[0:01] >> I think we're ready to start. Good morning. I call the september 12,

[0:07] 2025 meeting of the family and protective services council meeting

[0:12] to order at nine o'clock. I hope it's nine o'clock.

[0:17] I'd like to welcome everyone here in person and also those that are watching online.

[0:23] we're going to start by introducing the council members.

[0:30] I guess, I will start. I'm dr. Connie almeida,

[0:34] and I am from fort pine county, richmond texas.

[0:40] >> I'm enrique mata, and I'm from el paso, texas.

[0:45] >> good morning everybody. Omedi cantu arismendez, jim wells county.

[0:51] >> good morning everyone. Michael barton, also from fort pine county.

[0:56] >> good morning, juli craze, dallas.

[1:01] >> great. Thank you. Also up here with us, we have audrey o'neill,

[1:07] the acting dfps commissioner [inaudible]. I really hope that by the time I'm done,

[1:18] I pronounce your name. I really apologize. The general counsel for the department.

[1:24] great. Thank you. We're going to go ahead and start with our agenda for today,

[1:29] and we have a quorum, that's great.

[1:33] the first item on the agenda is to make a motion to

[1:38] accept the minutes from our last meeting.

[1:43] >> I moved that we accept the minutes from our last meeting.

[1:48] >> do I have a second for that? >> I'll second that.

[1:53] >> is everyone in agreement with that?

[1:57] yes. Thank you. We have accepted the minutes from the june 13 meeting.

[2:03] thank you. Just some general items,

[2:08] administrative items to remind everyone is our upcoming council meeting dates.

[2:13] our next meeting for this year will be december 12, 2025.

[2:18] then in 2026, we have two meetings,

[2:23] march 13 and june 12.

[2:29] next, we're going to move on to council actions

[2:33] and activities of the council members in their communities or throughout the state.

[2:39] let's go ahead and maybe, anybody that would like to share about what they're doing in their community,

[2:46] that would be great since our last meeting. Thank you.

[2:54] >> sorry, not so much in the community specifically, but I've taken an interest in the upgrade of our software system, the reporting system.

[3:02] impact, as I understand, is extremely old. I've done some work in tac and so

[3:08] I'm working with the team just answering some general questions. I have a general idea of everything that seems to be going smoothly,

[3:14] but I want to be involved in that because it's one of these things that often gets overlooked,

[3:20] but it's a system that our folks are going to be using every single day in the future.

[3:30] >> hello. The last few months has been very interesting being a council member.

[3:36] but I do want to share that I attended jim wells county. I was invited by the judge,

[3:41] the jim wells county family court. I was able to listen and see our staff in action,

[3:48] and I want to thank them for being so professional and very caring. I really appreciate that.

[3:54] second has just been very busy talking to different folks out there,

[3:59] what is the need and relying that message back to our laison.

[4:04] I want to thank cheryl and our acting commissioner for being so compassionate and understanding and listening. Thank you so much.

[4:15] >> well, out in el paso, we've had quite a few activities going on.

[4:20] one of the things that I thought I'd highlight for you all is that the recent updates to the cell phone prohibition and ban in schools,

[4:31] we have a group that comes together called the family leadership council,

[4:35] and they established a task force to talk about how we make sure that this is

[4:39] a positive approach that it's not something that becomes so punitive that it causes trouble for youth.

[4:48] what was surprising to us that this task force met a couple of times.

[4:53] as school started, there was an anticipated move for there to be panic from parents that they couldn't get

[4:58] a hold of their children and that we were going to see kids have a lot of negative consequences from it.

[5:05] surprisingly, we saw a lot less of that. The comments from the associate superintendents that we talked with

[5:12] were very positive and that the kids were very compliant.

[5:18] most schools have moved to a position where if they walk in the door and turn the phone off and keep it in the backpack,

[5:25] that it's not a problem. But one of the things that they're trying to track right now and

[5:32] I thought this was interesting in particular is that they're seeing a marked decrease in

[5:37] cyberbullying but they're getting a lot less commentary from that.

[5:42] this is anecdotal information and we're looking at how to track that, but it was a positive thing that was reported to us.

[5:49] aside from that, we are working towards other programs with dps involvement,

[5:59] we're looking at how we're handling some of our residential treatment and human trafficking conditions in our community

[6:06] and our north center of hope out in the community has been working closely with the office of the governor on this,

[6:12] and we've been really appreciative with the support that we're getting. Thought I just share those two things.

[6:22] >> good morning. I want to share a couple of take a different approach today.

[6:28] the adult protective services conference is coming up october 14-17th here in austin.

[6:35] I'm trying to get a good picture of all of you because I expect to see you all there.

[6:39] if you haven't registered, register. Speaking of that, one of the many wonderful things that happened at

[6:47] that conference is the bruce davis award of excellence is given to community boards around the state.

[6:53] I thought this would be a good opportunity to recognize the 17 who will receive that bruce davis award.

[6:59] there's 22 boards across the state of texas. These are boards, the volunteers who are dedicated to serving the community,

[7:08] like all of us, and for nothing other than to support the work of adult protective services in their communities.

[7:16] these are the 17 boards who will receive that award of excellence during that conference,

[7:20] the silver ribbon community partners board, the regional aps advisory board,

[7:25] permian basin, silver advocate partners board, aps silver star board.

[7:32] let's see brazos valley volunteer board, south texas aps community board.

[7:38] smith county adult protective services advisory board, silver star room board of the high plains,

[7:45] dallas county aps community board. That's my board for the record. Tarrant county aps advisory board and

[7:51] jefferson county adult protective services advisory board. I'm really proud of all the work these boards have done,

[7:57] how the community has rallied to come back together. Especially post covid,

[8:02] many of these boards really struggled to maintain their 501(c)(3) during that period of time,

[8:07] and most of them are back in compliance. I think that really speaks to the work of these individuals

[8:12] who have a passion for adult protective services. Then lastly, on behalf of my council member lisa hackett, who can be here today.

[8:21] I said that I would share some of the great things happening in walker county for her.

[8:25] they have a financial exploitation awareness event coming up on october 29.

[8:30] then they're doing something really cool in walker county that I was excited to hear about,

[8:35] which is connecting with care, which is parenting workshops basically. Working with those of us who are care-giving or just

[8:42] dealing with parents who are aging and don't know how to handle that or how to navigate that.

[8:46] they have that going on regularly in their community. Thank you.

[8:55] >> thank you. You can hear me, right? Correct. A little bit about fort bend county.

[9:03] one thing that I want to share is for many years,

[9:09] I had the honor of working with judge ronald pope, and judge pope was the family court judge of the 328 district court in fort bend county,

[9:19] and he was really a pioneer in this infant toddler work in increasing the awareness around

[9:28] the special needs and the need for special attention and timeliness of

[9:35] service delivery for the youngest children in our system with a focus on the 0-3 population.

[9:43] I was honored to work with judge pope and help him establish the first court in texas,

[9:53] and I think one of the first in the nation that was really focusing on this population,

[9:58] and this was back in 2005. We worked in fort bend county,

[10:04] we expanded our work to harris county, we expanded our work to bear county.

[10:10] many times, we're challenged because we wanted to do things differently.

[10:16] we wanted to connect children with early intervention services. We wanted to change visitation.

[10:22] when the goal was reunification, we know that contact with parents is essential.

[10:27] we wanted to add things like parent child evaluations and parent child services.

[10:34] judge pope retired in 2018 and sadly passed away in the end of july.

[10:47] he also served on the children's permanency commission,

[10:51] and I just wanted to recognize him for his work and the honor that I had working with him.

[11:01] in fort bend county, I've mentioned this before.

[11:05] we have a grant from the department of justice and through second chance.

[11:12] really the focus is working with parents that are incarcerated in their minor children.

[11:19] we're now going into our fourth year of this grant, it's funded again through the department of justice.

[11:25] what's interesting about that grant, we know that family contact and family supports are critical to reducing recidivism.

[11:35] we also know that unfortunately, having a parent that's incarcerated is

[11:41] a risk factor in an increased adversity for many children.

[11:46] what I didn't know, even though I've been doing this work for 40 years is

[11:51] the challenges of the community caregivers that are taking care of these children.

[11:59] they can be grandparents, they can be another parent, they can be an aunt.

[12:04] in my ideal view, I was thinking, these children need mental health services and things like that.

[12:11] but we are spending the majority of our time just stabilizing living environments,

[12:17] just making sure that these kids have close to go to school transportation needs.

[12:27] again, bringing that to everyone's attention because this is

[12:31] a very important work that needs to be done.

[12:37] really are reaching out to the children of those

[12:43] that have or are currently incarcerated in supporting those community caregivers.

[12:50] we are also trying to add parenting classes and parenting services in

[12:56] the jail so that parents have access to those services while they're

[13:00] incarcerated and then continue those supports when they get out. Thank you. I guess I'm on.

[13:08] yes. Sorry. >> good morning, everybody. How are you?

[13:15] just some updates of things that we've been working on. Since we last met,

[13:20] we had a wonderful conference at the university of texas at austin for teenagers in foster care.

[13:27] we brought in over 200 youth young adults

[13:31] and staff to come to ut for three days, overnight stay,

[13:36] so very fun to do that with so many teenagers and teach them about programming,

[13:41] what it's going to take to go to college, trade schools, employment, any path forward the military.

[13:48] any path forward is a path forward, and this conference was dedicated to their future and looking

[13:54] at what options they have to explore after they leave foster care.

[13:58] that was wonderful. We've also been working with the governor's office and

[14:03] the texas department of transportation to establish foster care internships at state agencies,

[14:11] and we're starting with textdot who has a lot of things.

[14:16] our students at ut austin will be eligible for these internships, so they'll be working at I 35 filling potholes. I'm kidding.

[14:22] they're going to be doing things that textdots does.

[14:28] we've also been working with the texas workforce commission at the university of texas.

[14:33] we went to their foster care workforce conference.

[14:38] I presented there and facilitated a panel and networked with folks there.

[14:42] there are some new initiatives coming that we've been working with them on that

[14:47] are going to connect young people and people that have left foster care to resources,

[14:51] and most importantly to people. Young people, they get a lot of information while they're in foster care,

[14:58] they get tons of meetings and packets and all these great things.

[15:03] but once they have left care, putting that into practice and

[15:07] actually receiving some of those things can be a challenge. We're trying to get something established so that people can navigate and

[15:15] do things with them after they have emancipated and gone on.

[15:20] some of the other cool things that I'm seeing that we're doing at ut is that we're

[15:25] establishing more resources for young people that have been in foster care.

[15:30] as everyone here knows, young people that are in care are eligible for

[15:35] an immense amount of resources that are just wonderful and trans formative.

[15:40] however, for some people that were adopted, some of the equivalent resources are not available.

[15:46] some of the supports that people are eligible for if they were adopted,

[15:50] they're not eligible for some of those things. Well, through the work that we've been doing at

[15:55] the university of texas with support from the president's office, we've been able to get things like scholarships for

[16:01] young people that were adopted so that even though they don't qualify for things like the supervised independent living contract

[16:09] that we have and aren't eligible under federal law, they could still get some help to pay for things like the dorms and stuff like that.

[16:16] I want to also give a real big shout out to day 1 bags and the texas exes

[16:23] who contributed a generous donation to our program at the university of texas to support young people who were in foster care.

[16:31] they raised well over $9,000 and provided that to us to provide

[16:37] directly to students for coming back to campus and getting started again.

[16:42] our program has grown and with the growth of our program comes more need.

[16:49] I want to just give a shout out to hunter at day 1 bags and all the texas exes that contributed to this.

[16:56] we were able to get each of our students a $200 gift card to just

[17:01] help them go to target and buy some things for their dorm or for their apartment,

[17:06] help offset some of the costs of groceries, books, things like that.

[17:12] I'm very appreciative of them. That's a summary of things that have been going on,

[17:17] and appreciate the opportunity to share. >> thank you, in my apologies.

[17:27] moving on, I'd like to introduce our acting commissioner,

[17:32] audrey o'neill, to deliver the commissioner's update.

[17:37] >> good morning. Thank you. I'm happy to share a number of updates this morning.

[17:44] I want to start by just sharing that. I know cheryl had shared with all of you a few weeks ago

[17:51] the process to apply for the investigations advisory committee which we discussed at our last meeting.

[17:58] that is the committee that is being stood up to advise the department on investigations practices.

[18:04] it's hb 140, the hb 140 advisory committee. Those applications were due last friday,

[18:11] and we appreciate the applicants who participated in that process.

[18:15] cheryl also recently shared with you all some communication guidance.

[18:19] we're really trying to make it a little bit easier for you all. When you receive an inquiry from someone that

[18:27] our system might be engaged with to give you just real quick,

[18:32] easy, accessible talking points. We certainly welcome any feedback you have on those talking points,

[18:37] and we're happy to answer any questions about what you can and cannot say in those situations,

[18:43] if that would be helpful to all of you. I'm excited to share.

[18:47] I think you all are aware because we have previously presented to you twice.

[18:52] I think we've talked with you about the sunset review that we're in the early stages of.

[18:59] the very first major part of the sunset review is the self evaluation report.

[19:06] I will just say this self evaluation report, it's really a very important and reflective process for an agency to look

[19:15] at their strengths and weaknesses at their opportunities for growth and the challenges that they face.

[19:22] there's also a wealth of information in that report about how the agency programs work.

[19:29] it is certainly a great resource if you just want a one stop shop or how does a family

[19:36] investigation work or what does the family based safety services stage of service look like at dfps.

[19:43] we're in the state of texas. But the highlight of that report is

[19:48] where we reflect on what are the major issues facing the agency, and the section of the report is called major issues.

[19:56] I just wanted to share a little bit about the major issues that we're facing and I will tell you this is available on our website.

[20:04] I think cheryl may have also shared a copy of it with you, but we actually have a sunset landing page now on the dfps website.

[20:12] as we move through sunset when there are appropriate things to add, we'll be adding that to the sunset webpage.

[20:19] we highlighted four major issues. I will say, it's their dense major issues.

[20:25] it's pretty intense reading, if you read it. The first is around the quality and consistency of

[20:34] investigations and our ongoing work to continue to enhance.

[20:39] I think that's an area of the agency where will never be done

[20:43] continuing to work on that's a continuous improvement for sure in that area of the agency.

[20:49] but also on improving access to timely due process and to case records,

[20:56] which I think we've talked with you all about is an ongoing challenge.

[21:01] the amount of records requests that dfps receives is very voluminous and is increasing.

[21:09] to your point, the case management system does not make dealing with those records requests easy.

[21:16] that is certainly a key item in planning for our new case management system.

[21:22] the second issue is around challenges in

[21:27] the community based care model of delivering conservatorship services and related to capacity issues.

[21:35] we've talked at length with you all about about needs

[21:40] for youth and really needing the right capacity in our system to meet those needs,

[21:46] including the capacity that we're working to develop through t3c, but that really is an incredibly important area of focus for us going forward.

[21:56] third is highlighting the dependence of our system on other systems,

[22:03] particularly on the behavioral health system, and just an acknowledgment that we do not provide behavioral health,

[22:11] so we are not the provider of behavioral health services for the state. We are reliant on other systems to provide those services.

[22:20] that's not only related to behavioral health, it is also for things like parenting classes.

[22:27] there's lots of different areas where we refer out to services and knowing

[22:33] those services are going to be there and that they're going to be easy to access in whatever area of the state that we need them,

[22:41] particularly in rural areas. This is a challenge remains an ongoing area of focus for us.

[22:48] fourth, but certainly not the least important of them

[22:53] is our focus on maintaining a highly qualified workforce by recruiting,

[22:58] supporting and retaining staff agency wide.

[23:02] always an area of focus rest that was actually a major area highlighted in our last sunset report,

[23:08] and we've made lots of progress since then. But this is very hard work,

[23:13] and it will always be a very big challenge to the agency to recruit,

[23:19] equip through training, fairly compensate and then retain those staff by supporting them and they're very difficult jobs.

