historically focused on children in urban areas, exposing a gap in data pertaining to children in rural areas. This study revealed children in rural areas have higher rates of abuse/neglect reports and re-reports, a critical reminder that we must continue to work on investing in and expanding access to prevention services across the state of Texas. Your zip code should not determine if your family can access support services before a crisis occurs.
“Child welfare-affected parents of color (CW-PaoC) are often described using language that is deficit-focused, their families depicted as fragile and living in a near constant state of crisis and need. This commentary challenges the stereotypes created by hyper-attention to these parents’ struggles and situates them, and their families, within the broader context of the American appetite for family separation, wherein specific types of families are targeted for scrutiny, intervention and regulation. The concept of fragility within families is dissected to illustrate the ways in which racism and classism demarcate certain families for separation. Excerpts from two separate interviews conducted with Black mothers in 2014 and 2020 are used to illustrate how the appetite for family separation is currently fed. Familial and cultural strengths that counteract the prevailing deficit-focused narrative of CW-PaoC, particularly Black parents, are discussed. This commentary ends with a call for the dissolution of the CW system in its current regulatory form and the rebuilding of family-centered supports that center familial strengths.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Families of color continue to be grossly over-represented in the US child welfare system. It is time for the child welfare system to recognize and acknowledge the strengths within families of color and commit to a strengths-focused approach when interacting with families, ensuring that each family receives fair, equal, and equitable treatment.
“The purpose of this clinical report is to ensure that children with disabilities are recognized as a population at increased risk for maltreatment. This report updates the 2007 American Academy of Pediatrics clinical report “Maltreatment of Children With Disabilities.” Since 2007, new information has expanded our understanding of the incidence of abuse in this vulnerable population. There is now information about which children with disabilities are at greatest risk for maltreatment because not all disabling conditions confer the same risks of abuse or neglect. This updated report will serve as a resource for pediatricians and others who care for children with disabilities and offers guidance on risks for subpopulations of children with disabilities who are at particularly high risk of abuse and neglect. The report will also discuss ways in which the medical home can aid in early identification and intervene when abuse and neglect are suspected. It will also describe community resources and preventive strategies that may reduce the risk of abuse and neglect.”
TexProtects Takeaway: The rate of child abuse and neglect is at least 3x higher among children with disabilities than in the typically developing population. However, not all disabilities confer the same risks of child/abuse neglect. Researchers discovered children with milder forms of disabilities are at a higher risk of abuse/neglect than more profoundly affected children, and certain types of disabilities are associated with different forms of child abuse. For example, children with behavioral difficulties are at a greater risk for physical abuse and children who are nonverbal or hearing impaired are more likely to experience neglect or sexual abuse. In order to mitigate these risks, it is critical that children have a trusted Pediatrician and medical home. This is just one way families can receive the support and education they need.
“This alert highlights: Why prioritizing education is important for children in foster care; Critical education issues for children in foster care; Who is involved in advocating for the education of children in foster care; Judges’ roles in keeping children in care on track in school; And how courts can collaborate with schools and child welfare agencies to help children in care succeed in school.”
TexProtects Takeaway: We know that having a supportive relationship with a caregiver or adult can help to mitigate the devastating effects of childhood trauma and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Due to COVID-19, many children have lost access to their teachers and school counselors who offer safety and stability. For children involved in the child welfare system, the situation is even more dire, as they are at a high risk of school disruption leading to significant learning loss, increased behavior issues, and a higher drop-out rate. As we continue to navigate the ever-evolving COVID-19 crisis, it is imperative that we prioritize stability for children in every phase of the child welfare process.
“Despite the predictive power of machine learning (ML) models, they are difficult to apply and interpret. This has stymied translation of research into practice and policy in child welfare. As a proof of concept, we sought to bridge this gap in child welfare by testing a novel interpretation methodology in ML, Shapley Additive Explanation or SHAP (Lundberg et al., 2020). First, we developed a random forest ML model to predict the risk of youth running away from care within 90 days of entering a child welfare system. Second, we applied SHAP to the random forest ML model to identify and quantify the influence of important predictors and combination of predictors on the predicted risk of runaway. Demonstrating that SHAP can be used in child welfare research might facilitate end users of ML, such as child welfare administrators and caseworkers, in making relevant policy and practice changes.”
