AGE EFFECTS ON PLACEMENT Officials within the Texas foster care system have pointed to age as an indicator of a child’s chances to be placed in CWOP as well as how long that child will remain in CWOP. The following data represents 2021 through September.
CWOP: Children without placement occurs when the state cannot nd a suitable, safe placement for a child, requiring the state to provide temporary emergency care until a placement can be secured.
0-2 years old: 1 3-5 years old: 1
0-2 years old: 1 3-5 years old: 4 6-12 years old: 77 13-17 years old: 379
0-2 years old: 22 3-5 years old: 42 6-12 years old: 252 13-17 years old: 1,103
8-14 nights in CWOP
15-21 nights in CWOP
1-7 nights in CWOP
6-12 years old: 28 13-17 years old: 193
0-2 years old: 0 3-5 years old: 1
0-2 years old: 0 3-5 years old: 2 6-12 years old: 16 13-17 years old: 72
0-2 years old: 0 3-5 years old: 1 6-12 years old: 12 13-17 years old: 139
22-28 nights in CWOP
29-35 nights in CWOP
36+ nights in CWOP
6-12 years old: 23 13-17 years old: 126
SOURCE: TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY AND PROTECTIVE SERVICES/COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
revised and added regulations for the DFPS, including forbidding it from housing a child in an oce overnight, expanding eligibility for therapeutic foster care and transitioning into elec- tronic case management. Additionally, the DFPS requested an additional $83.1 million as part of Sen- ate Bill 1 to hire 312 caseworkers, which the Legislature fully funded, according to the September CWOP report. House Bill 5, which passed in September, allotted an additional $90 million to the DFPS, which will be used to retain providers and increase capacity to serve foster youth. “The importance of this funding cannot be overstated,” said Melissa Lanford, the media specialist for DFPS Region 6. “It is the dierence between a real placement for these older chil- dren and continuing to live in a CPS oce or hotel.” In the September CWOP report, DFPS Commissioner Jaime Masters said many providers have cited height- ened monitoring as a reason for declin- ing a placement, although she noted that did not indicate the department’s disapproval of the mandate. “DFPS is not ‘blaming’ the [CWOP] crisis on the court’s heightened mon- itoring orders,” Masters said. “While the monitors have noted DFPS’ ‘collab- orative’ eorts of listening to concerns of its stakeholders, it is an undisputed fact that DFPS cannot do this alone.” She said caseworker turnover result- ing from overworked employees has
director of statewide adoption agency Lonestar Social Services, said height- ened monitoring has also led to some foster parents removing themselves from the system altogether. She also said the pandemic has made nding placements more dicult. “We’ve had a lot of foster parents that will come to us and say, ‘Until COVID is over, we’re not interested in taking placements anymore because it’s just too much,’” she said. Arrow Child & Family Ministries, a Houston-area Christian nonprot organization, is a partner agency that provides child welfare services to children and families throughout Region 6—which includes Pearland and Friendswood. Ocials at Arrow said the area has followed state trends; plus, CPS is no longer licensing adoptive families in Region 6, leaving the burden of licens- ing, hosting informational meetings and training prospective parents on local agencies such as Arrow. Searching for solutions The DFPS has identied a need for 669 additional beds throughout the state to meet growing demands on the welfare system. Additionally, the department said it is lacking an ade- quate number of CPS caseworkers with 236 vacancies statewide. With these issues, Texas passed several pieces of legislation during the pandemic to address the needs. State Senate Bill 1896, passed inMay,
members work with foster children and say that sometimes it is the chil- dren themselves who choose to be without placement. For instance, some CWOP are put into foster homes, and they repeatedly run away, Eames said. “Unfortunately, sometimes the kids don’t want to be placed, so they cause trouble in the placements that are found for them,” she said. “These are In an August CWOP report, DFPS ocials said the number of children designated as CWOP had risen, in part, because of heightened monitor- ing regulations mandated after U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack ruled in 2015 that foster children in Texas “almost uniformly leave state cus- tody more damaged than when they entered.” Resulting system reforms included heightened monitoring, which is implemented when certain foster care system entities have had a high rate of violations. Entities placed under heightened monitoring are given a plan by court monitors to address deciencies and, failing that, face consequences, such as having their licenses revoked. not the easiest kids to place.” Extenuating circumstances Since January 2020, 21 general res- idential operations—facilities with 13 or more children—have been shut down or had their licenses revoked statewide, leading to the loss of about 1,200 beds, according to a September court update. Rebecca Mercer, regional
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most recent data available, that num- ber had risen to 395 children. Many of these children requiring placements have experienced physical and sexual abuse and neglect, and that abuse is increasing in frequency and intensity, according to Kristi Hawkins, executive director of Brazoria County Alliance for Children. “We have seen a huge increase,” she said. “We are seeing more severe phys- ical abuse.” Meanwhile, COVID-19 has caused a decrease in the number of foster families available to foster children, said Charity Eames, the chair of the Children’s Services Board of Galves- ton County and clinical director of DePelchin Children’s Center in Hous- ton. The board provides oversight of county funds for foster children, and the children’s center provides chil- dren’s mental health, intervention and welfare services. Foster families have not been immune to the nancial hardships and illness brought on by the pandemic. This has causedmany foster families to give up fostering, at least temporarily, Eames said. Most children designated as CWOP are older, and many of them have been in legal trouble, Eames said. Some are more content sitting in a CPS oce or getting placed in a hotel than being placedwith a foster family, Eames said. Eames said some of her fellow board
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