[23:29] as we were just discussing earlier, hb 500,

[23:33] which we talked about at the last meeting does that's the supplemental appropriations bill.

[23:38] I'm sorry, shouldn't refer to it by its number. It funds a new case management system for dfs.

[23:44] it is the first phase of funding for a new case management system,

[23:48] so it only funds what we anticipate needing in the first finance.

[23:52] that does mean that next finance we have to go back and request funds that we'll need in the next finance and so on and so forth.

[24:00] we do I believe we have shared. I know at least upon request,

[24:04] we've shared the case management system report that we published last december, we're more than happy to share that with anyone who would like to read it.

[24:12] again, it's a manageable but dense read.

[24:17] the supplemental bill plus the writers and

[24:22] the appropriations bill do require that case management system be used not only by dfps,

[24:29] but also by our sscc partners so that we are all using one comprehensive case management system.

[24:36] planning is underway. It has really been underway for over two years now.

[24:41] I will say, I think this is really an area where we are fortunate that

[24:46] many states have gone before us and that has given us an opportunity to learn from their experiences.

[24:53] we are working towards implementing that system. It will take a number of years and the first phase, of course,

[25:00] like in any government system built is the procurement phase,

[25:04] we are working through that phase now. We are looking forward to partnering with agencies, including ssccs,

[25:11] but also we have other partners that utilize heavily our case management systems such as our cosa partners.

[25:16] we are working through really understanding the business needs for all stakeholders,

[25:22] including, of course, all of our programs at dps, including aps, and how they'll use that system.

[25:28] we have also started. We really wanted to be focused on automating solid efficient processes,

[25:37] and we started last finance, a process called business process redesign,

[25:42] where we look at function by function, key functions with the agency to make sure that from a process perspective,

[25:51] we have as efficient and effective a process established as

[25:57] possible so that then what we are automating is that refined process.

[26:04] we're just completing right now our statewide intake business process redesign and

[26:11] a business process redesign for our residential childcare investigations,

[26:16] and we'll be moving forward with other areas of

[26:20] the agency as we get a little bit closer to case management rollout for those areas.

[26:25] I do expect that we'll share information with you all certainly going forward and probably

[26:30] a presentation in the next couple of meetings around case management system planning.

[26:35] t3c, it has been less than six months since we began credentialing providers and t3c,

[26:42] as you all may remember, t3c is our texas child centered care is what that stands for.

[26:48] is really the complete overhaul of

[26:52] the foster care system for how we deliver and pay for foster care services.

[26:59] it takes us from a service level system where children and youth are classified into essentially five service levels.

[27:09] into a system that is really designed to meet the individual needs of each child or youth.

[27:17] as of now, I want to get the number. We do have 24 available service packages,

[27:25] and as of today, we have providers credentialed and 22 of those available service packages,

[27:31] including all available service packages and foster home settings,

[27:36] which is really important because we really want to see children served in home environments whenever possible.

[27:45] I will just note that it is really critical our work with providers around t3c.

[27:52] we can stand up a really advanced system that's really thoughtful about the needs of youth,

[27:58] but without providers coming alongside us to ensure that they are

[28:02] designing services that really deliver for children in youth,

[28:07] this would not be a success. We are very excited that we've seen a lot of provider response.

[28:15] we've got providers from all of niche environments.

[28:21] we've got lots of gro providers, lots and lots of child placing agencies,

[28:25] some residential treatment center providers, including residential treatment center providers,

[28:31] really targeting a higher level of services for children and youth with our highest needs,

[28:37] including behavioral health needs. As of august 31, 2025.

[28:45] I will share that when we started this process, we had a plan for how quickly we thought the provider community would become

[28:55] credentialed and then how quickly we would be able to move children and youth into unique service packages designed to meet their needs.

[29:03] when we did that, we anticipated that at the end of the first year, we thought we would have around 17% of

[29:10] youth receiving services through that service provision, and I should first say,

[29:15] there is basically a 2.5 year period. Of transition where children move into

[29:21] t3c and providers are credential to provide t3c services. We were very, very excited when on august 31,

[29:28] we had almost 30% of children in the foster care system receiving services through a t3c placement setting.

[29:36] yes. This includes packages designed for kinship foster homes, as you all know,

[29:43] providing care in a kinship environment is the preference when children cannot be safely in their homes.

[29:51] it includes providers serving youth with behavioral health needs and as I said,

[29:57] and providers with human trafficking history. Children with human trafficking history, me.

[30:03] speaking of human trafficking, you might be familiar with hb 451.

[30:08] I think we briefly discussed this at our last council meeting.

[30:13] hb 451 requires dfps to assess for the risk of commercial sexual exploitation in children,

[30:21] using a tool called the cse-it tool that stands for commercial sex exploitation identification tool, cse-it.

[30:29] it is a very quick. It's designed to be a very easy to use tool.

[30:34] it takes about 5-7 minutes to administer the tool. It's an information integration tool that uses information from

[30:42] intake from case files from professionals,

[30:46] including caseworkers and colleagues, from volunteers, csa advocates.

[30:52] to score and assess the risk of child commercial sexual exploitation.

[30:59] in 2019, dfp has implemented this tool in the five largest counties,

[31:04] harris, travis, bear, dallas, and tarrant, in specific circumstances.

[31:09] this legislation expands the tool to use across the state for all eligible children and adults.

[31:17] we are working to implement that legislation and we anticipate a presentation on this in our december council meeting.

[31:25] today, we are going to have a presentation from kristin harris on our transition age youth,

[31:32] and I just wanted to acknowledge that last meeting, we talked quite a lot about the needs of transition age youth.

[31:39] I think today in her presentation, you will see that there are some signs of growth,

[31:48] but there are still a lot of challenges, and there is a long way to go to meet the needs effectively of youth,

[31:55] particularly youth aging out of the foster care system. We're excited. This is really a starter to the conversation,

[32:02] and I'm sure I anticipate you'll have a lot of questions for kristin [laughter] I do imagine that this will be a point of conversation going forward.

[32:10] I do want to share so that kristin is not the bearer of bad news that we did

[32:16] learn since the last council meeting that we have received a significant reduction in haf funds,

[32:23] which are the funds used primarily to serve transition age youth, that's a federal funding source.

[32:28] that reduction is strictly related to the decline of children in the foster care system in texas, and basically,

[32:36] there is an available pi of haf funds, and since we've done the very important work of trying

[32:42] to right size our system so that if fewer children are entering foster care,

[32:47] we are entitled to a smaller slice of that pi is how it works.

[32:53] that was a 23% reduction that is a huge reduction in federal funds for us.

[32:59] kristen's team is working very hard to absorb that cost in

[33:04] a way that has minimal impact to services for youth as possible.

[33:09] in conclusion, we have lots of very important work ahead of us.

[33:14] we are working very hard to implement lots of legislation passed in the last legislative session,

[33:20] and to implement additional supports passed by the legislature.

[33:25] I think last time we talked with all of you about a number of additional supports that were funded to support kinship caregivers,

[33:33] including expanded daycare for kinship caregivers, which we really believe will be

[33:39] a critical resource for potential caregivers to care for relative children.

[33:44] lots of other implementation work going, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

[33:56] >> no, I just have a comment. Thank you. It seems like you've been so busy since you joined in this position,

[34:02] and I thank you for all the information and keeping us abroad.

[34:06] >> thank you. >> I also just want to make a comment regarding chafee.

[34:11] I understand that's a tremendous issue that's affecting not just our state,

[34:15] but other states as well. I know that chafee's re-authorization process in the federal government.

[34:23] I work with foster club. I'm on their board and they've been doing a lot of work in this area.

[34:28] there's still a long way to go, but I totally understand how

[34:33] that how the reduction in chafee dollars is really going to impact a lot of services,

[34:38] especially since chafee funds were set a while back and

[34:43] everything got more expensive and then trying to do more with less,

[34:49] and then that's reduced while everything's cost is very difficult.

[34:54] hopefully, we can talk a little bit more about what we can do about that.

[35:02] >> thank you for that very thorough report.

[35:06] I think it's fantastic that actually you're up to 30% of

[35:11] the youth now involved in the t3c.

[35:17] >> challenging. >> the whole process is challenging.

[35:22] but it's also encouraging to see that you are

[35:26] getting providers and that you that continuum of care,

[35:30] including that residential treatment, which we think we've all struggled with,

[35:35] making sure that these especially our children with a higher needs have appropriate services and placement.

[35:43] that's so encouraging. I think the sunset review,

[35:53] it's great that you've started this process, but obviously, that's also an additional burden,

[36:00] requirement on the agency in terms of devoting,

[36:05] having staff to really be able to focus on this. Can you just talk a little bit more about the timelines

[36:11] and are you provided with additional resources to be able to do that.

[36:17] >> we don't receive additional resources to be able to do that.

[36:21] however, we do have some standing teams at

[36:26] dfps and part of one of these teams is actually a team requested

[36:31] and funded by the last legislative session that really enables us to focus

[36:39] on strategic work and so we have a really outstanding leader of our strategic initiative sitting in the audience,

[36:47] a yesenia rodriguez, and she has spearheaded our work along with her team on sunset.

[36:56] really, it certainly is a lot of work. It's a very important process for an agency to spend time

[37:03] reflecting on where it needs to grow, and I think it's very unique to texas state government that we have this process,

[37:11] but I do think it really is a great opportunity for the agency to force you to set aside some strategic time,

[37:21] and we have a strategic planning process anyway that this really just folds into.

[37:26] but the timeline looks like the first step is the self evaluation report.

[37:33] the next step is what's called the staff review, and that staff review is,

[37:39] I would say akin to an audit it's not brilliant audit, but it's similar to an audit.

[37:44] I just can't help it, jennifer [laughter] but it's a really in depth

[37:50] review by neutral eyes who really gather lots of information.

[37:58] they will talk with stakeholders. They'll have extensive conversations with staff.

[38:02] they've already started talking with us. They collect a lot of information,

[38:07] and then they will work with members of the sunset commission, which is generally as a legislative committee appointed by

[38:15] the legislature and there are filled positions and some vacant positions right now that will be filled in the coming months.

[38:21] then ultimately that report I believe it

[38:25] will be finalized over the next year and a half in advance of

[38:30] next legislative session and that will result in a filed sunset bill that will address challenges of the agency.

[38:40] it may address some of the challenges we identified. It will certainly address other challenges that

[38:45] the sunset team identifies in their review. It won't really be complete until two years from right

[38:52] now when that new sunset legislation is effective,

[38:56] and that's what the whole process looks like. >> thank you. No other questions.

[39:03] we'll move on to our program updates, and as commissioner already mentioned,

[39:08] our next presentation will be by kristin harris from cps and vincent ryals from cpi to give updates on the dfps programs,

[39:18] specifically, children without placement and the alternative response. Thank you.

[39:27] >> good morning. Can you hear me? Hi. My name is kristin harris.

[39:33] I'm the director of transitional living services, our foster adopt division here at state office,

[39:39] and also icpc, which is the interstate compact for the placement of children across state lines when they're involved in the system.

[39:47] >> I'm vincent rios. I am the deputy director of family and investigations and alternative response.

[39:52] >> good morning. Thank you all for having us. We are here to provide some general programmatic updates.

[39:59] we're going to be sharing with you all some updated numbers for our divisions.

[40:03] also, I'll be talking to you more about our children without placement.

[40:07] then mr. Rayls will be talking about alternative response and providing some updates related to that.

[40:14] first of all, you'll see numbers for statewide intake,

[40:20] and you'll see that the turnover for our statewide intake staff has reduced since fiscal year 2024,

[40:26] and all of the data on the right hand side, as you'll see, is data that was collected on july 30th of 2025.

[40:37] we're about a month behind, but you'll see that the turnover is reduced as has

[40:42] the call abandonment rate reduced from 22.8%-18.2%.

[40:48] the hold times have also reduced from 6.2 minutes to 4.5 minutes.

[40:54] this is just really a reflection of the great work that they're doing at statewide intake to address turnover,

[41:01] to address the hold times and to make sure that the statewide intake staff are able to really get on

[41:07] the phone and get connected with people who are reporting concerns so that those concerns can be addressed.

[41:13] also for adult protective services, you'll see that the turnover rate has also reduced as has the average daily case load.

[41:23] their case initiation, timeliness continues to look really good at 98.6%

[41:29] of cases being initiated timely by our adult protective services workers.

[41:35] >> for child protective investigations, we're really proud of the reduction in turnover rate that you can see from,

[41:42] I think the first bar should show fiscal year 2022.

[41:47] we were at 45.5% and over the last three years,

[41:52] we have reduced our turnover to 30.3, which is still high for what you would call a normal organization,

[41:59] but what we do is not normal, so 30.3 is really good for us considering where we were.

[42:07] you can also see that there's a direct correlation between the turnover rate and the average daily case load.

[42:15] not only has turnover helped us, or lack of turnover helped us reduce our average daily case load,

[42:21] but changes that have been made to culture, changes that have been made to hiring practices,

[42:26] changes that have been made to how we train our staff and how we honor our staff have helped us to

[42:31] reduce our caseload from 17.1-8.5 cases,

[42:37] which really helps us when you have a case load that is manageable,

[42:41] it helps you to be able to protect children and do the things that you're

[42:45] supposed to do in order to make sure that children are safe. We're really happy that we've been able to do those things.

[42:51] priority 1 and priority 2, face to face contacts,

[42:56] actual and attempted have even during crisis, we did a really good job with our priority 1 contacts.

[43:03] we have 24 hours to make contact with families and try to see those children.

[43:09] we're now at 91.6% of all of our cases,

[43:14] we're able to see those children, see those families within time frames.

[43:19] also on priority 2 contacts, we have 72 hours, and we have been able to see those families and make contact

[43:28] or attempt to make contact with those families in 92.4% of our cases,

[43:34] which is very good. Also, our average time for closure,

[43:39] we have been able to reduce that from 45.5 in 2022 down to

[43:44] 29.9 days in order to be able to complete an investigation.

[43:50] again, those things are correlated to having staff and being able to train

[43:54] staff and being able to give staff the tools necessary in order to be able to do the job well.

[44:00] >> excuse me, vince, before you move on. Maybe I missed it.

[44:04] can you give a little bit more clear clarification on p1 and p2s what it stands for?

[44:14] >> sure. >> can be a little bit clear in that. >> sure. A priority 1 investigation,

[44:18] when we receive referrals from the community,

[44:23] they go to through statewide intake, statewide intake gathers all of the information and they have criteria by which

[44:30] they determine whether this is a priority 1 or priority 2 investigation.

[44:34] in other words, how much time this is a serious situation based on a number of factors,

[44:39] age of the child, the seriousness of the allegation, the history of the family.

[44:45] there are several determining factors that would cause them to state wide intake to say okay,

[44:51] we need to see this family within 24 hours. That's what a priority 1 investigation would be.

[44:56] they send that to the field, the field assigns that case and that case worker gets that case.

[45:04] when you think about the whole process, that the referral comes to us, it goes to statewide intake,

[45:09] it goes to the region, it goes to the program, it goes to whoever's unit that's supposed to get the case.

[45:16] now then then that worker still has only 24 hours from the time that it was called in to go out and see that family.

[45:24] that's what priority 1 would be and when you look at the process, workers have done a really good job,

[45:30] staff have done a really good job of taking those changes, those transitions and still being able to make contact with families.

[45:36] same process happens for a priority 2 investigations. It is just that we have 72 hours because there may be factors in those cases

[45:44] that allow statewide intake to look at those cases and that criteria and be able to say okay,

[45:49] we have a little bit of time, maybe the child is a little older.

[45:53] maybe the situation is not deemed as critical as you would say a priority 1 investigation

[46:00] would be and you have 72 hours in order to be able to make initiate contact with that family.