TexProtects Takeaway: This exciting new research tool, machine learning models, is able to mine data and “learn” underlying patterns, leading to more accurate predictions. As the child welfare field has become increasingly interested in using predictive analytics to better inform prevention strategies, these models can be used to predict which families would most benefit from prevention supports. These tools will allow for a more upstream approach and the ability to intervene with a family BEFORE a crisis occurs.
“While its impact has been quite visible through the news media and the restructuring of family, work, and school life across the globe, less visible are the mental health effects the pandemic has had on individuals, particularly children, youth, and young adults. Recognizing the social, emotional, and mental health challenges facing this young population, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developed a resource kit for parents, caregivers, and other adults to support their efforts to identify and respond to these challenges and ensure the well-being of the young people in their lives. This toolkit is also beneficial for those caring for and working with families involved with child welfare, as these families are already experiencing increased stress and trauma made worse by the loss of face-to-face supports, meaningful family visits, and school and work adjustments.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Unfortunately, we are already beginning to see the devastating effects COVID-19 has had on young people in the US. Youth have faced isolation, loss of normalcy, and educational setbacks during the pandemic. Each one of us has a role to play in supporting the young people in our lives and our communities. This CDC resource can help and can be accessed here.
This resource guide first emphasizes the importance of supporting young children’s social and emotional needs through an integrated early childhood system of care, which involves children, families, and providers. The guide goes on to discuss considerations for implementing social-emotional early childhood initiatives, including the use of theories of change and logic models, stage-based frameworks, prevention-based approaches, and professional development strategies for caregivers. Each initiative discussed is supported by both implementation strategies and implementation examples.
TexProtects Takeaway: As young children develop, their early emotional experiences literally become embedded in the architecture of their brains (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2004, p.1). With this knowledge, “identifying strategies to support a child’s social and emotional well-being is just as important as his or her physical health.”
Earlier in the month, Judge Janis Jack conducted a hearing to follow up on the progress made on the thirteen remedial orders. The Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) and Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) were not in compliance and were previously held in contempt.
Ahead of the hearing, the court-appointed Special Monitors filed two reports, one of which detailed the information they compiled regarding updates on these remedial orders and the other that went into more depth about the placement capacity crisis, which has left children without placement and being housed in unlicensed facilities.
Ultimately, the reports indicated substantial progress in some areas, including:
Ensuring new caseworkers have graduated caseloads as they learn the job;
Notifying caseworkers of allegations of abuse or neglect in the placement of a child on their caseload;
Shorter wait times and fewer referrals are being inappropriately downgraded at Statewide Intake; and
Timeliness of initiating and completing investigations.
While there have been improvements, some startling information reveals that the state continues to place children at an unreasonable risk of harm. Also, concerns were raised about the safety and lack of placements. In fact, 23 children in the Permanent Managing Conservatorship of the state have died since the Fifth Circuit issued its final ruling in July 2019. The reports and two-day-long hearing continued to point out that licensed placements continue to operate despite their long histories of deficiencies. Judge Jack repeated numerous times her concerns with placements being able to close their facilities and open up a new placement under a different name to avoid enforcement measures. Information was also revealed about children being housed in unlicensed facilities when a placement can’t be secured. Furthermore, 339 children have slept at least one night in a DFPS office since August 2020.
Interestingly, this was the first hearing in which the Single Source Continuum Contractors (SSCCs) in areas in which Community-Based Care (CBC) has been implemented were present and questioned alongside DFPS. Judge Jack made it very clear that the SSCCs were also under the same orders as DFPS. However, the information provided by the Special Monitors revealed that DFPS outperformed the SSCCs in several areas. They also raised questions about the implementation of CBC and the ability of DFPS to provide proper oversight, including concerns with:
Higher caseloads for caseworkers who work for SSCCs than DFPS;
Inadequate training for new caseworkers for SSCCs; and
Unreliable or nonexistent data for SSCCs.
