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>> I think we're ready to start. Good morning. I call the september 12,

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2025 meeting of the family and protective services council meeting

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to order at nine o'clock. I hope it's nine o'clock.

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I'd like to welcome everyone here in person and also those that are watching online.

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we're going to start by introducing the council members.

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I guess, I will start. I'm dr. Connie almeida,

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and I am from fort pine county, richmond texas.

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>> I'm enrique mata, and I'm from el paso, texas.

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>> good morning everybody. Omedi cantu arismendez, jim wells county.

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>> good morning everyone. Michael barton, also from fort pine county.

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>> good morning, juli craze, dallas.

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>> great. Thank you. Also up here with us, we have audrey o'neill,

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

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I pronounce your name. I really apologize. The general counsel for the department.

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great. Thank you. We're going to go ahead and start with our agenda for today,

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and we have a quorum, that's great.

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the first item on the agenda is to make a motion to

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accept the minutes from our last meeting.

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>> I moved that we accept the minutes from our last meeting.

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>> do I have a second for that? >> I'll second that.

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>> is everyone in agreement with that?

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yes. Thank you. We have accepted the minutes from the june 13 meeting.

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thank you. Just some general items,

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administrative items to remind everyone is our upcoming council meeting dates.

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our next meeting for this year will be december 12, 2025.

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then in 2026, we have two meetings,

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march 13 and june 12.

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next, we're going to move on to council actions

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and activities of the council members in their communities or throughout the state.

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

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that would be great since our last meeting. Thank you.

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

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impact, as I understand, is extremely old. I've done some work in tac and so

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

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

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

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>> hello. The last few months has been very interesting being a council member.

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but I do want to share that I attended jim wells county. I was invited by the judge,

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the jim wells county family court. I was able to listen and see our staff in action,

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and I want to thank them for being so professional and very caring. I really appreciate that.

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second has just been very busy talking to different folks out there,

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what is the need and relying that message back to our laison.

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I want to thank cheryl and our acting commissioner for being so compassionate and understanding and listening. Thank you so much.

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>> well, out in el paso, we've had quite a few activities going on.

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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,

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we have a group that comes together called the family leadership council,

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and they established a task force to talk about how we make sure that this is

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a positive approach that it's not something that becomes so punitive that it causes trouble for youth.

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what was surprising to us that this task force met a couple of times.

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

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

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surprisingly, we saw a lot less of that. The comments from the associate superintendents that we talked with

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were very positive and that the kids were very compliant.

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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,

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

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I thought this was interesting in particular is that they're seeing a marked decrease in

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cyberbullying but they're getting a lot less commentary from that.

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

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aside from that, we are working towards other programs with dps involvement,

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we're looking at how we're handling some of our residential treatment and human trafficking conditions in our community

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

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

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>> good morning. I want to share a couple of take a different approach today.

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the adult protective services conference is coming up october 14-17th here in austin.

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I'm trying to get a good picture of all of you because I expect to see you all there.

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if you haven't registered, register. Speaking of that, one of the many wonderful things that happened at

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that conference is the bruce davis award of excellence is given to community boards around the state.

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

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

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

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these are the 17 boards who will receive that award of excellence during that conference,

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the silver ribbon community partners board, the regional aps advisory board,

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permian basin, silver advocate partners board, aps silver star board.

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let's see brazos valley volunteer board, south texas aps community board.

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smith county adult protective services advisory board, silver star room board of the high plains,

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dallas county aps community board. That's my board for the record. Tarrant county aps advisory board and

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

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how the community has rallied to come back together. Especially post covid,

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many of these boards really struggled to maintain their 501(c)(3) during that period of time,

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and most of them are back in compliance. I think that really speaks to the work of these individuals

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

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I said that I would share some of the great things happening in walker county for her.

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they have a financial exploitation awareness event coming up on october 29.

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then they're doing something really cool in walker county that I was excited to hear about,

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

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dealing with parents who are aging and don't know how to handle that or how to navigate that.