[46:10] >> kristin, real quick, on call abandonment.

[46:15] I'm guessing those are concentrated on the public lines and not law enforcement and so forth that they're calling in.

[46:22] >> I'm going to pitch that one to mss. O'neill. >> this is to the statewide, a hot hotline.

[46:29] there is a prioritization that comes into that hotline, but this, I believe,

[46:33] is just for the hotline as a whole so it wouldn't include any of our help lines or anything like that,

[46:38] but it's for the statewide intake hotline. >> but the hotline is used by law enforcement and the medical and education?

[46:48] >> it is, but there is a law enforcement. We have stephen here he can address this if he needs to.

[46:54] but they're like most of those calls are just prioritized so for example, a health professional,

[47:00] they do not have a separate number to call so they would be included in the same abandonment rate.

[47:07] I believe that same is true for law enforcement, they're just prioritized in the que, is that right, stephen?

[47:14] it does not include the law enforcement hotline. >> then the second question,

[47:19] when we say call abandonment, there's a big difference between I waiting too long, something came up.

[47:24] I'm going to have to call back later and they hang up. We don't know why they hung up versus they're in the middle of the conversation and they're like,

[47:30] well, for whatever reason, I'm just hanging up. Do you see a lot of the call abandonments during the call,

[47:37] or is this while during during the wait time? >> it's during the wait time. It's considered abandoned if they hang up during the wait time.

[47:43] >> if they get a hold of them on the phone, they're not hanging up during the call, typically? >> typically not. It happens periodically.

[47:49] I don't think that would be considered an abandoned call. It's considered an abandoned call if they hang up when waiting.

[47:55] >> perfect. Thank you so much. >> sure.

[47:59] >> moving on to the next slide, we're going to share some data related to child protective services ongoing services.

[48:07] you'll see that in fiscal year 2025 as of july 31st,

[48:13] the number of children in care was 16,137 children,

[48:19] which is slightly higher from the prior fiscal year, but we're still seeing overall that trend of the number of children in care

[48:27] overall since fiscal year 2022 and really even before that.

[48:33] conservatorship caseworker turnover has improved over the past three fiscal years,

[48:39] it's down to 27.1%. You'll see there on the slide that this percentage does not include our cbc areas.

[48:48] we do track that very closely, but for this particular data point, we're looking at conservatorship case workers,

[48:55] caseworkers who are working those ongoing services with children and families who are in our legacy regions.

[49:02] you'll also see that our average daily caseload for conservatorship workers continues to improve.

[49:08] we're really happy with the 13.8 average daily caseload

[49:12] for these workers because obviously when you have fewer caseloads,

[49:17] you can spend more time with children and families and really work to meet their individual needs.

[49:22] our fpss average daily caseload has also decreased since fiscal year 2024.

[49:29] it's currently at 8.9 average per case worker.

[49:34] we also track very closely children who are able to achieve permanency within 12 months.

[49:41] this is a really important data point because, as you know, overall children tend to fare better if they're not

[49:48] lingering in the system for long periods of time and so we are happy to see that

[49:54] that particular data point has improved since fiscal year 2024,

[49:58] and it's currently well, as of july, it was at 29.6%.

[50:05] we'll talk a little bit more about the children without placement a little later on in this presentation.

[50:12] but you'll see that we did increase slightly the average number of children in

[50:16] placement on any given day to 20 children from last year,

[50:21] it was 16 children. Then I know that you all have been updated on

[50:26] the various kinship initiatives that are occurring across the state.

[50:30] we continue to prioritize placing children with family or with a known family friend when at all possible.

[50:39] you'll see that children in kinship settings has improved to 43.1% as of july 31st.

[50:48] our goal for september 1st was to be at 45%, we don't have that data yet,

[50:53] but we do believe we will be very close and we will continue to watch this data closely.

[50:59] children with kinship at first placement. This is an initiative that child protective investigations and

[51:07] our family based safety services workers have really been working hard on and they've been

[51:11] collaborating with ongoing programs regarding children with kinship at first placement and you'll see that we

[51:19] have improved there as well in placing children immediately upon removal with somebody that they're familiar with,

[51:28] with the most recent data being that 39.1% of

[51:32] children are placed immediately with either family or a very close family friend.

[51:38] >> interrupt you for one second. >> yes. >> I just want to give them a shout out.

[51:42] the national average for kinship placements, I believe is between about 37 and 38%,

[51:49] so that our investigator staff have matured

[51:53] their practices to place 39.1% of children in kinship placements at removal,

[52:00] which exceeds the national average for kinship placements in total is

[52:05] a huge accomplishment and you'll see that this will be a real area of intensive focus for us going forward.

[52:12] >> I'll just add that the goal is 40% by january.

[52:17] we're still trying to make even more strides,

[52:22] it is different as we look at the data in different regions and different areas,

[52:28] there is room for improvement because there are some regions that are much better at making sure we do this than others.

[52:34] but the goal as commissioner o'neill has stated,

[52:38] we're very proud of the work that we've done, but there is room to make this of paramount importance.

[52:49] >> then lastly, on this slide, is just a snapshot of some data related to community-based care.

[52:56] this data is as of august 31st, so this is very recent data.

[53:01] 48.5% of all children in care across texas

[53:05] are currently being served through an sscc catchment area.

[53:10] we're working in various regions to continue implementing cbc statewide.

[53:17] currently, we have one region as of september 1st, which is in stage one implementation,

[53:24] and there are four regions across the state in stage two and stage three.

[53:29] that's just a brief snapshot. I know the office of community-based care will give more updates in just a bit.

[53:35] >> I have a question before we move on. >> yes. >> going back to the children without placement,

[53:41] the increase was 20 children. What is the age that increase was for?

[53:46] was it teenagers? Was it more youth? >> right.

[53:51] any adult? I mean, young children. >> we have a slide in a bit that will show a little bit more data related to that,

[53:57] but by and large, the majority of children who are without placement are generally 16 and 17-year old,

[54:05] but our 14-plus population really makes up for the majority of

[54:10] the children who have an episode of being without placement.

[54:19] okay. Overall. Dfps census, as you all know,

[54:25] it's a high priority for our agency to keep children and youth in the least restrictive and most family-like home setting possible.

[54:33] of the 16,137 children in care at the end of july,

[54:40] 82.1% resided in a family-like setting.

[54:44] that's good. But when you look at this, it just gives you an overview of where all of those children are placed.

[54:51] you'll see on the left, 41.7% of all children are placed in a foster family home.

[54:59] so that's considered a family-like setting because they're in a foster home that mimics a family setting.

[55:07] then on the right-hand side, you'll see 39% are in unverified kinship care.

[55:14] we discussed the kinship rate being a little over 43%.

[55:19] the reason that says 39% is because the remaining 4%

[55:24] are licensed and verified homes that would fall under that foster family home percentage,

[55:30] if that makes sense. Then the other thing that I just want you to note on this slide is

[55:35] that we're going to be talking more about our children without placement.

[55:39] it's really important that we continue to focus on those children in youth and their needs.

[55:46] they do make up 0.1% of the total number of children in care.

[55:57] children without placement. Between february 1st of this year and august 31st of this year,

[56:06] 410 youth experienced two or more consecutive nights in child watch.

[56:13] and approximately a third of those, or 33.2% experienced a subsequent episode.

[56:20] so we were able to find them placement. But for a multitude of reasons,

[56:25] those placements broke down those children or youth returned to child watch.

[56:30] on average, a youth who has experienced child watch has experienced

[56:37] a subsequent child watch episode, averaging 2.98 episodes.

[56:45] this just really is a reflection of the population of youth that

[56:49] we're seeing in child watch because they are higher acuity youth.

[56:54] what we found is that for our higher acuity youth, oftentimes we are able to find them a placement.

[57:00] we're working with providers who feel that they're able to meet their needs,

[57:05] but after the child is placed, they realize that the needs are really more complex than what they're able to meet.

[57:13] and so those children are often returning to child watch. >> can I just add something there real quick, kristin?

[57:19] I think this really just underscores our reliance on the behavioral health system and

[57:23] the services and supports that are available in that system. Because, as kristin just said,

[57:29] we are able to find a solution, but if that solution,

[57:34] even with a provider who is working very hard,

[57:39] cannot access the behavioral health services that they need,

[57:44] the youth is not going to get the treatment they need. Which means they are likely to find themselves in this pattern over and over again.

[57:53] and you all are aware that there was a lot of discussion,

[57:57] and the department really drove a lot of discussion in the last legislative session around

[58:03] the absolute critical importance of being able to access behavioral health services for these youth.

[58:09] there have been efforts by the legislature to address those gaps.

[58:14] this just remains a really critical area

[58:18] of need for our children and youth with the highest needs possible.

[58:23] kristin is absolutely right that typically these are older youth.

[58:27] I will note, and I think we may have shared previously, that we are seeing an emerging trend of younger youth

[58:35] with co-occurring intellectual and developmental disabilities,

[58:40] where we are really not able to find appropriate placement resources to meet their needs.

[58:48] there are specialized packages in t3c to address all of those needs,

[58:54] both the high behavioral health needs and co-occurring idd needs.

[58:58] but the reality is, there will probably still be this challenge

[59:03] with our children and youth with the very highest needs, and really making sure that there is a safety net

[59:09] available for those children is a high area of focus for us.

[59:15] >> okay. And so here is another snapshot of our child without placement data.

[59:23] this is really tiny. I hope you all can see it. For the line chart on the top,

[59:31] from the left are the numbers from july of 2021,

[59:37] and on the right is as of august 31st of this year.

[59:42] you'll see that for total unique children in blue who

[59:47] had been in a child watch episode at some point since july of 2021,

[59:52] we have been trending downward overall, which is good. Then also, I believe that the red or orange line

[1:00:01] is the average daily census of children who are in child watch,

[1:00:07] and that's also been trending down, and we're trending in the right direction for both of

[1:00:12] those data points as of august 31st of this year.

[1:00:19] for the total unique children that were in child watch, there were 95 unique children in child watch

[1:00:25] over the entire course of the month of august, and then the average daily census was right at 21% to 22%.

[1:00:35] then you'll see below the child characteristics. The two main characteristics that we're seeing in children who are experiencing

[1:00:45] episodes of being without placement are physical aggression and psychiatric hospitalization.

[1:00:53] meaning that they have some mental health needs that we're

[1:00:57] struggling to find providers who can adequately meet those needs.

[1:01:01] then, to the right, on the bottom, is the census looking at the age breakdowns as discussed earlier,

[1:01:10] and then also male versus female for august of 2025.

[1:01:16] as acting commissioner o'neill indicated, we do see 29% of the zero to nine,

[1:01:22] and largely those are younger youth who have some complex needs.

[1:01:26] but for the most part, over 56% are 14 or older.

[1:01:35] that's just a general overview of the census.

[1:01:40] do you have any other questions about any of that data?

[1:01:55] >> thank you for the data.

[1:02:00] it's excellent information, and I have so many questions, and clearly, there's so much progress.

[1:02:06] but I'm thinking about these youth and the behavioral health needs,

[1:02:11] and the co-occurring intellectual developmental disabilities. We're seeing this not only in the child welfare system,

[1:02:18] but also, unfortunately, in the legal system.

[1:02:22] do you have further data in terms of these children without placement?

[1:02:28] when do they come into the system first? I'm sure you might not have that readily available.

[1:02:35] these children who are coming in very young and what is their age of entry when we first get involved?

[1:02:42] and then also, I'm assuming a lot of these children have multiple placements.

[1:02:48] I don't know if you have any thoughts on that, but I'm just trying to figure out the trajectory.

[1:02:59] >> they do have a higher number of placements, and we don't have that data in here,

[1:03:03] but we do absolutely have that data. I will say one thing we have done over the last 2.5 years

[1:03:09] is try to dive into this data every way we could think of because we really wanted to understand what all the root causes are.

[1:03:20] it's not included here, but what I know historically is that roughly 38 to 42% of

[1:03:28] children who experience episodes of being without placement have been in the system for less than one year.

[1:03:36] that was surprising to us. There are certainly children who

[1:03:42] have been in the foster care system for a very long time.

[1:03:46] but there are also a number of children who are relatively new,

[1:03:51] and there is a significant portion of those children who come to

[1:03:56] us with a removal reason of refusal to assume parental responsibility,

[1:04:01] which we just try really hard to talk about. That means that family was so at their wits' end

[1:04:10] that they could not access the resources they needed to access to support their children in their home,

[1:04:17] and in some cases, those families end up coming to the child welfare system for solutions.

[1:04:23] we are really focused on making sure that we do not just build solutions into the child welfare system

[1:04:30] because a parent should never have to surrender their parental rights in order to receive behavioral health services.

[1:04:37] >> thank you.

[1:04:46] >> all right, alternative response. I thought there was another slide.

[1:04:51] let's talk about alternative response.

[1:04:57] we were just talking a little bit earlier about traditional investigations

[1:05:01] and priority one and priority two investigations. Another way of looking at how we investigate cases is an alternative response.

[1:05:11] one of the things that we have been looking at is making sure that we meet the needs of the family and keep children safe.

[1:05:19] in traditional investigations, normally, there is an alleged perpetrator.

[1:05:24] there is an emphasis on making sure that there's a disposition,

[1:05:31] whether a case was a disposition, meaning, whether we found that it was reason to believe that abuse and neglect occurred,

[1:05:38] or it was ruled out that abuse or neglect occurred, or unable to determine.

[1:05:44] in alternative response cases, we are still emphasizing keeping children safe

[1:05:50] and but we're working with the family in a collaborative manner, and one of the things that we do in order to work with the family

[1:05:56] is that there are no alleged perpetrators.

[1:06:01] there are no dispositions, and there is no central registry to which an alleged perpetrator

[1:06:07] might be added if they found reason to believe.

[1:06:12] I like to look at it as not taking away those things,

[1:06:18] but focusing on the solution. We can talk all day about who did what.

[1:06:24] but at the end of the day, if we have a case and we determine how we go forward with the case.

[1:06:32] how do we move forward with a solution that helps children stay in homes and keeps children safe?

[1:06:38] that, in some cases, can be our focus. So in our alternative response cases,

[1:06:44] one of the things that happens is, because we eliminate the fault,

[1:06:49] we end up with parents who are many times more

[1:06:54] willing to engage us in working on the solution to the situation.

[1:06:58] we end up with parents who focus their efforts

[1:07:03] on services that we can provide that can help them with this situation.

[1:07:08] you end up with caseworkers who are able to focus on locating resources and locating area stakeholders,

[1:07:16] or people within the community who might be able to help that family improve their family functioning.

[1:07:22] now, this isn't appropriate for all cases. As we mentioned earlier, priority one cases are not

[1:07:28] necessarily appropriate for alternative response.

[1:07:32] but there are priority two cases that we would look

[1:07:36] at and view as appropriate for alternative response. One of the things that we don't talk about in this slide is that,

[1:07:43] as we're expanding alternative response, we will have screeners who will screen almost all of our priority two cases,

[1:07:52] and we will have more cases that will start going to alternative response.

[1:07:59] hopefully, we'll get up to 40%. The goal right now is that up to 40% of our cases will end up in alternative response,

[1:08:07] and we'll be able to work collaboratively with parents to ensure that children are safe and to work with them on their solutions.

[1:08:15] >> the regions that are currently in the expanded area of alternative response are region four out in tyler,

[1:08:22] region five in baum, actually region 45 are together and they work together.

[1:08:28] region 10 in el paso is also

[1:08:33] an area that has been working and is working with expansion of alternative response.

[1:08:39] because expansion is so large in the state of texas, and I think there's another slide where we'll show the progression.

[1:08:45] there's a lot of training that has to go on for all of our staff, and so we have decided as opposed to trying to roll it out and say,

[1:08:53] here, everybody, take this and go work with it. We're working it so that every region has a stage that they're in and

[1:09:02] progressing toward getting to the point where everybody is up and running and fully functioning in the expansion of alternative response.