Throughout the hearing, the resounding question from Judge Jack was “when?” in reference to what the plan is to come into compliance with each remedial order. While the hearing ended with Judge Jack expressing some optimism for the state agencies and SSCCs, there is no doubt that some major issues need to be addressed. We are approaching two years since the remedial orders have been mandated. We all share with Judge Jack’s standing questions of “when.” The stakes are high. For the sake of children’s wellbeing and lives, there is no time to waste.
Read our full statement on the CPS crisis in our sate here and for additional commentary from our CEO, Sophie Phillips, click here.
“This brief offers guidance on positioning and explaining the issue of childhood adversity, as well as the need for promoting upstream approaches. The guidance has implications for a wide variety of communications goals and contexts, but it is most relevant for efforts designed to educate the public about strategies that work at the community and policy levels. These framing recommendations were developed for advocates, researchers, and practitioners working to address issues including child abuse and neglect, family violence, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), early trauma and trauma-informed care, and toxic stress. At a high level, child adversity must be framed as: A public issue; A preventable problem; A solvable problem. This brief discusses each of these recommendations, showing what they look like and explaining how they help. It also offers insight into some of the framing dilemmas and what not to communicate, and why.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Childhood adversity is a public health issue and a preventable and solvable problem. Strategic talking points can help ensure that lawmakers prioritize proactive and early interventions rather than continuing to pay for problems we have the power to prevent.
“For parents with unresolved histories of adversity and trauma—resulting from experiences such as abuse, assault, or domestic violence—the risks associated with pandemic-related stress may be further compounded. To promote positive family adaptation to the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers should increase targeted supports, services, and policies for parents and caregivers with trauma histories. This brief includes information on the impact of COVID-19 on parents and caregivers, particularly those with trauma histories; outlines resiliency factors for this population; and provides guidance for policymakers, providers and agencies, and families on supporting parents and caregivers with trauma histories during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Parenting can be stressful for everyone, but when you add in the impact of COVID-19 and a history of trauma, that stress can impact a caregiver’s ability to provide nurturing and safe care for their children. COVID-19 recovery plans must include increasing access to proven supports and programs that can improve family stability and parental coping skills to buffer the effects of the pandemic on children.
“Child welfare agencies across the United States are charged with protecting and promoting the welfare of children and youth who are at risk of, or who have been victims of, maltreatment. State and local child welfare agencies rely on multiple funding streams to administer programs and services. While many funding sources are available to child welfare agencies, each has its own unique purposes, eligibility requirements, and limitations, creating a complex financing structure that is challenging to understand and administer. Each state’s unique funding composition determines what services are available to children and families and the way in which child welfare agencies operate. Child Trends conducted its 11th national survey of child welfare agency expenditures to promote an understanding among various child welfare stakeholders of the challenges and opportunities that agencies face in serving children and families.”
Note that this report includes state-level data from state fiscal year 2018 and survey data collected in 2019 and 2020.
TexProtects Takeaway: The unique challenges of 2020 offer the opportunity to examine state investments in child welfare to determine if our dollars actually reflect our priorities, how funding can best be utilized to minimize the impact of COVID-19 on our child welfare system, and how existing investments may be perpetuating disproportionality in our systems. For TexProtects, the answer lies in doing more upstream work to support families rather than continuing to invest in more investigations and removals.
“The First 5 California (F5CA) Home Visiting Workforce Study collected data to help the state understand the landscape of California’s home visiting workforce, including characteristics of home visitors and supervisors, implementation supports for staff, and program needs for workforce recruitment, development, and retention. The following summary presents key findings from a survey of more than 900 home visiting staff representing 171 home visiting programs across the state. […] Key findings from this workforce survey include a description of the California home visiting workforce, the ways they are meeting the needs of families, changes in their work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and how home visitor well-being and program supports affect workforce retention.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Home visitors, funded through various funding streams at the Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) Division of DFPS, have been critical lifelines for families who voluntarily enroll; however, the pandemic has made that work even more challenging. Effective training, recruitment, and retention strategies are critical to ensuring a healthy workforce that can effectively support families and keep children safe and well.