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they have that going on regularly in their community. Thank you.

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>> thank you. You can hear me, right? Correct. A little bit about fort bend county.

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one thing that I want to share is for many years,

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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,

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and he was really a pioneer in this infant toddler work in increasing the awareness around

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the special needs and the need for special attention and timeliness of

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service delivery for the youngest children in our system with a focus on the 0-3 population.

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I was honored to work with judge pope and help him establish the first court in texas,

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and I think one of the first in the nation that was really focusing on this population,

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and this was back in 2005. We worked in fort bend county,

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we expanded our work to harris county, we expanded our work to bear county.

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many times, we're challenged because we wanted to do things differently.

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we wanted to connect children with early intervention services. We wanted to change visitation.

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when the goal was reunification, we know that contact with parents is essential.

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we wanted to add things like parent child evaluations and parent child services.

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judge pope retired in 2018 and sadly passed away in the end of july.

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he also served on the children's permanency commission,

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and I just wanted to recognize him for his work and the honor that I had working with him.

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in fort bend county, I've mentioned this before.

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we have a grant from the department of justice and through second chance.

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really the focus is working with parents that are incarcerated in their minor children.

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

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

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we also know that unfortunately, having a parent that's incarcerated is

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a risk factor in an increased adversity for many children.

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what I didn't know, even though I've been doing this work for 40 years is

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the challenges of the community caregivers that are taking care of these children.

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they can be grandparents, they can be another parent, they can be an aunt.

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in my ideal view, I was thinking, these children need mental health services and things like that.

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but we are spending the majority of our time just stabilizing living environments,

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just making sure that these kids have close to go to school transportation needs.

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again, bringing that to everyone's attention because this is

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a very important work that needs to be done.

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really are reaching out to the children of those

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that have or are currently incarcerated in supporting those community caregivers.

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we are also trying to add parenting classes and parenting services in

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the jail so that parents have access to those services while they're

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incarcerated and then continue those supports when they get out. Thank you. I guess I'm on.

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yes. Sorry. >> good morning, everybody. How are you?

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just some updates of things that we've been working on. Since we last met,

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we had a wonderful conference at the university of texas at austin for teenagers in foster care.

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we brought in over 200 youth young adults

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and staff to come to ut for three days, overnight stay,

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so very fun to do that with so many teenagers and teach them about programming,

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what it's going to take to go to college, trade schools, employment, any path forward the military.

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any path forward is a path forward, and this conference was dedicated to their future and looking

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at what options they have to explore after they leave foster care.

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that was wonderful. We've also been working with the governor's office and

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the texas department of transportation to establish foster care internships at state agencies,

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and we're starting with textdot who has a lot of things.

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

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they're going to be doing things that textdots does.

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we've also been working with the texas workforce commission at the university of texas.

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we went to their foster care workforce conference.

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I presented there and facilitated a panel and networked with folks there.

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there are some new initiatives coming that we've been working with them on that

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are going to connect young people and people that have left foster care to resources,

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

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they get tons of meetings and packets and all these great things.

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but once they have left care, putting that into practice and

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

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do things with them after they have emancipated and gone on.

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some of the other cool things that I'm seeing that we're doing at ut is that we're

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establishing more resources for young people that have been in foster care.

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as everyone here knows, young people that are in care are eligible for

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an immense amount of resources that are just wonderful and trans formative.

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however, for some people that were adopted, some of the equivalent resources are not available.

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some of the supports that people are eligible for if they were adopted,

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

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

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

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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.

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

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

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they raised well over $9,000 and provided that to us to provide

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directly to students for coming back to campus and getting started again.

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our program has grown and with the growth of our program comes more need.

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

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we were able to get each of our students a $200 gift card to just

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help them go to target and buy some things for their dorm or for their apartment,

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help offset some of the costs of groceries, books, things like that.

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I'm very appreciative of them. That's a summary of things that have been going on,

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and appreciate the opportunity to share. >> thank you, in my apologies.