[1:09:10] I don't think I mentioned, but the expansion of alternative response would mean in these cases for us because

[1:09:18] so many of the program priority two cases would end up normally in alternative response,

[1:09:24] they were cases that were the children were 6-years-old and older and and there was limited history.

[1:09:35] in order to expand alternative response, we are taking those age ranges away and 0-5 will be considered.

[1:09:45] that's why they will be screened. They'll be considered for alternative response,

[1:09:49] and some of the history will also be considered.

[1:09:55] it will hopefully get us to the point where we're able to expand alternative response and be able to

[1:10:02] have more cases that will go down this area and help us work with families.

[1:10:08] the statewide training is in completion and it will continue until region 8 is done.

[1:10:16] I think region 8 is the last region that we have that is going through cross training. Right now, all of our investigators are not

[1:10:23] cross trained to work alternative response cases. It is very different. Is a very different way of

[1:10:29] working investigations and many of our traditional investigators who have been here quite a while,

[1:10:34] it is a shift for them. It working with them it's like pulling teeth sometimes,

[1:10:41] trying to get them to move to this different way of doing it.

[1:10:46] but everybody is in the mode of we're doing what's best for children so they're learning.

[1:10:52] our last region that we will be working with is region 8, which is san antonio/bexer county,

[1:10:57] and their cross training will happen in 2025.

[1:11:01] we are also up up dating policies and practices and the training manuals,

[1:11:06] and that is happening now between now and september and october 2025,

[1:11:13] in order to make sure that all staff are trained we have training models that have been introduced into

[1:11:19] the training academy so that when new staff come on, they are already trained and they're already cross trained.

[1:11:25] they have traditional investigation training and alternative response training.

[1:11:30] we also have updates to our internal and public websites about alternative response,

[1:11:35] and that is set to release in october. There will be testimonial videos, resources,

[1:11:42] and more information on expansion that will be available on our website.

[1:11:47] also, we have to track how successful this is.

[1:11:56] there will be data points that are being developed right now so that we can look at recidivism,

[1:12:04] how many alternative response cases are we working and those families come back for an investigation.

[1:12:13] we're hoping that this method allows us to reduce recidivism.

[1:12:18] we're hoping that this method allows us to decrease removals and alternative response real referrals.

[1:12:25] if you do your job successfully, and if this works successfully with the family being involved in helping us do it,

[1:12:30] then hopefully we should have fewer real referrals. We're looking at where we're asking workers and surveying workers and

[1:12:40] surveying families to find out what their satisfaction level is with

[1:12:45] alternative response in this new way that we're working cases. We're also working with referrals to services and we're tracking,

[1:12:55] how many new referrals now are coming into alternative response as opposed to in the past.

[1:13:04] our pilot region from february of 2024 to august of 2024 was region ten el paso.

[1:13:16] all of the proposed changes were tested and yielded in el paso alternative and

[1:13:23] we looked at data for how everything worked in el paso,

[1:13:30] region 10 from april 2023 to january 2024.

[1:13:35] during that time, 20% of all investigations that were worked worked alternative response.

[1:13:40] once the pilot started, 41% of all investigations that we were worked worked in alternative response.

[1:13:47] that was once the criteria was changed. We saw that we were successful in increasing

[1:13:52] the number of investigations that went to alternative response.

[1:13:56] the next set of numbers, didn't necessarily we hope that it works this well in all other regions,

[1:14:02] but there are so many factors. It's not a laboratory. There are many other factors that can be in place but in our pilot program,

[1:14:12] during the 10 months before alternative response criteria changed,

[1:14:18] there were 59 removals. In the ten months after alternative response criteria change,

[1:14:23] there were 32 removals, a 46% decrease in the number of removals.

[1:14:30] again, if we had a 46% decrease in the number of

[1:14:34] removals across the state, that would be great. But we can't say that. But we're hopeful.

[1:14:42] we're hopeful that it helps us to be able to work with families, and we're hopeful it should help us to

[1:14:48] be able to decrease removals and work with families and hopefully this model will allow us in many cases to have better outcomes.

[1:14:59] the roll out plan for alternative response, we have already started in el paso,

[1:15:06] which was the pilot region. It has already started in regions 4 and 5, beaumont,

[1:15:13] and tyler, and in region 9, midland. 2026 fiscal year, we will focus on rollout,

[1:15:21] and this is full rollout in three west and three east.

[1:15:25] that's fort worth and dallas, and region 11, which is corpus christi area.

[1:15:31] fiscal year 2027 will be regions 1 and 2 region 7 and region 6b,

[1:15:39] and our last two regions in fiscal year 2028 would be region 6a and region 8.

[1:15:47] we just show you this to show that again, we are trying to do this slowly and correctly.

[1:15:54] many times we can with any agency, but I've been here a while and I've seen us implement

[1:16:00] something really fast and there ends up being a lot of confusion. But in this case, what we're really trying to do is implemented slowly

[1:16:08] and correctly to make sure that we have the best chance for good outcomes.

[1:16:15] I think that's it. Questions.

[1:16:20] >> thank you so much. Do we have questions? >> I do. I want to say seeing

[1:16:28] the rollout and development of alternative response has been something that I'm very grateful to see.

[1:16:35] it was more than ten years ago when I was working across the street at winters, working next to the people that were developing alternative response,

[1:16:43] at that time, I thought it was brilliant and I'm really glad to see that this is something that stuck around.

[1:16:49] I think at its core, alternative response removes some of the adversarial elements that exist between families and the system.

[1:16:56] I think that by addressing that, you can have people have fundamentally different experiences.

[1:17:02] it doesn't surprise me one bit to see that in the pilot that there was a 46% reduction,

[1:17:07] because if people feel that they can work together and that in a collaborative way that's not punitive,

[1:17:13] I think that you're going to get safer families and a stronger system.

[1:17:17] being able to see that is really helpful and it's inspiring for the future.

[1:17:23] I just think that if that carries forward, every other state in the union is going to be like,

[1:17:29] let's do that because I think any child welfare agency would be 50% reduction in removals.

[1:17:36] yeah, we're going to do that. Kudos to you all and ktc agency for sticking with it.

[1:17:42] I agree the roll out, having it go slow and incorporating cqi in this process to make

[1:17:47] sure it's done well will result in a much better system.

[1:17:54] >> I'm glad you mentioned that alternative response as been stated,

[1:18:02] it's not a new thing. My first alternative response training was probably 2014.

[1:18:08] we've been doing this and moving toward it

[1:18:12] and ramping it up for quite a while so it's not something that we're new at,

[1:18:18] it's just something that we're in the process of expanding.

[1:18:24] >> my only comment was, thank you for piloting this in el paso,

[1:18:29] and I'm hoping that you found a lot of adaptability within the staff and the willingness to

[1:18:34] shift to changes whenever that's needed because I always like to see things getting piloted in el paso.

[1:18:41] >> I'll just say that we went to el paso.

[1:18:45] our leadership team went to el paso two months ago.

[1:18:49] the nicest people in the world are in el paso. I was shocked.

[1:18:54] I'm not shocked, I didn't know anything but it

[1:18:58] was very nice and then the staff were also.

[1:19:04] >> I can at least agree that enrique is one of the nicest people.

[1:19:10] just for someone who may not understand how alternative response would be an appropriate solution,

[1:19:16] are you able to share a p2 case example, just high level that would be more appropriate for alternative response,

[1:19:24] and then I have something another question when you're done. >> a 7-year-old comes

[1:19:36] to school dirty and hungry and says,

[1:19:42] we don't eat at home and there's not a lot of food

[1:19:47] and I don't know if there's food there's going to be food at home when I get home.

[1:19:54] the school calls that in, we get the referral, it is referred to alternative response.

[1:20:00] alternative response would call the family. Set up a family session,

[1:20:07] not go in and talk to the children individually first. They set up a family session with the family to sit down and talk and say, hey,

[1:20:13] this is what we got, this is what the situation is that we understand,

[1:20:18] tell us how we can help or tell us what the issues are, what the concerns are,

[1:20:22] and how can we work together so that if there is a problem with your children eating,

[1:20:29] how do we fix that. Then you're able to work with the family,

[1:20:34] and they don't look at it like, you're going to rtb me for for physical neglect of my children.

[1:20:40] they say, well, I need this and I need that and I need this. We go and help them find community resources that can help them

[1:20:47] with this situation and that situation and whatever their situations are.

[1:20:51] we would also talk to the children and make sure that there aren't any other areas that we need to be concerned about.

[1:20:58] but when we're able to work with that family and address those needs,

[1:21:02] then we close their case. >> can I add just a couple of things to that?

[1:21:07] I think that the unique thing about the pilot is previously,

[1:21:12] I think a 7-year-old would have met the criteria for alternative response or an 8-year-old. I'm not sure if it was up to seven or over seven,

[1:21:19] but a 5-year-old would not have. If there was a 5-year-old in the home,

[1:21:23] it would have automatically had to be routed as an investigation in our policy.

[1:21:28] this enables us, we really want to use the least intrusive tool.

[1:21:35] I think there was a story out of el paso that really stuck with me where we had I think a 3-year-old who

[1:21:44] mom was a single mom and just struggling to keep all the things going.

[1:21:53] the child was particularly adventurous and he got out the front door and onto the highway.

[1:22:02] of course, that's a very serious safety concern.

[1:22:07] it properly required response by the department but we would have

[1:22:14] previously had to route it as an intake and we would have investigated negligent supervision.

[1:22:21] that doesn't necessarily mean we would have substantiated negligent supervision, even if the child did get out into the street.

[1:22:28] that happens without a parent demonstrating gross negligence,

[1:22:34] and that's the criteria for negligence supervision. However, this enabled us to just have

[1:22:40] a family team meeting and there were that mom had supports that were available and we

[1:22:45] were able to connect her with community resources and it was really as simple as installing locks higher up

[1:22:51] on the door and just connecting that family to each other and to some resources that would allow her to safely parent.

[1:22:59] >> I appreciate those responses. I think sometimes in our fear based culture,

[1:23:05] not having examples when we're talking about concepts that seem really scary and people aren't always willing to ask the questions,

[1:23:14] really helps them understand how this more collaborative approach will be best for everyone.

[1:23:21] one of my favorite words is pilot. I use it all the time and I pilot things all the time.

[1:23:28] what I've found though over the years, so I'm just really curious about y'alls approach to the slow rollout is in the pilot,

[1:23:35] the reduction of removals is really impressive. I wondered what you're going to be doing to continue to track

[1:23:45] those cases over time to ensure that the ar was the proper response.

[1:23:52] if you have anything in place yet, you may not, but it has it been in consideration.

[1:23:56] >> yes. That's part of what the research team is

[1:24:01] working on and putting together data points that would allow us

[1:24:05] to determine if that family comes back into has another re referral or comes back into and then we have another case with them.

[1:24:16] they're they're working on those things to try to track those. Again, you're dallas, I'm dallas so

[1:24:22] I don't expect 46% in dallas but I expect it to be better.

[1:24:32] there are certain areas- [overlapping] >> we're el paso. I need you to do better. [laughter]

[1:24:42] >> I think there are things that happen in rural and urban communities they are just different.

[1:24:50] >> yes. But to answer your question, yes, we are working on right now,

[1:24:55] figuring out how to track all of those as we expand and how to track the differences too.

[1:25:01] how it will be different, how it may be different. In el paso as opposed to houston,

[1:25:07] and tracking whether 46% remains 46%.

[1:25:12] >> well, thank you for that. It was really helpful. >> I'll just note about the 3-year-old escaping the house.

[1:25:20] unfortunately, that's fairly common.

[1:25:24] sadly, it takes the intervention of either law enforcement or cps,

[1:25:29] because usually what happens is, the mom goes to the says, I need to move the lock up and no,

[1:25:34] that's violation of the lease will evict you if you modify or whatever.

[1:25:39] my kids getting out. No, that's the rule you can't do it. It takes one of us just being present to say,

[1:25:46] sure, we'll change a lock, which it could have done from the beginning, but for some reason, they don't.

[1:25:50] it shouldn't be like that, but I have found that's the standard and not the exception when it comes to modifying anything.

[1:25:57] putting that lock up higher is often all that really needs to be done. It's not that expensive, it doesn't take that much.

[1:26:02] unfortunately, we have to get involved to get other people to do what they should have done to begin with.

[1:26:08] >> the bigger part of it for our families is we have a situation like that.

[1:26:13] the mother's a teacher. If she's root reason to believe for that,

[1:26:18] she's on the central registry, now it may affect the job. Now you have a whole different problem.

[1:26:28] >> yes, there's no more questions. Thank you so much. That was an excellent presentation.

[1:26:33] your data over time and your comparison data is just very impressive,

[1:26:38] even know how we compare to other states and national data. Thank you.

[1:26:44] >> thank you. >> with that, next,

[1:26:52] we'll have holly mims to give a cbc update from the department and then randy neff,

[1:26:59] who's the senior vp from empower, to share with us an update on the community based care in their region. Thank you.

[1:27:07] >> good morning. I'll try again. Good morning.

[1:27:12] my name is holly mims, and I am with the community based care operations division,

[1:27:16] and I'm excited to give you an update on community based care today. On our first slide, we give you an update on implementation of cbc as of september.

[1:27:25] on the right, you'll have the updated map of our catchment areas. Each catchment area is notated with the sscc that covers that area.

[1:27:34] recent news since the last time we were able to give you guys an update is on september 1st belong,

[1:27:41] our sscc and region 8a moved to stage 1.

[1:27:45] very exciting, took a lot of work between dfps and

[1:27:49] our sscc partner and it was very successful transition to stage 1.

[1:27:54] they moved immediately into stage 2 readiness on that day.

[1:27:58] also, of note, region 6a and 6b depelchin is our sscc provider in that area.

[1:28:05] they moved into stage 1 readiness. Kickoff was late last month.

[1:28:10] it's exciting. You saw the stats a couple of slides ago.

[1:28:14] cbc is at that point where almost half the youth in texas are covered by cbc and in sscc.

[1:28:21] on our next slide, I want to bring to your attention our current procurement activities and our future procurement plans.

[1:28:30] speaking of pilots, senate bill 513 was passed in the 89th regular legislative session.

[1:28:37] it gives dfps an opportunity to pilot with entity

[1:28:43] to design and build a model for community based care in rural areas.

[1:28:48] we are in the quiet period right now for our procurement. We're very excited to see what comes of that pilot.

[1:28:56] our interagency contract with the university of texas at

[1:29:00] austin is our final report will be received from ut on the 31st.

[1:29:06] as a reminder, this contract was for our cbc process evaluation to see what has

[1:29:13] worked as we've moved cbc forward and what we can improve on.

[1:29:17] we hope to incorporate those findings and recommendations to better our services to families across the state.

[1:29:24] last but not least, our agency was funded to expand

[1:29:28] community based care to four more regions in the coming biennium.

[1:29:33] region 7a, 7b, 11a, and 11b.

[1:29:37] we are in the procurement planning for those areas and hope to release those rfas later this year.

[1:29:44] they will be staggered, and our implementation will be staggered, as you've seen in the recent years.

[1:29:51] we've talked about lessons learned, so that was definitely one of them. Also, our region 2 re procurement is underway.

[1:30:00] we'll be releasing a procurement for that, an rfa for that area in fiscal year 26.

[1:30:10] we are planning for that now because our sscc contracts are five years with an optional one time five year renewal.

[1:30:18] to engage our sscc provider out there and dfps, utilize that optional renewal and we're getting toward the end of that period.

[1:30:28] those are my updates for you, but I did want to share that all of these items,

[1:30:33] any new happenings, any legislative reports are on our cbc website.

[1:30:38] it's communitybasedcare.org, no hyphen. Then also on the site,

[1:30:43] you can sign up for our gov delivery list, or any of these updates will come straight to your inbox.