“In 2015, the Illinois Home Visiting Task Force established a subcommittee to design and implement a pilot project to connect pregnant or parenting youth in foster care with home visiting services. A major goal of that pilot project was to promote collaboration between the home visiting and the child welfare systems. Results from an implementation study of the pilot project point to both the ongoing challenges and benefits associated with providing home visiting services to pregnant or parenting youth in foster care.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Project HIP and the Family First Prevention Services Act provide great opportunities for Texas to do more to ensure that pregnant and parenting foster youth have access to proven prevention programs like home visiting. Although engaging pregnant and parenting foster youth in home visiting programs has unique challenges, flexible approaches and evidence-based practices can increase positive parenting practice, co-parent relationships, and knowledge of child development.
“Once people learn who transition age foster youth are, they are generally sympathetic, but they still struggle to think about ways to support them. We are fortunate to have two narratives to improve understanding and build support for addressing the needs of transition age foster youth. The first narrative, ‘Advancing Well-being,’ shows people how effective supports aid the healthy biological, psychological, and emotional development of transition age foster youth. The second narrative, ‘Expanding Opportunities,’ helps people understand the racial and economic factors that create disparities leading to foster care involvement, the disparities perpetuated by that system, and the ways in which supports for transition age foster youth can address those inequities. This strategic brief outlines how we can do this together by: Showing the most effective ways to change perceptions and build support for reform; Giving examples of what this looks like in practice; Reviewing the research that underlies each recommendation.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Transition-age foster youth are young people between the ages of 16 and 24 who are transitioning out of the foster care system as they reach adulthood. All of us need support to become successful adults, but transition-age foster youth often lack these things because they don’t have the same family connections to rely on. We need strong programs to ensure transition-age foster youth receive the care that all young people need to thrive.
“The effect of substance use disorders (SUDs) on parenting and child safety is a common reason families come into contact with the child welfare system. Child welfare professionals can play a critical role in helping identify possible SUDs and supporting families in overcoming barriers to safety and permanency related to substance use. This factsheet reviews what SUDs are, how parental substance use affects families, and how child welfare professionals can support these families. It also considers how collaboration between child welfare professionals and SUD treatment providers, as well as others, is an essential component to assisting families.”
TexProtects Takeaway: 66% of removals in Texas in 2019 were related to substance use. Although SUDs can be a lifelong struggle, merely having one does not prevent a person from being a successful parent. With the proper identification, treatment, and support, parents with SUDs can safely maintain their children in their homes, ultimately producing the best outcomes.
“Despite being among the most disadvantaged groups with respect to college access and success in the United States, youth formerly in foster care (YFFC) remain an understudied population in higher education research. Although they aspire to college at high levels, youth in foster care enjoy less postsecondary access and success than their peers who have not experienced foster care. This study seeks to better understand how youth formerly in foster care (YFFC) compare to their peers regarding college preparation, choice, enrollment, and financing; academic self-concept and degree aspirations; and concerns about paying for college. Using Perna’s (2008) college choice model and data from the 2016 The Freshman Survey (TFS), we conduct bivariate comparisons and regression analysis to compare college readiness and enrollment between YFFC and non-YFFC who are first-time, full-time freshmen. We report the results of our findings and discuss how these contribute to existing research and apply to the financial and educational needs and strengths of YFFC.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Youth formerly in foster care face challenges including academic preparation, mental health challenges, and affordability that, despite high aspirations for college attainment, can create barriers that make completion more difficult than their peers. More work should be done to identify the supports that can best ensure that these young adult survivors have every opportunity to succeed.
This issue of The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science focuses specifically on approaches to preventing, identifying, and addressing child maltreatment. Articles in the feature cover a number of topics within the field, including child welfare system financing, the ways in which families experience and interact with Child Protective Services, and racial disproportionality and disparities in child welfare.