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moving on, I'd like to introduce our acting commissioner,

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audrey o'neill, to deliver the commissioner's update.

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>> good morning. Thank you. I'm happy to share a number of updates this morning.

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

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the process to apply for the investigations advisory committee which we discussed at our last meeting.

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that is the committee that is being stood up to advise the department on investigations practices.

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it's hb 140, the hb 140 advisory committee. Those applications were due last friday,

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and we appreciate the applicants who participated in that process.

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cheryl also recently shared with you all some communication guidance.

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

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our system might be engaged with to give you just real quick,

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easy, accessible talking points. We certainly welcome any feedback you have on those talking points,

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and we're happy to answer any questions about what you can and cannot say in those situations,

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if that would be helpful to all of you. I'm excited to share.

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I think you all are aware because we have previously presented to you twice.

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I think we've talked with you about the sunset review that we're in the early stages of.

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the very first major part of the sunset review is the self evaluation report.

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

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at their strengths and weaknesses at their opportunities for growth and the challenges that they face.

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there's also a wealth of information in that report about how the agency programs work.

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it is certainly a great resource if you just want a one stop shop or how does a family

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investigation work or what does the family based safety services stage of service look like at dfps.

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we're in the state of texas. But the highlight of that report is

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where we reflect on what are the major issues facing the agency, and the section of the report is called major issues.

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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.

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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.

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

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we highlighted four major issues. I will say, it's their dense major issues.

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

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investigations and our ongoing work to continue to enhance.

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I think that's an area of the agency where will never be done

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continuing to work on that's a continuous improvement for sure in that area of the agency.

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but also on improving access to timely due process and to case records,

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which I think we've talked with you all about is an ongoing challenge.

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the amount of records requests that dfps receives is very voluminous and is increasing.

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to your point, the case management system does not make dealing with those records requests easy.

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that is certainly a key item in planning for our new case management system.

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the second issue is around challenges in

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the community based care model of delivering conservatorship services and related to capacity issues.

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we've talked at length with you all about about needs

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for youth and really needing the right capacity in our system to meet those needs,

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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.

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third is highlighting the dependence of our system on other systems,

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particularly on the behavioral health system, and just an acknowledgment that we do not provide behavioral health,

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

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that's not only related to behavioral health, it is also for things like parenting classes.

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there's lots of different areas where we refer out to services and knowing

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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,

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particularly in rural areas. This is a challenge remains an ongoing area of focus for us.

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fourth, but certainly not the least important of them

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is our focus on maintaining a highly qualified workforce by recruiting,

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supporting and retaining staff agency wide.

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always an area of focus rest that was actually a major area highlighted in our last sunset report,

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and we've made lots of progress since then. But this is very hard work,

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and it will always be a very big challenge to the agency to recruit,

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

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as we were just discussing earlier, hb 500,

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which we talked about at the last meeting does that's the supplemental appropriations bill.

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

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it is the first phase of funding for a new case management system,

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so it only funds what we anticipate needing in the first finance.

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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.

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we do I believe we have shared. I know at least upon request,

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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.

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again, it's a manageable but dense read.

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the supplemental bill plus the writers and

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the appropriations bill do require that case management system be used not only by dfps,

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but also by our sscc partners so that we are all using one comprehensive case management system.

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planning is underway. It has really been underway for over two years now.

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I will say, I think this is really an area where we are fortunate that

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many states have gone before us and that has given us an opportunity to learn from their experiences.

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

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like in any government system built is the procurement phase,

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we are working through that phase now. We are looking forward to partnering with agencies, including ssccs,

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but also we have other partners that utilize heavily our case management systems such as our cosa partners.

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we are working through really understanding the business needs for all stakeholders,

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including, of course, all of our programs at dps, including aps, and how they'll use that system.

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we have also started. We really wanted to be focused on automating solid efficient processes,

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and we started last finance, a process called business process redesign,

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

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we have as efficient and effective a process established as

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possible so that then what we are automating is that refined process.