[1:30:49] with that, I thank you for your time and I'm open to questions.

[1:30:55] what was the website again?

[1:31:02] communitybasedcare.org, no hyphen.

[1:31:12] >> thank you. >> thank you. No questions [laughter] thank you so much.

[1:31:23] >> next, randy. Yes. I'm in power. Thank you.

[1:31:35] >> thank you. It's a honor to be here today. When I received the invitation to, I misread the email.

[1:31:43] I thought it said I had 2 hours, but it's only 20 minutes. Just kidding, but I do feel like the information I want to share,

[1:31:53] there's a lot of stuff going on community based care. I'm honored to be a part of the community-based care model.

[1:31:59] in fact, what holley was presenting, actually I started my career when I was 20,

[1:32:03] and I was at dfps for about 18 years. As community based care implementation started,

[1:32:09] from region 2, so to engage, and I actually made the decision to move over to work for

[1:32:15] tfi and implementation to engage and was part of stage 1 and 2 there.

[1:32:20] to hear how long it's been, I feel like wow, I've actually had the unique experience of being a part of

[1:32:28] implementation of stage 1 and 2 and in the rural area with to engage,

[1:32:33] and then I started helping with empower in june of last year.

[1:32:38] you got to experience another implementation in the urban area.

[1:32:44] there's a lot of work going on, but I'll tell you the impact that we are making in the community it's measurable.

[1:32:49] that's what I'm hopefully to communicate with you today to tell you the journey we've been on with empower and where we're headed as well.

[1:32:57] empower, as you can see, we have the dallas county and eight other counties.

[1:33:02] we have grayson, fannin, colin hunt, rock-wall, kaufman, ellis, and navarro.

[1:33:08] that's the nine counties we serve with dallas being obviously the largest.

[1:33:12] empower, as we prepared for our implementation,

[1:33:18] we developed some really strong relationships with providers and actually have a collaborative and that's ck family services,

[1:33:24] jonathan's place, bar foundation and pathways. They are at the table with us as we look at service delivery,

[1:33:32] what is it that we need to focus on and make some key decisions. We appreciate their partnership in this and all the providers that we have,

[1:33:38] community providers and residential providers with empower. What I wanted to just talk through is where we've been and where we're headed.

[1:33:48] on the next slide, I just want to highlight some of the early challenges that we had in the progress that we've made.

[1:33:55] the first one is workforce. I want to go over that. We launched stage 2,

[1:34:01] the case management piece in march of 2024. On march 1, we felt really good about the resource transfer,

[1:34:08] the staff that transferred to us. We felt really good about it until about march 15,

[1:34:13] and then we felt pretty uneasy about it. What we saw is a lot of dfps staff that transferred over.

[1:34:19] we're planning to do this work and then change your mind pretty quickly.

[1:34:23] I don't know that it was really the 15th, but it was pretty quickly. You can see that the numbers dropped there and we started going in the wrong direction.

[1:34:32] as we recognize that, in the impact that has on your workforce,

[1:34:36] we decided that we're going to have to really overhire, because as commissioner o'neill has said,

[1:34:42] the workforce is critical to your ability to be successful.

[1:34:47] unfortunately, what you see early on in the transition is you see a lot of your experienced staff that don't come over,

[1:34:55] that you lose some of that knowledge too. There's just a lot of new staff and staff that are new to child welfare

[1:35:00] and that can create some challenges,

[1:35:04] some challenges that it just takes time to work through because you've got to build experience and train your new staff,

[1:35:09] mentor them and in child welfare. It takes time to learn how to do this work and really learn how to

[1:35:14] be efficient with all the different demands that are involved in the child welfare system.

[1:35:19] what you'll see is, again, the reflection of our increased numbers there is we overhired,

[1:35:24] because we knew that we were going to have turnover. You're going to have staff that join your organization and feel like this is the work for them and some,

[1:35:30] they're going to be like, there's no way I can keep doing this work and they're going to pursue other opportunities.

[1:35:35] but we have stabilized our workforce, and on the next slide, you'll see some progress there.

[1:35:40] we were again, reflective march 24, august is some of the staff that some of those never even got out of training.

[1:35:47] they figured out during training that work wasn't for them. Some of them did, but recognized pretty quickly

[1:35:53] that child welfare just wasn't the field for them. But what we've seen is the progress of our resignation.

[1:36:00] we were seeing almost, we've cut it not quite in half, but we've reduced it significantly as far as the turnover.

[1:36:07] that's significant because that's less disruption for children and families because every time you have a staff leave,

[1:36:12] if they've got a caseload, you're having to move their caseload to another worker anytime there's a interruption with children and families,

[1:36:19] it can cause challenges with their case and progress, all that. We are celebrating that we have reduced that,

[1:36:26] and we're very hopeful we'll continue to see that progress in the workforce and reduced turnover as well.

[1:36:32] one of the things that want to really emphasize though with the workforce that I can't give you a slide about,

[1:36:39] I can't measure is the heart that our staff have for this work. That is very evident as you talked to our staff and

[1:36:45] all staff meetings and just hear them present about their cases and we make sure every meeting that we have,

[1:36:51] we have heart stories where they share those heart stories, and that's huge. That's a big part of what we're doing is making sure that our staff have

[1:36:58] the support and do not lose sight of the impact they're making with children and families in the community.

[1:37:04] anyhow, if there's a metric for that, we would be off the charts. But of course, it's hard to measure that.

[1:37:10] caseloads. I know that looks pretty busy there, but that's a good slide right there.

[1:37:14] [laughter] that's a slide that just helps me sleep really well at night. Because the top bar, march of 2024.

[1:37:23] what that means is that 42% of our staff had their caseload under 17 kids.

[1:37:34] their caseload we're talking about the number of kids they have on their caseload. In march 24, we were only at 42% had 17 or fewer kids on the workload.

[1:37:44] you had over half that had more than that. Of course, we had some with up to over 25 kids,

[1:37:50] and as you can imagine, that's pretty tough to keep up with when you have that high of

[1:37:54] a caseload and unfortunately, it got worse. We hit all the way down to 15% that were under 17.

[1:38:01] but as you saw on the graph a minute ago, we overhired,

[1:38:06] we increase the number of staff in training and eventually climbed out of that.

[1:38:12] we are holding steady at having about 98% compliance with our staff being under 17.

[1:38:18] again, that's just reflective, they have the bandwidth to just be more

[1:38:23] effective in their work and just spend more time with children and families.

[1:38:28] it's definitely a beautiful slide for me to see today.

[1:38:32] >> just real quick. I'm assuming you're measuring the kids because some cases have multiple children as opposed to measuring cases?

[1:38:39] >> correct. Each kid counts as a case. For a sibling group of five, that's just still in the same.

[1:38:44] >> thank you. >> yes, sir. Again, that was definitely

[1:38:50] a process for us to go through having so much transition and building our workforce,

[1:38:57] but pretty good about where we are today after this last 18 months or so.

[1:39:06] on the next slide, another thing that we are really

[1:39:11] pleased with is I don't like to say children without place. I like to talk about let's talk about children in placement.

[1:39:16] I know in the dallas area, this catchment area,

[1:39:21] before and empower took over, I believe the children without placement was double digits at any point in time,

[1:39:27] is what I understand that that was a high number. Next slide, you'll see our progress with that.

[1:39:32] you'll see that it's a total number of sscc supervision.

[1:39:37] what you'll see is there is a lot of the episodes that we

[1:39:41] have you're seeing fewer nights as far as it may be one child,

[1:39:46] but there's been just one night. What that is that first column is just the number of episodes of sscc supervision,

[1:39:54] and that could be the same child, multiple times or something like that. We didn't break it down like that.

[1:39:59] now, you'll see in october and november was pretty intense that period of time.

[1:40:07] but we got through that period and got that stabilized again.

[1:40:11] what this takes is it takes a really strong relationship with

[1:40:15] the community providers to make sure that again that they have the resources they need, the support they need,

[1:40:20] and the confidence they need in the sscc to know that this is a collaborative effort,

[1:40:25] that we're going to work together to ensure that we have the services for children,

[1:40:30] that we have the support, or collaborating on what's best for children.

[1:40:34] it's been a tremendous partnership with our residential providers,

[1:40:39] child placing agencies gros, residential treatment providers to really just make sure that

[1:40:43] we are all collaborating and making sure that they also take ownership for when we are unable to get a kid into placement timely.

[1:40:51] again, seeing the single digits is a lot more

[1:40:55] comforting to know versus having multiple kids at one night.

[1:41:00] again, I guess we want to emphasize on this slide is if you had 20 kids and

[1:41:05] then if you times that by a night for each of them and multiple nights,

[1:41:11] number is going to be in a hundreds real quickly. On the next slide, you'll see also again,

[1:41:17] we measure again the actually episodes of supervision and also the total night.

[1:41:24] as you see those numbers match, that just means again, it was maybe for one night and then we quickly got them into placement.

[1:41:29] I think that's significant. When we did have that period of time in the october and november,

[1:41:36] we did have a youth that was under sscc supervision or our child without placement for quite a while,

[1:41:44] and that really took us some time to find the right setting. I think commissioner neal talked about the needs of that child with idd,

[1:41:52] autism, some developmental issues there. Is a real challenge, and fortunately,

[1:41:56] we had a lot of support from the state to help us secure placement at the state living center,

[1:42:02] one of the state supported living centers, but just took some time for all the different processes to work out.

[1:42:07] but anyhow, we're just going to move on past that and feel like those days are over and move to our next slide here. Kinship.

[1:42:15] >> this is again, something we're really encouraged by to see our growth in kinship on this next slide.

[1:42:23] we've increased since march of 2024 from 33% of our kids to being in kinship,

[1:42:28] and we are at 40% now. We actually hit 42% in march of 2025.

[1:42:34] I feel like our number would be a little bit higher, but we got hit pretty hard over the summer with removals.

[1:42:41] I really didn't slow down. A lot of times you anticipate when schools out you may not see as many referrals,

[1:42:46] but they didn't take the summer off. It's been busy. But we are really looking at our model,

[1:42:55] just really pleased with where we are with our numbers of kinship increasing. We have a model where we have family finders,

[1:43:01] a team of family finders. Anytime that a child enters the foster care system,

[1:43:06] if they are not in a kinship placement, if they're in paid placement or gro foster home,

[1:43:12] they hit the ground run, and they'll do a case review. They'll look and start reaching out to

[1:43:16] the different supports that may be involved in that child's life. Just to really start figuring what would it

[1:43:22] take if you're not a placement option now? What would it take? What resources do you need? Again, that models really helped us increase our number of kinship.

[1:43:30] then also, again, our partnership with investigations and their initiative has just made a huge difference in the community is increasing our numbers.

[1:43:38] always something you'd like to see is an increase in children being with their families for sure.

[1:43:42] >> let me ask a quick question. >> yes, sir. >> earlier, the previous presentation,

[1:43:46] we heard that it was around almost 40% of people were having kinship as their first placement.

[1:43:53] what are you seeing in terms of people having their first placement with kinship?

[1:44:00] >> that would be a vincent question to get what that community's data looks like.

[1:44:05] I know we see a lot of subsequent placements and we see our family finders helping find some subsequent placements,

[1:44:11] but I just don't have the data that tells me what our numbers are for the initial placement.

[1:44:16] I just don't have it. I hate to give you a number because it would probably be incorrect.

[1:44:21] >> thank you. >> but I think it's contributing to our numbers for sure.

[1:44:26] I do want to give that credit, but I just don't know what it is. >> I just want to interrupt very quick.

[1:44:31] we can get that data for you. We have it by [inaudible], so that's not a problem.

[1:44:35] >> thank you. On the next slide, also,

[1:44:39] one of the other things we're again, really pleased with is our life skills training.

[1:44:44] our model, what we did, is in lieu of contracting that out. We brought that in house as far as the responsibility for life skills training.

[1:44:52] the requirement is that youth before they turn 18-years-old need to have a complete the curriculum of life skills,

[1:45:00] which gives them an overview of budgeting and how to advocate

[1:45:05] for their health needs and job berating, all those things.

[1:45:10] we have that curriculum. We have a team that delivers that curriculum, as you can see in quarter 1 of this year. We were 100%.

[1:45:17] we didn't have one youth miss their life skills requirement.

[1:45:21] we did have a few that we've missed this quarter, but our compliance is pretty high.

[1:45:27] it's in the high 90s. Again, I think that what's really significant about this is

[1:45:32] our staff have the ability to meet the youth where they are. If it needs to be a one on one because of what's going on in their life,

[1:45:38] we can get out there and do that. If we need the traditional classroom, we offer those quite often and also virtual trainings as well.

[1:45:45] we again, just really appreciate our staff's diligence

[1:45:52] in making sure our youth are receiving this training, just another thing that we have been pretty pleased with as far as our progress on life skills training.

[1:46:01] the future is bright. What I just went over is reflective of

[1:46:06] a 18 months or so that we've been at this because we went live with stage 1 in september of 2023,

[1:46:13] and here we are about to celebrate a two year anniversary of stage 1 and we launched stage 2 in march of 24.

[1:46:22] we just celebrated our one year anniversary just recently for that. The transition is tough.

[1:46:27] again, having the unique experience of being through that twice now.

[1:46:31] when you take a system and move it from the state to the private entity,

[1:46:36] there's just a lot of turbulence that happens, but as you can see, you work through that,

[1:46:41] and then again, this is the exciting times right here, and that's what I'm looking forward to. The next slide I'll tell you about is we

[1:46:47] are working on implementation of solution based casework. This is our practice model that we have used in other jurisdictions as well.

[1:46:56] dr. Christiansen is the founder of solution based casework'. One of the things he is very clear about is if you follow the fidelity of this model,

[1:47:05] you're going to see an increase in reunification outcomes and families being engaged in a higher level,

[1:47:10] and it's built on the foundation of early engagement. We want to get to those families just as quickly as possible.

[1:47:16] I think, like chair amedia said, just earlier on, the interaction with families is huge.

[1:47:23] it is huge to build that partnership, and that's what solution based casework does. It gives our staff the framework to

[1:47:29] really engage families as quickly as early as possible, build that relationship and that port,

[1:47:34] and start sorting out with them. What got them in the situation? What were the daily patterns in their life

[1:47:41] that maybe allowed this situation to happen that required the need for intervention.

[1:47:45] as we figure that out, then we move on to building some action plans, and what are we going to do differently and focus on

[1:47:50] behavioral change to make sure that it doesn't happen again so we can get the kids back to them

[1:47:54] and there's not that recidivism that will happen. As we make that progress,

[1:47:59] documenting celebrating change and doing that alongside families in that partnership.

[1:48:05] I'll tell you one of the things that my experience at dfps,

[1:48:10] and being a part of implementing solution based casework in the past.

[1:48:15] there's a lot more. I was started to get

[1:48:19] some calls from families and they were calling me not to complain, but to praise a caseworker.

[1:48:24] I thought this is not normal. It's just different.

[1:48:28] because again, I was in the role at dfps as a problem administrator, I got a lot of complaints about case managers.

[1:48:34] but when I start hearing the praise and seeing that I'm like, man, this is great. What we've seen as we've implemented this is after the implementation,

[1:48:42] staff start getting certified in their solution based casework. You start to see the increase in reunification outcomes.

[1:48:48] I'm really excited about that. We just actually finished the initial training for all of our staff.

[1:48:53] now they are on the path of using the tools and becoming proficient and we'll be handing their certification.

[1:49:00] again, just a preview if we come back, maybe this time next year, I might have a slide that shows you that increase

[1:49:05] that doctor christiansen assured us that we'd see and we have seen in the past. Another thing we have.

[1:49:11] this is, again, as timothy was talking earlier, something that I'm really looking forward to next week,

[1:49:16] week from yesterday, and we'll call it next chapter life after foster care.