TexProtects Takeaway: The future of child maltreatment prevention should seek to expand capacity for implementing evidence-based prevention programs while addressing the adverse community experiences that exacerbate child maltreatment risk. This will take education, research, policy, and personal action to ensure that every child has a safe and healthy start. Visit TexProtects Advocacy Gateway to let our policymakers know that we need to put children and families first this legislative session to prevent child abuse and neglect.
“Using longitudinal, experimental data from the Early Head Start (EHS) Research and Evaluation Project (EHSREP) linked to child welfare agency records for 2,794 children, we examined the effectiveness of EHS birth-to-three services in preventing child maltreatment during children’s first 15 years of life.” Results showed that by a “children’s second birthday, families randomly assigned to participate in EHS had lower family conflict and parenting distress, and more positive parent-child interactions; these impacts, in turn, led to later reductions in the likelihood of children being involved with the child welfare system through age fifteen.… Findings suggest that early two-generational programs, like EHS, that are able to successfully decrease family conflict and stress and support positive, emotionally responsive parenting and child development, may reduce the likelihood of abuse and neglect later in life.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Texas must invest this legislative session in doing more of what works and less of what doesn’t. Early childhood and family support programs have short-term impacts and reduce the need for costly interventions later – in this case, reducing child maltreatment through age 15.Join TexProtects in letting policymakers know that prevention takes all of us.
This brief highlights findings from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) about children with developmental delays or disabilities and their placement within the child welfare system. NSCAW is a “nationally representative sample of children reported to child protective services. The survey collects data on a representative sample of the child protective services population by administering questionnaires and direct child assessments through face-to-face interactions with caseworkers, children, and caregivers.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Early intervention for children with developmental delays or disabilities may prevent future need for special education services. Texas is already addressing a finding of noncompliance related to federal special education and early childhood intervention guidelines and this report reveals that children in kinship care and foster care are even more unlikely to receive these critical services.
“To support the health and well-being of children and families of color, we must implement comprehensive strategies that address systemic and institutional racism. This report offers a blueprint for creating equity-centered, anti-racist policies that support the health and well-being of children and families of color.”
TexProtects Takeaway: TexProtects is a steering committee member of the Prenatal to Three Collaborative, which is focused on improving outcomes for children in the early years. To do so requires public agencies to leverage existing resources to create a continuum of supports, meeting families where they are and directly addressing policies that have resulted in disproportionate access to prevention and support for Black and brown families and their increased chances of involvement with child welfare systems.
“Permanency, that is ensuring children have long-term, enduring connections to family or other caring adults, is one of the three primary goals of the child welfare system, along with safety and child well-being. This study explores how frequently states make exceptions to this timeline and highlights issues behind states’ difficulties in achieving timely permanency for children. Two reports describe the findings. The first report discusses quantitative findings based on analysis of federal administrative data, and finds considerable variation among states both in the frequency with which children entering foster care experience TPR, and in the likelihood that TPR is conducted timely. The second report analyzes findings from state monitoring visits and data from key informant interviews with officials and stakeholders in three states and describes themes regarding barriers to TPR and timely adoption.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Recent child welfare innovations, including the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) that focuses on preventing foster care placements, are important. Yet, for the population of children in out-of-home care, we must do more to increase the likelihood of timely permanency by increasing consistency in practice, strengthening access to services, and decreasing caseworker turnover and caseloads.
“Buprenorphine treatment has been found to be an effective treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). Child welfare systems have been partnering with treatment providers to increase access, yet little is known about its role in improving outcomes related to child maltreatment. This paper finds, for the first time, that increased availability of buprenorphine treatment predicts reductions in certain types of child maltreatment caseloads in 25 states.”
TexProtects Takeaway: 66% of removals in Texas in 2019 were related to substance use. The Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) provides a federal match for state investments that provide evidence-based substance use services to families at imminent risk of entering foster care. This could dramatically increase the number of families who can stay together safely.Read more about FFPSA here.