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we're just completing right now our statewide intake business process redesign and

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a business process redesign for our residential childcare investigations,

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and we'll be moving forward with other areas of

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the agency as we get a little bit closer to case management rollout for those areas.

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I do expect that we'll share information with you all certainly going forward and probably

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a presentation in the next couple of meetings around case management system planning.

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t3c, it has been less than six months since we began credentialing providers and t3c,

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as you all may remember, t3c is our texas child centered care is what that stands for.

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is really the complete overhaul of

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the foster care system for how we deliver and pay for foster care services.

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it takes us from a service level system where children and youth are classified into essentially five service levels.

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into a system that is really designed to meet the individual needs of each child or youth.

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as of now, I want to get the number. We do have 24 available service packages,

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and as of today, we have providers credentialed and 22 of those available service packages,

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including all available service packages and foster home settings,

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which is really important because we really want to see children served in home environments whenever possible.

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I will just note that it is really critical our work with providers around t3c.

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we can stand up a really advanced system that's really thoughtful about the needs of youth,

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but without providers coming alongside us to ensure that they are

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designing services that really deliver for children in youth,

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

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we've got providers from all of niche environments.

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we've got lots of gro providers, lots and lots of child placing agencies,

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some residential treatment center providers, including residential treatment center providers,

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really targeting a higher level of services for children and youth with our highest needs,

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including behavioral health needs. As of august 31, 2025.

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

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

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when we did that, we anticipated that at the end of the first year, we thought we would have around 17% of

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youth receiving services through that service provision, and I should first say,

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there is basically a 2.5 year period. Of transition where children move into

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t3c and providers are credential to provide t3c services. We were very, very excited when on august 31,

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

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yes. This includes packages designed for kinship foster homes, as you all know,

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providing care in a kinship environment is the preference when children cannot be safely in their homes.

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it includes providers serving youth with behavioral health needs and as I said,

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and providers with human trafficking history. Children with human trafficking history, me.

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speaking of human trafficking, you might be familiar with hb 451.

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I think we briefly discussed this at our last council meeting.

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hb 451 requires dfps to assess for the risk of commercial sexual exploitation in children,

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using a tool called the cse-it tool that stands for commercial sex exploitation identification tool, cse-it.

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it is a very quick. It's designed to be a very easy to use tool.

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

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intake from case files from professionals,

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including caseworkers and colleagues, from volunteers, csa advocates.

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to score and assess the risk of child commercial sexual exploitation.

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in 2019, dfp has implemented this tool in the five largest counties,

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harris, travis, bear, dallas, and tarrant, in specific circumstances.

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this legislation expands the tool to use across the state for all eligible children and adults.

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we are working to implement that legislation and we anticipate a presentation on this in our december council meeting.

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today, we are going to have a presentation from kristin harris on our transition age youth,

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

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I think today in her presentation, you will see that there are some signs of growth,

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

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

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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.

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I do want to share so that kristin is not the bearer of bad news that we did

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learn since the last council meeting that we have received a significant reduction in haf funds,

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

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that reduction is strictly related to the decline of children in the foster care system in texas, and basically,

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

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to right size our system so that if fewer children are entering foster care,

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we are entitled to a smaller slice of that pi is how it works.

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that was a 23% reduction that is a huge reduction in federal funds for us.

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kristen's team is working very hard to absorb that cost in

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a way that has minimal impact to services for youth as possible.

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in conclusion, we have lots of very important work ahead of us.

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we are working very hard to implement lots of legislation passed in the last legislative session,

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and to implement additional supports passed by the legislature.

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

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including expanded daycare for kinship caregivers, which we really believe will be

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a critical resource for potential caregivers to care for relative children.

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lots of other implementation work going, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

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

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and I thank you for all the information and keeping us abroad.

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>> thank you. >> I also just want to make a comment regarding chafee.