[1:49:21] what this is is we recognize that our youth,

[1:49:26] they need opportunities and resources to first keep them in the community.

[1:49:31] just because of lack of resources, lack of capacity, it's sometimes a big challenge to keep them in their community as we'd like to.

[1:49:38] we have worked in partnership with the dfps state office transitional living team has been a huge support to us,

[1:49:45] and lots of just community providers. But we have invited a lot of our residential providers,

[1:49:51] child placing hcgros those that serve youth in their programs.

[1:49:56] then also, we've partnered with trac that offers our after care case management contract.

[1:50:01] we also have invited the local school districts, the education service center, that work with foster care liaisons, housing authorities.

[1:50:10] we've invited just as many as possible to come to this meeting here,

[1:50:14] and let's talk, let's review our data. But the thing that we want to do is going to be a call to action.

[1:50:18] it's going to let our folks know hey, here's the data, here's what we're seeing as far as trends for our youth that are

[1:50:24] 14 and over and where they are. Let's change that. Let's get these kids back in the community,

[1:50:29] and what can each of us do to make that happen. When we started this, I thought,

[1:50:34] I'd be pretty content if we could have about 30 or 40 people show up and last time I saw we're worried,

[1:50:40] we're going to have about 100 and we're worried about the space because we're doing this at dallas college.

[1:50:45] but we're going to figure that out. That's a good problem to have. My hope again, this is just the start of seeing some big movement there.

[1:50:54] it's pretty unique when we had a conversation with several providers about this and the word started spreading and like,

[1:51:00] hey, how do I get to come to this meeting, you guys are having all that. Usually you don't get folks trying to come to a meeting,

[1:51:05] but they want to be a part of this. The committee is on fire for this, and I'm really excited.

[1:51:09] I'd be thinking about a week from yesterday as we get ready to start this journey.

[1:51:14] again, my hope is if we come back a year from now, you're going to start to see some more exciting things

[1:51:19] after we have this meeting and start to work together on this collaborating. We've also launched another initiative.

[1:51:26] again, as you guys have heard, capacity is a challenge.

[1:51:30] we just need more of it and we need more foster home beds.

[1:51:35] that's one of the things we've been focused on is keeping siblings together. Too often, we just don't have the number of beds we need to keep our siblings together.

[1:51:43] a few months ago, we launched our sibling bond campaign.

[1:51:47] what that is is we have 10 sponsor directors and we

[1:51:51] asked them to submit a sibling group that is currently separated that we want to get back together.

[1:51:56] we bring all of our providers together, and we present those sibling groups.

[1:52:00] we ask them to think about capacity that we don't have today,

[1:52:04] but we'll have very soon. That meaning maybe some upcoming discharges that will create

[1:52:09] an opening or families they have that are very close to being licensed.

[1:52:14] again, capacity that we don't have access to today, but we'll have very soon. I'm super excited to say that we've had,

[1:52:21] I believe four meetings because we do these every month. We've had four meetings and out of the four meetings,

[1:52:27] three of them, we've been get siblings that are separated back together.

[1:52:31] that's huge to be able to say that.

[1:52:35] I think the other thing it's done is created that culture of our providers being really diligent

[1:52:40] and just thinking about how do we expand our beds or as we engage families,

[1:52:44] how do we really just communicate the need to increase the number of siblings we're taking.

[1:52:50] I've asked our providers to take that tape measure, double measure, make sure is that room big enough for more than one child.

[1:52:56] I really let families know this is a huge need, and we're starting to see again some movement there moving the needle on that as well.

[1:53:04] those are a few of the campaigns that we have, initiatives we have.

[1:53:08] I think on the next slide, the next slide is wrapping up.

[1:53:12] as I close, I just want to say this. The opportunities working in a community based care model are significant. It's not easy.

[1:53:21] there's a lot of challenges, but that's why it's called community based care because we're not in this alone.

[1:53:26] it's not empower based care rather it's the community. We just need each and everyone to come together,

[1:53:31] help us figure out solutions. I think again, what's unique is if we find something's not working,

[1:53:37] let's go back to drawing board and do something different. I just appreciate all the community support

[1:53:42] we have and their willingness to work alongside us on this. I'll pause there and open for questions and see I could have went for two hours,

[1:53:48] but I did my best to ring that in. >> I'm sorry, your name's not written on here. What is your name again?

[1:53:56] >> randy neff, n-e-f-f. >> thank you.

[1:54:00] >> yes, sir.

[1:54:05] >> no question. That was an excellent presentation.

[1:54:10] in focusing on the siblings, I don't think we talk enough about that,

[1:54:16] but I'm so glad that you mentioned that and that is partly what you're doing,

[1:54:22] very collaborative approach again, keeping children together and siblings together when you can.

[1:54:28] I do have a question about the data. I noticed april was zero. If you go back.

[1:54:35] >> let's go back to the slide. >> go back to your slides. It's the one on the out of children without placement.

[1:54:48] I think it's that one.

[1:54:53] do you know why it's zero? >> I'm looking.

[1:54:57] >> april 2024. >> I don't know. I don't want to say that's accurate.

[1:55:04] that can be an error. I'm going to say probably it's an error.

[1:55:10] >> was it a zero? >> may be when I emailed the slide deck because I'd be surprised.

[1:55:17] but I'm going to suspect it's an error, but I need to double check that make sure.

[1:55:22] I do know we have actually had lots of streaks of no sscc supervision and no cwap.

[1:55:29] we put together streaks, but I'm not going to say that's accurate.

[1:55:34] >> it could be. It just stood out, so I was just wondering.

[1:55:40] >> I'm glad you caught that. >> thank you so much. I don't have any other questions.

[1:55:45] are there any other questions? Great presentation. >> thank you so much. I appreciate it.

[1:55:50] appreciate you guys having me. Thank you.

[1:56:01] >> I think we're going to have kristin harris

[1:56:06] back to talk about transition age youth. Thank you.

[1:56:13] >> good morning again. >> thank you.

[1:56:19] >> again, my name is kristin harris. I am the director over transitional living services here at state office,

[1:56:26] as I stated earlier, one of a couple of divisions that I work with.

[1:56:32] I just want to say that working with our youth is one of my favorite things.

[1:56:38] when you meet with them individually, they're just so inspiring and so resilient.

[1:56:43] I think that I'm just very gracious to be here today to talk about transition age youth,

[1:56:50] how we're working with them. Where maybe some of our deficits are where we need to continue to focus,

[1:56:57] and here if you all have any ideas or answer any questions you might have.

[1:57:02] thank you for having me. This presentation, I will warn you,

[1:57:06] it is very data heavy. But data tells a story.

[1:57:12] I'm going to be walking you through the data, sharing information with you and feel free to just

[1:57:17] ask questions along the way because it is data heavy. This first slide here,

[1:57:24] this shows you the trend of the population of our 14+ youth in care since 2018.

[1:57:33] we talked earlier and I know that you all have been updated probably many times about how

[1:57:38] the population of children in youth in foster care has been decreasing significantly over the past several years.

[1:57:45] in 2018, in that year, we had about 30,000 children in foster care,

[1:57:51] and in 2024, as you'll recall, just earlier today, we talked about how we're just over 16,000.

[1:57:59] our fiscal year has ended. We don't have those final numbers, but we were 16,100 and something as of july 31.

[1:58:07] but you'll see that the trend for our transition age youth,

[1:58:12] and when I use the term transition age youth, I'm talking specifically about any youth who's in foster care who's 14 or older.

[1:58:19] the trend has been that even as the total population has decreased,

[1:58:25] the percentage of children of youth over the age of 14 has continued to increase.

[1:58:32] as of fiscal year 2024 about 22.3% of all of the children in youth and care were age 14 or older.

[1:58:42] you'll also see this slide demonstrates where our 14 plus population was residing.

[1:58:49] we like to look at this information because it gives us a depiction of,

[1:58:54] well, first of all, are they living in the least restrictive setting, or are they in more restrictive settings?

[1:58:59] if they happen to be in more restrictive settings, that may give us some idea of what their needs are.

[1:59:05] in 2018, 2018 is noted by the blue,

[1:59:10] and 2024 is the yellow. In 2018, you'll see that there were

[1:59:16] significantly more 14 plus youth who were

[1:59:20] residing in a non relative foster home or a kinship placement.

[1:59:24] then there also were some residing more in emergency shelters and residential treatment facilities.

[1:59:32] this basically tells us that as those numbers have decreased for the less restrictive placement,

[1:59:39] then we see the numbers increasing for the more restrictive placements. Our basic childcare went up by 4%.

[1:59:46] those are congregate care settings. Mostly, the youth placed in those settings do have more basic level needs,

[1:59:54] but it is congregate care, so it's not family like. Then in our other foster care and

[1:59:59] our other substitute care settings there on the far right. Those have increased pretty significantly by 5% and 3% respectively.

[2:00:08] >> those are capturing. It's a catch-all for our placement.

[2:00:13] it's capturing children and youth who are in a psychiatric setting,

[2:00:18] children and youth who are in texas juvenile justice department,

[2:00:22] are missing or runaway youth are captured in those two settings, and so psychiatric hospitalization.

[2:00:29] generally, those are higher acuity youth. This slide again, just really demonstrates that as the years have gone by, again,

[2:00:38] our transition age youth population is increasing percentage-wise,

[2:00:44] but it's all they're also generally having higher acuity needs.

[2:00:49] >> I do have a question on the other foster care,

[2:00:53] would that include treatment foster care? What is included in other foster care?

[2:01:00] >> other foster care is the texas juvenile justice department facilities and hospitals.

[2:01:07] your rtc settings or your treatment settings.

[2:01:13] >> thank you. >> this slide also shows the way in which our transition-aged youth have exited care.

[2:01:22] you'll see that a larger percentage of our 14+ population are exiting care by way of aging out at the age of 18.

[2:01:30] that's the blue line on the top. You'll also see that there are slightly fewer youth who are leaving

[2:01:38] custody of dfps because the custody is transferred to a relative.

[2:01:42] that's the red line, and slightly fewer who returned home to their parents.

[2:01:49] we track this information because we do want to see the trend in population of the youth who are aging out of care.

[2:01:57] but it's also interesting to see are these youth able to be returned home to less restrictive settings,

[2:02:03] and are they exiting that way, or are they lingering in foster care longer.

[2:02:08] >> kristin, can I interrupt you for just a second? I think this is a good time to highlight that we

[2:02:15] talk about changes to the population of children in foster care,

[2:02:19] and those changes skew the level of need of children is what we're seeing,

[2:02:26] and we're seeing that across the foster care system. A child who is removed today into foster care,

[2:02:32] I can just anecdotally tell you, has more serious needs, whether they're two or 10 or 15,

[2:02:40] than they did five years ago. That is a transition that has happened in the system as we ensure that we

[2:02:47] are only removing kids who absolutely need to be in foster care.

[2:02:53] but it does impact these numbers. I just think it's really important to keep the context in mind.

[2:02:59] I think about this a lot with kinship to where we cannot just compare 2018 to

[2:03:07] 2024 because the makeup of the population and

[2:03:11] the needs of that population has changed so very much over the years,

[2:03:17] and that does not in any way mean that we should accept that that blue line is increasing because that's the opposite outcome that we want.

[2:03:25] it means that we need to hyper focus on additional services

[2:03:30] and supports to help those youth get the treatment they need,

[2:03:35] whatever that need is, it's not always a treatment need, whatever the need is to ensure that they are achieving permanency before they age out,

[2:03:43] or if they absolutely must age out to ensure that we are equipping them to be adults.

[2:03:48] >> absolutely. Keeping that in mind,

[2:03:52] we're going to move to talking about the services and supports that are available to our transition-aged youth.

[2:03:58] again, we're also going to talk about some of the gaps and things that we know that we need to work on.

[2:04:05] this is a list of the services that transition-age youth are generally provided.

[2:04:11] up at the top, it talks about how we have specialized staff at both the department agency level and also at the ssccs in our community-based care areas,

[2:04:23] who really serve as the subject matter experts for all things related to transitional living services.

[2:04:31] all of our youth have a case worker who's working their legal case and working with

[2:04:37] their parents and working with their support system in order to identify the best form of permanency

[2:04:45] for them and urgently work towards that permanency plan.

[2:04:51] but they also have a subject matter expert in the legacy areas, we refer to them as pal staff,

[2:04:56] preparation for adult living. These are really our people who are

[2:05:01] the experts in knowing the services that are available to our transition-aged youth and making sure that

[2:05:08] those services are adequately executed for the individual youth on their caseload.

[2:05:13] I'm going to run through these and just give you a very brief overview of what the service is.

[2:05:19] first, you'll see we have the life skills assessment. This is an assessment that is done with youth beginning when they turn 14.

[2:05:29] they have a pre-assessment that just gauges where they're at in terms

[2:05:33] of their ability to respond independently to things.

[2:05:38] it might gauge their ability on their understanding of financial management,

[2:05:43] their understanding of obtaining housing and signing leases and taking out loans,

[2:05:53] those things, as well as your daily life skills of cooking, cleaning, all of that stuff.

[2:05:58] they're given a pre-assessment beginning at age 14. They're also given a post assessment after they

[2:06:04] complete their life skills training classes, which mr. Neff spoke briefly about,

[2:06:11] our life skills training classes, our classes for youth,

[2:06:16] with youth, with hands-on discussions about all of the things that they need to know in order to be a successful adult.

[2:06:24] they complete a series of classes that addresses six core competencies in the area of independent living.

[2:06:31] then after they complete those classes, they also take a post assessment to see what did they learn from those classes,

[2:06:39] and where do we still need to help them to move the needle further for their ability to be a successful independent adult?

[2:06:47] we also have transition and financial support services.

[2:06:51] this is a contracted service. We have contracted providers in every region across the state.

[2:06:58] mr. Neff mentioned one, he mentioned track. Track is our provider in the dallas-fort worth area.

[2:07:05] these contracted providers they provide case management services.

[2:07:10] they can provide for youth who are preparing to age out of foster care,

[2:07:16] but largely their case loads are for youth who have already left foster care and continue to need some case management services.

[2:07:24] they also have financial support services through them. If a youth is needing some funds in order to set themselves up in an apartment,

[2:07:35] or if they need groceries to be paid for, there's some assistance for them through that.

[2:07:40] the aftercare room and board financial assistance is through the transition and financial support services,

[2:07:47] and it's up to $3,000 that they can receive,

[2:07:52] and it's provided in $500 increments so just to give you an overview on the financial assistance.

[2:08:01] then there's also the transitional living allowance, which youth access through their pal worker.

[2:08:07] the transitional living allowance is up to $1,000 to assist a youth or

[2:08:13] young adult with whatever they might need in order to successfully transition out of foster care.

[2:08:19] then we have a lot of events. I know mr. Belsef had spoken on some that he's been engaged with and involved with.

[2:08:28] we have our statewide team conference that has occurred the last several years at ut,

[2:08:33] and timothy has been amazing to collaborate with because he and his team pull off such an amazing event for our teens.

[2:08:42] but all of these events that are listed lower on this slide are intended

[2:08:47] to provide youth with a forum to come together as a collective.

[2:08:53] it's really important that our young people feel that they're not alone and

[2:08:59] to come in community with other youth who are experiencing similar things.

[2:09:04] also, while they're there to really give them some of those extra educational tidbits that they

[2:09:10] need in order to successfully transition out of foster care.

[2:09:14] we do hold several statewide events. We also work with and support our regional teams and

[2:09:22] our sscc teams so that they can host similar events on a smaller scale for youth in their own communities.

[2:09:34] then this just gives an overview of some other things that we're really

[2:09:40] focused on helping youth who are transition-aged youth with.

[2:09:45] we know that obtaining personal documents for youth in foster care can be a challenge.

[2:09:52] when I mean personal documents, I mean like their birth certificate, their social security card,

[2:09:57] and their state id or driver's license. We know that that can be difficult.