“Child Maltreatment 2019 is the 30th edition of the annual Child Maltreatment report series. States provide the data for this report through the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS). NCANDS was established in 1988 as a voluntary, national data collection and analysis program to make available state child abuse and neglect information. Data have been collected every year since 1991 and are collected from child welfare agencies in the 50 states, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.” One key report finding is as follows: “The national rounded number of children who received a child protective services investigation response or alternative response decreased from 3,534,000 for federal fiscal year (FFY) 2018 to 3,476,000 for FFY 2019.”
TexProtects Takeaway:In Texas, the number of children who received a Child Protective Services (CPS) investigation or alternative response increased by 3.8% between 2015 and 2019. Overall, Texas’s rate is 8.7 per 100 children (lower than the national average of 8.9); however, the rates for children age three exceed the national averages. We must do more to support families with young children.
“This brief provides information on the cost of implementing a home visiting program for adolescent mothers. The information comes from an evaluation of the Steps to Success home visiting program in San Angelo, Texas…. As part of the evaluation, trained staff from Healthy Families San Angelo (HFSA) provided Steps to Success to pregnant or recently postpartum mothers ages 14 to 20. HFSA developed Steps to Success by enhancing a traditional home visiting program offered by the organization. While HFSA’s traditional home visiting program focused on child development and parenting, the enhanced program included additional program components designed to (1) promote healthy birth spacing, (2) encourage father involvement, and (3) support mothers’ education and career aspirations. For both Steps to Success and HFSA’s traditional home visiting program, mothers receive program services for up to two years.”
TexProtects Takeaway: TexProtects is the Texas chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America, the home of Healthy Families America. Home visiting models are innovating and evaluating variations in their models to better meet the needs of diverse families. Read more about home visiting here.
“This short report examines issues related to professional development for home visitors and home visiting supervisors. The findings presented are based on a national study of the home visiting workforce in Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program-funded agencies and interviews with experts in higher education and in the home visiting field. The report also shares information from a scan of online resources related to training and professional development for home visiting program staff.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Home visiting works and home visitors have been flexible and innovative front-line workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding how to recruit and retain a highly-skilled workforce for the impactful strategy is critical.
“This Policy Outline defines several common terms related to child development, student mental health and wellness, and school-based health services. Understanding these terms, which are distinct but connect in various ways, is critical to the policymaking process.”
TexProtects Takeaway: Half of American children have experienced at least one Adverse Childhood Experience (ACEs). Do you know the difference between trauma, toxic stress, and ACEs? As a result of TexProtects’ work on House Bill 18 last legislative session, all educators in Texas will now receive training on these critical topics and how they impact student learning and health. Read more about ACEs and our recommendations for the current legislative session here.
The Texas winter freeze and power outages are once-in-a-lifetime events that qualify as collective trauma for all of us. However, for Texans who were already in need or disproportionately affected by COVID-19, these events are compounding record-high levels of stress.
This crisis reminds us there is a clear and urgent need to put children and their families first this legislative session.
We need to ensure the immediate safety and protection of children who are survivors of child abuse and neglect. While events like the winter storm do not define families already under stressful circumstances, nor lead to child abuse, they do draw attention to the fact that thousands of children and families need our help and support more than ever. And we must work with the legislature on smart solutions to invest in upstream programs that prevent child abuse and neglect and mitigate the negative impact of events like these.
We are encouraged to see Gov. Greg Abbott’s vow to bring the state of Texas into compliance with the longstanding lawsuit against the Texas Foster Care system, recognizing that it is fundamental to ensuring the immediate safety and protection of the nearly 50,000 children who are survivors of child abuse and neglect and come through the state’s foster care doors every year needing help and protection. However, we know the foster care system has caused trauma that is on par, if not more significant, than what initially launched them into foster care.
The governor’s vow is a substantial promise and will require from our legislature this session an investment to the tune of $126 million — significant, yet worth every penny to protect the safety of our children. However, compliance with the lawsuit will not bring about transformational change. It is just the foundation and floor we must build upon.
An investment of $126 million to address the many issues in the lawsuit will not erase the trauma children in the foster care system have suffered. It will not support and protect children and families from reaching critical tipping points caused by unaddressed trauma and stress.