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I understand that's a tremendous issue that's affecting not just our state,

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

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

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there's still a long way to go, but I totally understand how

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that how the reduction in chafee dollars is really going to impact a lot of services,

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especially since chafee funds were set a while back and

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everything got more expensive and then trying to do more with less,

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and then that's reduced while everything's cost is very difficult.

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hopefully, we can talk a little bit more about what we can do about that.

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>> thank you for that very thorough report.

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I think it's fantastic that actually you're up to 30% of

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the youth now involved in the t3c.

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>> challenging. >> the whole process is challenging.

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but it's also encouraging to see that you are

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getting providers and that you that continuum of care,

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including that residential treatment, which we think we've all struggled with,

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

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that's so encouraging. I think the sunset review,

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it's great that you've started this process, but obviously, that's also an additional burden,

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requirement on the agency in terms of devoting,

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

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and are you provided with additional resources to be able to do that.

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>> we don't receive additional resources to be able to do that.

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however, we do have some standing teams at

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dfps and part of one of these teams is actually a team requested

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and funded by the last legislative session that really enables us to focus

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on strategic work and so we have a really outstanding leader of our strategic initiative sitting in the audience,

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a yesenia rodriguez, and she has spearheaded our work along with her team on sunset.

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

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

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

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and we have a strategic planning process anyway that this really just folds into.

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but the timeline looks like the first step is the self evaluation report.

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the next step is what's called the staff review, and that staff review is,

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I would say akin to an audit it's not brilliant audit, but it's similar to an audit.

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

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review by neutral eyes who really gather lots of information.

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they will talk with stakeholders. They'll have extensive conversations with staff.

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they've already started talking with us. They collect a lot of information,

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

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the legislature and there are filled positions and some vacant positions right now that will be filled in the coming months.

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then ultimately that report I believe it

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will be finalized over the next year and a half in advance of

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next legislative session and that will result in a filed sunset bill that will address challenges of the agency.

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it may address some of the challenges we identified. It will certainly address other challenges that

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

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now when that new sunset legislation is effective,

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and that's what the whole process looks like. >> thank you. No other questions.

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we'll move on to our program updates, and as commissioner already mentioned,

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

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specifically, children without placement and the alternative response. Thank you.

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>> good morning. Can you hear me? Hi. My name is kristin harris.

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I'm the director of transitional living services, our foster adopt division here at state office,

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

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>> I'm vincent rios. I am the deputy director of family and investigations and alternative response.

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>> good morning. Thank you all for having us. We are here to provide some general programmatic updates.

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we're going to be sharing with you all some updated numbers for our divisions.

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also, I'll be talking to you more about our children without placement.

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then mr. Rayls will be talking about alternative response and providing some updates related to that.

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first of all, you'll see numbers for statewide intake,

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

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

390
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we're about a month behind, but you'll see that the turnover is reduced as has

391
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the call abandonment rate reduced from 22.8%-18.2%.

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the hold times have also reduced from 6.2 minutes to 4.5 minutes.

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

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to address the hold times and to make sure that the statewide intake staff are able to really get on

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the phone and get connected with people who are reporting concerns so that those concerns can be addressed.

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

397
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their case initiation, timeliness continues to look really good at 98.6%

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of cases being initiated timely by our adult protective services workers.

399
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>> for child protective investigations, we're really proud of the reduction in turnover rate that you can see from,

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I think the first bar should show fiscal year 2022.

401
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we were at 45.5% and over the last three years,

402
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we have reduced our turnover to 30.3, which is still high for what you would call a normal organization,

403
00:41:59,160 --> 00:42:00,615
but what we do is not normal, so 30.3 is really good for us considering where we were.

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

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not only has turnover helped us, or lack of turnover helped us reduce our average daily case load,

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but changes that have been made to culture, changes that have been made to hiring practices,

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changes that have been made to how we train our staff and how we honor our staff have helped us to

408
00:42:31,470 --> 00:42:31,470
reduce our caseload from 17.1-8.5 cases,

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which really helps us when you have a case load that is manageable,

410
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it helps you to be able to protect children and do the things that you're

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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.