[2:10:02] we also know that, as they move, sometimes things get lost.

[2:10:06] our pal staff and our sscc equivalent staff work with

[2:10:12] the caseworker in their areas in order to help obtain those documents.

[2:10:19] at state office, my team helps with ordering birth certificates for every youth in care who's over the age of 14.

[2:10:26] we do those in batches, and that's just one way that we help to make sure that they have their birth certificate,

[2:10:32] because you really have to have that in order to get the social security card or the state id.

[2:10:39] that's a good start, and then the regional staff work with the caseworker again to get the other documents as well.

[2:10:46] the state office team also assists by conducting annual credit reports for all youth who are over the age of 14.

[2:10:55] we know that our youth sometimes are targeted for identity fraud, identity theft.

[2:11:03] we just want to keep a close eye on that because we want to make sure that, especially as they're transitioning out of care,

[2:11:09] bad credit that was not something that they did,

[2:11:14] that that's not held against them. We run these annual credit reports,

[2:11:19] we provide them to the regions. If there are any concerns or discrepancies that are noted,

[2:11:25] then we work with the credit bureaus to help get that cleared up. We also work with the regional teams

[2:11:33] to ensure that they're engaging youth employment readiness activities.

[2:11:38] we have a partnership with the texas workforce commission. We work with our local areas to make sure that

[2:11:44] they have partnerships with their local workforce boards, and our regional teams are really great at coming up

[2:11:52] with activities to help youth with interviewing skills,

[2:11:56] to get them what they need in order to successfully apply for or interview for a job.

[2:12:04] I know a lot of regions do clothing drive so that youth can go to

[2:12:09] a clothing event and leave with an outfit that's appropriate for an interview.

[2:12:16] suits and ties are nice, slacks and dresses, that sort of thing.

[2:12:21] then another service that we provide, and I'm sure that all are aware of it is extended foster care

[2:12:27] for youth who are over the age of 18; they can elect to,

[2:12:33] it's a voluntary program. But they can elect to remain in paid placement beginning at age 18,

[2:12:41] if they're still in school, if they're 18 and they're still in high school or working towards a ged,

[2:12:48] or if they're in higher education, maybe they're in vocational school or in college,

[2:12:55] but they want to stay in their paid placement they can do that. They also, over age 18,

[2:13:00] can remain in extended foster care if they're working at least 80 hours a month or

[2:13:07] working towards an independent activity that will help them to gain employment in some way.

[2:13:14] when they hit 20 years old, they can stay until they're 21 if they're

[2:13:20] still in high school or working towards their ged.

[2:13:24] then we also have return to care. Sometimes we have youth who feel like they really are ready to be independent.

[2:13:32] a lot of times, they're just done with being in foster care,

[2:13:37] but there is a return to care option. We also work on homelessness prevention planning.

[2:13:42] I have a youth housing specialist on my team as state office who is very familiar with housing resources across the state,

[2:13:51] and he works with the pal staff and the sscc equivalents. Then I know you're also aware of our post-secondary education support services,

[2:14:00] which includes our tuition and fee waiver and our education and training

[2:14:04] voucher for youth to provide them with some additional financial assistance.

[2:14:10] >> excuse me before you move on. I want to thank you so much for all the work you'll are doing and all the services and

[2:14:17] resources that are out there for these students that are going out, especially for education,

[2:14:22] and I never thought about credit report, that annual report that you do with them,

[2:14:28] because you just never know, like you said, but I want to thank you for all these resources that are

[2:14:33] very useful for these young adults going out. Thank you and thank you to your team.

[2:14:39] >> absolutely. They're so important. Thank you. This just gives a quick snapshot.

[2:14:46] four out of 10 youth who exited foster care aged out,

[2:14:51] and about 25% of young adults age 18 opted to participate in extended foster care.

[2:15:00] now I'm told I only have a few minutes, and I really want to get through this.

[2:15:04] extended foster care. This slide really depicts all of the hard work that's been going on

[2:15:14] across the state to really ensure that youth understand what extended foster care is.

[2:15:22] we're not trying to micromanage their lives. We really want them to see extended foster care as an added optional support for them.

[2:15:31] you'll see that in 2020, 655 youth opted to enroll in extended foster care,

[2:15:39] and then we had a peak in 2021, but then it started to decline,

[2:15:43] which you would maybe expect that,

[2:15:49] because the total number of youth in care is declining.

[2:15:53] but then you see this increase, and that's largely because we realized that we needed to remarket extended foster care,

[2:16:01] and particularly our supervised independent living program. Because young people don't necessarily understand that

[2:16:08] supervised independent living is not actually supervised. They're not being watched 24/7.

[2:16:13] there's not somebody there watching them and everything that they do.

[2:16:19] there's not an on-campus or on-site support person there 24/7,

[2:16:24] but there is a person who is a resource for them, and they still have their caseworker who's working with them to make

[2:16:33] sure that anything that they need is addressed when they're in a supervised independent living program.

[2:16:38] I'm happy to see that youth are taking advantage of extended foster care.

[2:16:45] educational outcomes are next. When measuring successes with the general population,

[2:16:53] we generally look at educational outcomes. This educational data is pretty important,

[2:17:00] and we realize that we still have work to do in this area. You'll see on the left that youth who graduated from high school,

[2:17:09] this is youth who graduated from high school in the same fiscal year as their 18th birthday.

[2:17:16] we're trending in the right direction for that. We do have more youth who are graduating timely.

[2:17:22] the right that you'll see youth enrolled in higher education following the fiscal year of their 18th birthday.

[2:17:28] we had a decline in 2020, but again, we're starting to trend in the right direction.

[2:17:34] we really are working to try and make sure that youth are able to graduate from

[2:17:38] high school timely so that they can move on to other things.

[2:17:47] >> national youth and transition. This is a data collection system.

[2:17:54] we report to the federal government on this. The way that it works is that youth who are in foster care are surveyed when they're 17.

[2:18:05] then a subset of that group of youth that were surveyed at

[2:18:09] age 17 are surveyed again at age 19 and again at age 21.

[2:18:15] this data comes from that data, which, again, we do report it back to the federal government,

[2:18:21] and the government does use it to inform our chafee grants, which acting commissioner o'neill mentioned earlier.

[2:18:30] what we're seeing in texas fiscal year '20 through 2024 is in the yellow,

[2:18:39] and what we're seeing in texas is that we're doing slightly better in terms

[2:18:46] of full-time employment for our 19-year-olds and slightly better also for our part-time employment.

[2:18:53] but high school graduation and current employment in

[2:18:58] an educational program has remained stagnant.

[2:19:02] then on the right is the outcomes for the 21-year-olds.

[2:19:08] again, we're doing a little bit better in all of those areas,

[2:19:13] but we would like to see those numbers continue to improve.

[2:19:20] >> may I ask on the current enrollment in education program?

[2:19:25] is this high school and also college or vocational certification that you're measuring?

[2:19:34] >> yes. The top one is your high school diploma or your ged.

[2:19:38] then the bottom one is, are they currently enrolled in any educational program?

[2:19:43] if they didn't finish high school, are they still enrolled in high school? If they did complete high school,

[2:19:49] have they moved on to either a vocational program or a college?

[2:19:53] >> thank you. >> then this is using the nytd data

[2:20:01] and looking at the national versus the texas comparison,

[2:20:06] texas is in yellow, national is in blue.

[2:20:10] you'll see that overall, our youth are slightly behind the national trends in all of these areas.

[2:20:19] what we're doing to address this is we have education specialists,

[2:20:25] we have one at state office, and we have multiple throughout the state. They've really partnered with our k through 12 school districts.

[2:20:33] they hold educational consortiums to address things that are

[2:20:38] going on with youth who are in dfps custody and also things

[2:20:42] that we might not be aware of as an agency that the k through 12 system sees

[2:20:48] as trends and patterns for them and have a meeting of the mind with these things.

[2:20:54] they also liaison with staff and we'll talk to staff specifically about youth who are struggling in school.

[2:21:01] they're resource, they can attend rd meetings. They can contact the school if there are concerns that maybe a caseworker

[2:21:08] doesn't know enough about the educational system to really address,

[2:21:13] but they're really a resource for them the caseworkers.

[2:21:18] also, recently, our education specialists have been working with our data team to really drill

[2:21:24] down the youth who are should be nearing graduation,

[2:21:29] where are they at in their education and how can we target approaches for youth who are

[2:21:34] struggling so that we can address those struggles earlier on and help get them to graduation.

[2:21:43] then also, again, we're collaborating with our extended foster care programs, our sills,

[2:21:49] because we know that they continue to provide these important supports

[2:21:54] for youth to move them along in their education and on their independent journey.

[2:21:59] we're including them in conversations about education as well.

[2:22:05] this slide shows the nytd data when comparing those in

[2:22:09] extended foster care to those who are not in extended foster care. This really just reiterate some of what I've been saying.

[2:22:16] you'll see that the youth who are in extended foster care are faring better in terms of high school graduation or

[2:22:23] ged completion and also in current enrollment or attendance in education as a whole.

[2:22:34] this is a chart that shows financial support for youth and higher education.

[2:22:42] this is utilization of our tuition and fee waivers. On the left, you'll see the utilization for

[2:22:48] the adopted students who are utilizing the tuition and fee waiver.

[2:22:53] on the right, you'll see the utilization for former foster youth.

[2:22:59] we recognize in looking at this that for whatever reason,

[2:23:05] and we're not sure of the reasons yet. But for whatever reason,

[2:23:09] the tuition and fee waiver usage has declined, and we really plan to dig into that

[2:23:15] more because we feel like this is an area where we need to focus.

[2:23:21] >> these waivers, are these just state schools or who participates in tuition waivers?

[2:23:27] >> tuition and fee waivers are available to youth to utilize at a state-supported school,

[2:23:33] technical college or university. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. This is a visual of

[2:23:39] the chafee deductions that we've seen since fiscal year 2022. You can see that as stated earlier today,

[2:23:45] it is pretty significant. I will say, and I have so much appreciated the support of our executive staff,

[2:23:54] acting commissioner o'neill included because when we received our chafee allotments earlier,

[2:24:00] it's been a couple of months now for fiscal year 2026, we panicked.

[2:24:07] it really took a lot of communication and collaboration

[2:24:12] from the entire agency to determine how to tackle this in a way where our youth will feel the least amount of effect from the reduced amounts.

[2:24:24] we were able to re-allocate some funds. I will say that our contracted providers for

[2:24:29] life skills training classes are seeing a bit of a reduction. They are training fewer youth because the overall population is decreasing.

[2:24:42] but they also have overhead. They have to pay their trainers. They have to develop the materials.

[2:24:48] they have to update materials when there are changes that are made either because of our policy or because of legislative requirements.

[2:24:55] they do have a significant amount of overhead. We're working with them to support them in any way that we can.

[2:25:02] we also as just a general plan, we do plan to reduce some of our statewide events.

[2:25:09] we will still be having the ut conference because that is just a huge support for our youth.

[2:25:18] we're not going to hold a statewide college conference this year.

[2:25:23] the purpose of that really is because we know that our regions and sscc areas are holding similar events out in their local areas,

[2:25:32] and because it's local to where the youth live, honestly, more youth can participate in those local events.

[2:25:38] we felt like that was one area where we could cut back.

[2:25:42] we're just going to continue to really monitor how things are

[2:25:47] going with the providers who are experiencing cuts and make adjustments as needed.

[2:25:54] this outlines our life skills training completion

[2:25:59] for the population of youth who are aging out of care. I will say our target is at least 95 percent of youth who age out of

[2:26:08] care should have completed life skills training before they leave care.

[2:26:13] as you can see for fiscal year 2025, when the data is pulled,

[2:26:19] we were at 93.7, and we do have some work to do in that area.

[2:26:24] but we monitor this very closely and we work with our regional teams.

[2:26:29] we send out what's called a hot list of youth who are about ready to leave,

[2:26:33] and if they haven't completed life skills training, what can we do to support the regions to make sure that they get it done?

[2:26:40] I will also say mr. Neffet had talked about working with the youth to meet them where they're at,

[2:26:49] if they can't complete an in-person class for whatever reason,

[2:26:54] do it on an individual basis. Our state office team recently updated our independent living study guide,

[2:27:00] which does take the place of the in-person classes if a youth needs to do it independently.

[2:27:06] they walk through those courses with the youth, so it's not done totally independently,

[2:27:12] but we updated the guide so that it would be more current and provided that to staff

[2:27:19] in both the sscc regions and in the legacy region so that they could utilize that with youth.

[2:27:26] >> real quick. If I remember right the chafee formula that they have is not tied to inflation, is that correct?

[2:27:33] >> no, it's not. >> it's still based on 1999 numbers?

[2:27:41] >> I am not absolutely sure if it's tied to that. I think that's the f map,

[2:27:46] and but if it is that, it's 96 numbers. [laughter] many of our title iv funds

[2:27:53] are tied to that 1996 poverty level, which is problematic.

[2:27:58] I am not totally sure if chafee falls into that category, but we can find out.

[2:28:03] >> well, there it's '99 or '96, it's not tied.

[2:28:07] every year, we're losing ground just from funding because of the inflation.

[2:28:11] >> I think the really unfortunate thing about this formula is

[2:28:16] that it's not based on the size of the youth in care.

[2:28:20] it's based on the size of the population of children in care.

[2:28:25] it's not exactly tracking with the makeup of texas youth,

[2:28:29] and there's no consideration given to the needs or the individual circumstances.

[2:28:38] what does the demographic look like in texas versus another state?

[2:28:42] >> that's typical for the feds. Thank you. >> I will just add to there has been a lot of

[2:28:50] conversation occurring at the national level about the chafee funds and the chafee allotments.

[2:28:56] we were contacted by an organization recently that is

[2:29:02] engaging in conversations with our federal government about the chafee allotments.

[2:29:07] I feel like there are conversations occurring at the national level,

[2:29:12] and we hopefully might see some changes in the way the allotment occurs.

[2:29:18] we're going to be watching that closely as well. Just quickly, this slide here,

[2:29:23] this does show you the number of youth who are accessing these services.

[2:29:29] fiscal year 2022 is in blue, fiscal year 2023 is in yellow,

[2:29:35] and fiscal year 2024 is in red. We are seeing a trend downwards in the number of youth accessing these services.

[2:29:42] although we're not happy about the cuts with our funding,

[2:29:47] this does show that fewer youth are accessing services.

[2:29:52] >> I just want to clarify one thing on this slide, kristin, which I should have asked you about before right now,

[2:29:57] the educational and vocational bars, that does not include youth who are accessing

[2:30:04] the tuition waivers through the higher education coordinating board, is that correct?

[2:30:10] >> that's correct. >> the educational and vocational funds here is speaking

[2:30:14] specifically to the funds that we allocate to the regions to address if they need a computer because they're doing online coursework,

[2:30:27] then those funds can be utilized for that or any other need like that.

[2:30:35] just to summarize, overall,

[2:30:39] we've seen a decrease in funds and we're working diligently to increase

[2:30:43] our engagement with our youth at the most critical points in their case.

[2:30:49] we talked about engaging with youth earlier on before graduation to make sure that they're on track to graduate,

[2:30:56] engaging with them earlier on to discuss what are your housing needs?

[2:31:01] let's get a plan down on paper because we don't want to reach the point where you're ready to leave care,

[2:31:06] but you don't have anywhere to go. We're being very diligent about those things.

[2:31:12] but we are seeing a decrease in funds while we're also

[2:31:16] seeing an increase in the percentage of youth over the age of 14 who are in care.

[2:31:22] we're working with our community partners, our sscc stakeholders.

[2:31:28] we're paying close attention to the data, and we're using that to inform our strategic plan moving forward because we do recognize

[2:31:38] that youth who have experienced foster care do have some unique struggles compared to their peers,

[2:31:46] and so we just want to make sure that we're meeting their needs.

