Bipartisan efforts are in progress at the Capitol to revamp the statewide Child Protective Services and foster care systems as Texas gears up for its 85th legislative session, which begins Jan. 10.State Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, has requested $50 million-$60 million in emergency funding to go toward hiring additional CPS caseworkers and increasing their salaries. The leadership of the state House of Representatives and Senate agreed Dec. 1 to approve a Texas Department of Family and Protective Services request for some CPS funding.
There are not enough homes for children awaiting care, Howard said.
“We have children who end up sometimes sleeping in state offices of the foster care workers,” she said. “We have a lot to do to try to create the foster care system that adequately provides for safe care of these children. [Children in state care are] basically our kids. We need to be responsible for taking care of them.”
Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and House Speaker Joe Straus have listed foster care system improvements among main agenda items for the upcoming session.
Straus said hiring more caseworkers and boosting salaries is a step to combat CPS turnover.
“The [House] Committee on Human Services will soon recommend ways that the Legislature can improve the foster care system, and we will take those recommendations seriously,” Straus said. “Improving the stability of the workforce at Child Protective Services and increasing the capacity of the foster care system are top priorities for the Texas House.”
On Dec. 7, state Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, filed Senate Bill 11, which aims to reform how DFPS cares for foster children. Changes in the bill include implementing an assessment system for highneeds children, requiring comprehensive assessments of children within their first 30 days in care, increasing capacity and streamlining investigations.
How funding care works
Foster care is ultimately paid for in part by taxpayer dollars, said Marissa Gonzales, spokesperson for DFPS Region 7, which includes Austin.
“[When] you pay your federal taxes you’re contributing toward Title IV-E,” she said, referencing the federal fund through which the state receives a portion of foster care funding.
DFPS contracts with many private and nonprofit child placing agencies that oversee and reimburse foster families and facilities, she said.
Marta Talbert, who took over this fall as the new regional director for CPS Region 7, said developing trust and retaining staff are among her priorities. DFPS has yet to finalize its legislative appropriations request for the next session, but DFPS Commissioner H. L. Whitman Jr. has requested 550 more CPS caseworker positions and salary increases for CPS workers. Of those, 166 would be for the Austin area. Abbott, Patrick, and Straus directed Whitman to identify urgent staffing needs.
In the meantime, organizations throughout the city are working to help bridge the gap.
The need is bigger than one group can provide, said Julie Kouri, Fostering Hope Austin founder and executive director.
“We’re definitely in a place where locally and statewide we’re desperate in the foster care world for families and for changes in the system,” she said. “We’re seeing the state partnering with churches, we’re seeing churches partnering with child placement agencies and vice versa.”
FHA works with Hill Country Bible Church in Northwest Austin on its foster and adopt ministry, which encourages the church’s congregation to help foster and adoptive families and children in the community.
Kouri said FHA is working on a campaign to bring in more than 300 new foster families for the area it serves, which includes Austin proper.
Foster Angels of Central Texas works to provide basic needs such as food, clothing and beds to children in foster care as well as other resources, Executive Director Tania Leskovar-Owens said.
“As community members it is our job. No child deserves to not have a bed to sleep on,” she said.
The state’s foster care situation is a crisis—and one that affects everyone, said Chrystal Smith, executive director of Austin-based Foster Village, which gives foster families gently used items such as car seats and clothes as well as a sense of community.
“There is a high rate of children who go into foster care who age out and have a very high likelihood of homelessness or crime,” she said. “A lot of it comes back to foster care—there could have been a difference made while those children were in foster care versus pouring resources [against] human trafficking and homelessness. Those are worthy causes, but if we can kind of intercede earlier when they are in foster care, that’s a great opportunity to help potentially prevent some of those problems.”
Kouri agreed early community involvement with foster families is key to solving critical issues that can develop later.
“It helps those children see that they have a community wrapped around them,” she said.