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priority 1 and priority 2, face to face contacts,

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

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we have 24 hours to make contact with families and try to see those children.

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we're now at 91.6% of all of our cases,

416
00:43:14,790 --> 00:43:16,020
we're able to see those children, see those families within time frames.

417
00:43:19,575 --> 00:43:22,935
also on priority 2 contacts, we have 72 hours, and we have been able to see those families and make contact

418
00:43:28,425 --> 00:43:28,425
or attempt to make contact with those families in 92.4% of our cases,

419
00:43:34,395 --> 00:43:36,435
which is very good. Also, our average time for closure,

420
00:43:39,120 --> 00:43:39,120
we have been able to reduce that from 45.5 in 2022 down to

421
00:43:44,610 --> 00:43:44,610
29.9 days in order to be able to complete an investigation.

422
00:43:50,160 --> 00:43:50,160
again, those things are correlated to having staff and being able to train

423
00:43:54,780 --> 00:43:57,030
staff and being able to give staff the tools necessary in order to be able to do the job well.

424
00:44:00,165 --> 00:44:00,165
>> excuse me, vince, before you move on. Maybe I missed it.

425
00:44:04,260 --> 00:44:04,260
can you give a little bit more clear clarification on p1 and p2s what it stands for?

426
00:44:14,160 --> 00:44:15,750
>> sure. >> can be a little bit clear in that. >> sure. A priority 1 investigation,

427
00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:18,480
when we receive referrals from the community,

428
00:44:23,970 --> 00:44:25,800
they go to through statewide intake, statewide intake gathers all of the information and they have criteria by which

429
00:44:30,240 --> 00:44:30,240
they determine whether this is a priority 1 or priority 2 investigation.

430
00:44:34,890 --> 00:44:34,890
in other words, how much time this is a serious situation based on a number of factors,

431
00:44:39,870 --> 00:44:43,470
age of the child, the seriousness of the allegation, the history of the family.

432
00:44:45,375 --> 00:44:47,970
there are several determining factors that would cause them to state wide intake to say okay,

433
00:44:51,150 --> 00:44:53,970
we need to see this family within 24 hours. That's what a priority 1 investigation would be.

434
00:44:56,880 --> 00:44:58,680
they send that to the field, the field assigns that case and that case worker gets that case.

435
00:45:04,635 --> 00:45:08,345
when you think about the whole process, that the referral comes to us, it goes to statewide intake,

436
00:45:09,710 --> 00:45:12,425
it goes to the region, it goes to the program, it goes to whoever's unit that's supposed to get the case.

437
00:45:16,130 --> 00:45:18,685
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.

438
00:45:24,375 --> 00:45:28,365
that's what priority 1 would be and when you look at the process, workers have done a really good job,

439
00:45:30,060 --> 00:45:32,910
staff have done a really good job of taking those changes, those transitions and still being able to make contact with families.

440
00:45:36,150 --> 00:45:39,390
same process happens for a priority 2 investigations. It is just that we have 72 hours because there may be factors in those cases

441
00:45:44,310 --> 00:45:46,470
that allow statewide intake to look at those cases and that criteria and be able to say okay,

442
00:45:49,440 --> 00:45:52,080
we have a little bit of time, maybe the child is a little older.

443
00:45:53,715 --> 00:45:53,715
maybe the situation is not deemed as critical as you would say a priority 1 investigation

444
00:46:00,240 --> 00:46:03,420
would be and you have 72 hours in order to be able to make initiate contact with that family.

445
00:46:10,490 --> 00:46:10,490
>> kristin, real quick, on call abandonment.

446
00:46:15,045 --> 00:46:18,360
I'm guessing those are concentrated on the public lines and not law enforcement and so forth that they're calling in.

447
00:46:22,560 --> 00:46:25,350
>> I'm going to pitch that one to mss. O'neill. >> this is to the statewide, a hot hotline.