[2:31:51] I'll take any questions. >> yes. Thank you for the presentation.

[2:31:55] I wanted to let you get through everything before I ask questions.

[2:31:59] I want to share real quick. I lived in foster care in 20 years ago at this point,

[2:32:06] and I aged out of foster care 17 years ago.

[2:32:10] when I learned about these things, these things put me on the right path, really.

[2:32:15] it's one of the reasons, if not, the main reason why I'm sitting here today as a college graduate and doing all these things.

[2:32:22] I know the resources are real. I know that they're impactful and I know that they're transformative.

[2:32:28] but there are also things that as we started to talk about with inflation and things like that.

[2:32:33] when I accessed the education training voucher in 2008, it was $5,000 a year.

[2:32:38] in 2025, the maximum amount is still $5,000 a year.

[2:32:43] $5,000 a year back then could pay for a lot. Today, doesn't really pay for much.

[2:32:48] that being said, seeing some of the data here is actually concerning. Seeing that through the education training voucher like utilization,

[2:33:01] seeing the numbers go down, I work with students all the time every semester at ut,

[2:33:06] and the first thing we do is apply for etv. Sometimes they're not even eligible to get

[2:33:11] even any award because of the way things are calculated now.

[2:33:15] there's been a lot of changes that have happened over the years that have occurred,

[2:33:20] sometimes at the federal level, sometimes at the state level or both that don't

[2:33:25] factor in how these programs were intended to run,

[2:33:29] and therefore leads to reduced support on the students' behalf.

[2:33:33] it's something that really needs to be considered and examined closely. I'm happy to have students meet who are experiencing

[2:33:41] this firsthand about why this is significant and why this is important.

[2:33:48] the question, I just wanted to share that, but the question that I have for you is I've already heard one thing that dfps will have to

[2:33:54] reduce as a result of the loss chafee funds to reduce one of the college conferences.

[2:34:02] I know you all are working really diligently to find the funds to really minimize the impact to our population.

[2:34:10] but what are some other things that are potentially looking to be cut as a result of the loss of these funds?

[2:34:17] >> thank you for the question. It really was the pal life skills training classes.

[2:34:23] again, we're working with the contracted providers to make sure that they're still able to

[2:34:27] provide the same level of services to the youth that they're serving through those.

[2:34:33] then also the reduction of the statewide college conference,

[2:34:38] those were the two main things that we reduced. In addition to that, though,

[2:34:44] the allocations that go to the regions for educational vocational services,

[2:34:51] we reduced that pretty significantly.

[2:34:55] we didn't feel comfortable doing it. I'm going to be honest, but we also know that youth are able

[2:35:03] to reach out to their transition and financial support providers that is another contracted service that did not receive

[2:35:10] cuts to tap into their financial resources.

[2:35:15] >> we felt that that was an area where although we didn't love cutting,

[2:35:21] it was an area where we could utilize the resources that were in place in other areas to help offset that.

[2:35:28] then we also are making sure to work with our regions and

[2:35:33] ssc areas to see what community supports they have available in their areas to meet those needs,

[2:35:40] because a lot of times there are community nonprofit organizations that can also help to fill that gap.

[2:35:48] I think it's really just a matter of working even more diligently than we

[2:35:54] already are to identify community resources and explain to them what the need is,

[2:36:00] and why we might be asking now for more funds than we have previously.

[2:36:06] >> thank you, I have one more and I'll make this one quick, I promise.

[2:36:10] one of the things I'm also seeing with students is that as you've presented,

[2:36:15] the transitional living services team is one of my favorite groups of people at dfps,

[2:36:21] I've loved working with them over the years. I loved working with them when I worked at cps,

[2:36:26] and I still love working with them today. One of the things I'm seeing and I've seen this already with a number of students at ut,

[2:36:36] there's people that are achieving permanence or even reunification, which is great.

[2:36:45] however, they've been put on a path working with people starting at age 14,

[2:36:49] working with a transitional living services worker, working with a power worker,

[2:36:53] going through the life skills curriculum, training, and being assured that they're going to have all of these resources to help

[2:37:00] them achieve social mobility once they've emancipated and gone on.

[2:37:05] well, as it turns out, with the push for permanence, these folks are achieving permanence, and some of them,

[2:37:10] a couple of my students, I'm thinking about, did so literally a couple of weeks before they turned 18.

[2:37:17] as a result of that, the path that they were on no longer applied,

[2:37:22] that all the resources that they were hoping to look forward to and access, they were no longer able to access these things.

[2:37:29] I'm curious, and I understand there might not be an answer here right now,

[2:37:33] but is this something that the agency could look at and see is there something

[2:37:37] that we could do if if this is something that's impacting people,

[2:37:42] because it really does cause a lot of stress, anxiety, and honestly just resentment from young people that have been told, yes,

[2:37:51] you can go live in a supervised independent living arrangement on campus or you

[2:37:56] can access the transitional living allowance or this side or the other,

[2:38:01] but actually now you can't. I get it, nobody should have to choose between benefits

[2:38:05] and having a family, but at the same time, I think that if we put people on a certain path,

[2:38:09] we owe it to them to deliver on the promises we've made. >> thank you for that. I have heard of similar situations,

[2:38:18] and I do agree, I think it merits further conversation to see what we can do,

[2:38:23] because as things are set up now, in a case where they reached permanency,

[2:38:29] sometimes just weeks before they turn 18, that does change what they're eligible for.

[2:38:35] I would welcome additional conversation about that for sure.

[2:38:41] >> I think we may need to do some exploration about what we have.

[2:38:46] what, if anything, we have flexibility to change? It is a really good question, and I don't know how much flexibility we have so we'll do some research on that.

[2:39:00] >> I just had a quick comment, and thank you for this, it's just so timely.

[2:39:05] in el paso, we've been having a lot of conversations with concern anecdotally hearing that

[2:39:11] adults or transition age youth are starting to hit the adult system and the justice system and we don't want that.

[2:39:19] we're looking at everything we can to address this and understanding better how these programs work

[2:39:25] and individuals may not be taking advantage of the will help us with trying to connect folks in a timely manner.

[2:39:31] we appreciate that very much. Thank you. >> thank you.

[2:39:38] >> thank you so much. Appreciate it. >> thank you.

[2:39:44] >> we were talking about possibly taking a break, but before that,

[2:39:50] we do have amy franks from the management consulting group who will come

[2:39:56] out to present the commissioner's award of excellence. >> good morning. It is my honor to introduce to

[2:40:02] you the recipients of the commissioner's award of excellence, an award that represents the highest level of recognition,

[2:40:09] honoring individuals who exemplify dedication, excellence,

[2:40:14] and an unwavering commitment to serving children, families, and communities across texas.

[2:40:19] today, we celebrate those whose leadership, compassion, and perseverance inspire us all to do more,

[2:40:26] to do better and to serve with greater purpose. It is a privilege to recognize

[2:40:32] these two remarkable individuals in the extraordinary difference they make every day.

[2:40:38] our first recipient is the honorable aurora martinez jones,

[2:40:43] judge martinez jones oversees all travis county, cps cases as the presiding judge for the 126 district civil court.

[2:40:53] her court is also responsible for hearing cases relating to juvenile clients,

[2:40:58] and she oversees other specialized courts in the district. She consistently looks to partner with

[2:41:04] community mentoring organizations to help support the emotional and mental needs of children and youth,

[2:41:11] including piloting a career day initiative where organizations and individuals from

[2:41:16] across sectors share personal career experiences with high school age youth.

[2:41:24] judge martin jones is a community advocate on several social issues

[2:41:29] a judicial processes and community needs and is a founding member of a local collaborative,

[2:41:35] looking for solutions to disparate outcomes in the child welfare system.

[2:41:40] your dedication to protect our most vulnerable population

[2:41:44] is a beacon of excellence across the department and the state of texas.

[2:41:48] [applause]

[2:42:29] our next recipient is misses laura christopherson. Miss christopherson served as the president of

[2:42:36] the aps silver star board of el paso for the past ten years now retired.

[2:42:42] during her leadership tenure, she planned and executed more than ten crimes against the elderly conferences in el paso,

[2:42:49] which often in about 500 attendees.

[2:42:53] the adopt a senior center events held each spring that provide lunch and

[2:42:58] invite local agencies that serve rural communities to educate them about available resources.

[2:43:04] the county attorney's office, christmas blessings project, which distributes donated gifts to the elderly and to veterans,

[2:43:12] often the only gift that our aps clients receive during the holiday season.

[2:43:17] aps is grateful to have had such a wonderful advocate helping create a better community.

[2:43:23] her dedication to protect our most vulnerable population is a beacon of excellence across the department and the state of texas.

[2:43:30] mrs christopherson was not able to join us in person today, but she is watching our live stream

[2:43:35] and will be receiving her certificate through the mail. Thank you. [applause]

[2:43:46] >> do we need a break or we have one more.

[2:43:57] >> we will continue. >> I can talk fast.

[2:44:02] [laughter] good morning. Rachel deer the director of faith based and community engagement.

[2:44:08] actually, I can talk through one of the slides, because julie gave a great assist in talking about the upcoming aps conference,

[2:44:15] but cheryl, we're coming into october, which is financial exploitation month I've provided a couple of graphics.

[2:44:22] we actually have a very robust toolkit on our partnering to protect website that has all these graphics.

[2:44:30] they have twitter feeds, they have facebook posts so that if you want to in your community,

[2:44:36] get the word out about financial exploitation, that tool kit is available to you in the public

[2:44:41] to use that in your organizations, cheryl. Then this is the partner to protect web page.

[2:44:49] this is the new web page that aps launched as part of their partner to protect initiative.

[2:44:54] this really has a lot of great in depth information,

[2:44:58] on how you can partner with law enforcement, how to partner with hospitals,

[2:45:02] how to partner with those nonprofit organizations to promote abuse, neglect,

[2:45:09] and exploitation, awareness in your community and it has also information about financial exploitation.

[2:45:18] it's a great resource for a website for everyone to go and look at.

[2:45:24] then as julie talked about, the conference coming up here in austin, october 14th through 17th.

[2:45:30] in addition to the wonderful workshops that we have, we do have the awards dinner,

[2:45:35] which we will honor those board members that julie discussed, as well as staff that do outstanding work for aps during the year.

[2:45:45] I hope that you can all come to the conference. It's a wonderful conference, and it will be the 42nd this year and I will put a plug in.

[2:45:52] I talked to kes about this before. He's actually just now coming back from

[2:45:57] the national adult protective services conference. Next year in austin,

[2:46:01] there will be a joint aps and napsa conference here in austin so be ready for that next year as well.

[2:46:08] for those who may not know, napsa actually started out of texas aps.

[2:46:13] the national adult protective services conference started here, so it's going to come back next year and we'll have a joint conference together.

[2:46:21] then looking ahead to november, we turn towards adoption month.

[2:46:26] we'll start off on sunday, november 9th with stand sunday.

[2:46:30] I know I've talked about that before. That is an initiative that bishop blake with

[2:46:35] harvest family life ministries and dallas started several years ago, where we encourage faith congregations to stand

[2:46:42] for youth and families who are in the foster adopt system.

[2:46:46] the message is, everybody can do something, even if it's praying,

[2:46:51] but you can up to foster adopt. We will have more information to share with you all on stand sunday coming up.

[2:46:59] in addition to family caregivers month is in november, this website is a great website to a national website that

[2:47:07] has wonderful resources about caregivers across the spectrum from youth and

[2:47:14] children to adults and elderly care giving so that's a great resource.

[2:47:19] then of course, national adoption day is going to be celebrated on november 22nd this year.

[2:47:25] we'll be working with the ssccs, and then our legacy partners on adoption events across the state.

[2:47:33] of course, we will send all the information. We're still gathering the information on financial exploitation activities that we'll send out

[2:47:39] in the next newsletter for you so that you can attend all those events that we have planned around the state,

[2:47:44] which will include both in person conferences, as well as webinars and other events.

[2:47:50] [laughter] any questions?

[2:47:57] no. Thank you so much.

[2:48:02] >> thank you so much. The next item on the agenda is public testimony,

[2:48:08] where we welcome input from the public and stakeholders on the topics laid out on the agenda.

[2:48:14] we always appreciate hearing from the public and we value your input.

[2:48:18] please know that the counsel, audre o'neal and vicki k,

[2:48:25] our general counsel are unable to comment or respond to statements or questions during public testimony.

[2:48:32] this is your opportunity to share information with us. If you plan to talk about a specific case and would like to

[2:48:38] have someone from the office of consumer affairs call, please sign up at the registration table in the back.

[2:48:45] we observe a three minute time limit for all speakers. Our time keeper will keep of the time for you and

[2:48:52] indicate when you have one minute left by flashing the yellow light on the podium.

[2:48:57] when your time is up, the red light will come on, and the time will beep.

[2:49:01] please clearly state your first and last name in the agenda item you will be presenting on.

[2:49:08] our first speaker is valentino valdez.

[2:49:28] >> hello. My name is valentino valdez,

[2:49:33] I'm a behavioral therapist and a former foster youth with over a decade in the cps system.

[2:49:39] I entered care in 2006, and I aged out of care in 2020.

[2:49:43] I begin my point with a question. What kind of help do you think we are entitled to when we go from

[2:49:49] foster children to victims and survivors of the system? When we are physically, mentally, emotionally,

[2:49:55] and even sexually abused by the caregivers dfps, employed or contracted.

[2:49:59] how so dfps make amends to the children it's failed to protect?

[2:50:03] all I was given was this crudely put together a list of

[2:50:08] community resources with no attempt at apology by director of conservatorship hector ortez,

[2:50:13] who then claim dfps is not at fault or responsible for what happened to me or the children in their care, but I beg to differ.

[2:50:21] how can we not see that it's dfs responsibility when dfps

[2:50:25] is the agency who removed us from our families with a promise of a better future?

[2:50:29] when dfps is in charge of oversight of the homes and placements we were in,

[2:50:33] truth of the matter is, we were failed. It's time to work towards helping the children,

[2:50:38] the system promised to protect, recover from the horrors endured by the people dfps trusted.

[2:50:43] I have taken initiative and built a foundation, if you will, for how that can be done.

[2:50:48] it will be emailed to the council's email and it will also be sent to the relevant legislators.

[2:50:53] this outline covers direct victim compensation, therapeutic, and medical support, education,

[2:50:59] housing and stability, as well as administration and compliance. I also have in my possession my cps records.

[2:51:07] this is my favorite part, they were given to me unredacted.

[2:51:13] which in turn are our burden of proof of negligence, physical abuse, and alteration of records.

[2:51:20] I wish to not implicate anyone as solution and healing is my only goal,

[2:51:24] but if we victims are going to continue to be ignored and bruss side, I would like to encourage others that if no resolution is reached,

[2:51:31] that we all publicly release our own private records to bring light to the darkness we've experienced.

[2:51:37] if I as one survivor can document negligence and abuse in my own records,

[2:51:42] what does that say about the children currently in dfps care who don't have a voice or who don't live long enough to speak here today?

[2:51:55] we will no longer carry the burden of what was done to us. It is time we share the weight with those responsible.

[2:52:01] a glimmer of light on an issue that would no longer be tolerated. I hope my presence here has shown that there is one of us willing to fight,

[2:52:09] and as history has taught us, never underestimate the power of one. To any more victims within or have aged out of dfps,

[2:52:15] the fight for you has just begun. I would like to take the remainder of the time to silence for the victims we have

[2:52:20] failed to help and for the ones that we will. Thank you.

[2:52:36] >> thank you. We have no other public comment,

[2:52:41] or have anybody else signed up. With that, I would like to adjourn this meeting.

[2:52:48] >> everybody in favor of that? Thank you so much.

Sep 12, 2025 DFPS Council Meeting - Texas Dept of Family and Protective Services

Agenda

Transcript