448
00:46:29,130 --> 00:46:29,130
there is a prioritization that comes into that hotline, but this, I believe,

449
00:46:33,780 --> 00:46:35,880
is just for the hotline as a whole so it wouldn't include any of our help lines or anything like that,

450
00:46:38,670 --> 00:46:42,200
but it's for the statewide intake hotline. >> but the hotline is used by law enforcement and the medical and education?

451
00:46:48,555 --> 00:46:51,810
>> it is, but there is a law enforcement. We have stephen here he can address this if he needs to.

452
00:46:54,885 --> 00:46:57,300
but they're like most of those calls are just prioritized so for example, a health professional,

453
00:47:00,735 --> 00:47:03,510
they do not have a separate number to call so they would be included in the same abandonment rate.

454
00:47:07,365 --> 00:47:10,290
I believe that same is true for law enforcement, they're just prioritized in the que, is that right, stephen?

455
00:47:14,660 --> 00:47:17,865
it does not include the law enforcement hotline. >> then the second question,

456
00:47:19,350 --> 00:47:20,910
when we say call abandonment, there's a big difference between I waiting too long, something came up.

457
00:47:24,525 --> 00:47:27,765
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,

458
00:47:30,360 --> 00:47:32,715
well, for whatever reason, I'm just hanging up. Do you see a lot of the call abandonments during the call,

459
00:47:37,200 --> 00:47:40,155
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.

460
00:47:43,665 --> 00:47:47,190
>> if they get a hold of them on the phone, they're not hanging up during the call, typically? >> typically not. It happens periodically.

461
00:47:49,815 --> 00:47:52,260
I don't think that would be considered an abandoned call. It's considered an abandoned call if they hang up when waiting.

462
00:47:55,350 --> 00:47:56,805
>> perfect. Thank you so much. >> sure.

463
00:47:59,930 --> 00:48:02,835
>> moving on to the next slide, we're going to share some data related to child protective services ongoing services.

464
00:48:07,785 --> 00:48:07,785
you'll see that in fiscal year 2025 as of july 31st,

465
00:48:13,725 --> 00:48:13,725
the number of children in care was 16,137 children,

466
00:48:19,470 --> 00:48:22,545
which is slightly higher from the prior fiscal year, but we're still seeing overall that trend of the number of children in care

467
00:48:27,630 --> 00:48:27,630
overall since fiscal year 2022 and really even before that.

468
00:48:33,345 --> 00:48:33,345
conservatorship caseworker turnover has improved over the past three fiscal years,

469
00:48:39,210 --> 00:48:41,760
it's down to 27.1%. You'll see there on the slide that this percentage does not include our cbc areas.

470
00:48:48,255 --> 00:48:52,170
we do track that very closely, but for this particular data point, we're looking at conservatorship case workers,

471
00:48:55,200 --> 00:48:58,620
caseworkers who are working those ongoing services with children and families who are in our legacy regions.

472
00:49:02,535 --> 00:49:05,550
you'll also see that our average daily caseload for conservatorship workers continues to improve.

473
00:49:08,490 --> 00:49:08,490
we're really happy with the 13.8 average daily caseload

474
00:49:12,870 --> 00:49:12,870
for these workers because obviously when you have fewer caseloads,

475
00:49:17,100 --> 00:49:19,710
you can spend more time with children and families and really work to meet their individual needs.

476
00:49:22,830 --> 00:49:22,830
our fpss average daily caseload has also decreased since fiscal year 2024.

477
00:49:29,445 --> 00:49:29,445
it's currently at 8.9 average per case worker.

478
00:49:34,335 --> 00:49:34,335
we also track very closely children who are able to achieve permanency within 12 months.

479
00:49:41,220 --> 00:49:45,030
this is a really important data point because, as you know, overall children tend to fare better if they're not

480
00:49:48,180 --> 00:49:51,300
lingering in the system for long periods of time and so we are happy to see that

481
00:49:54,120 --> 00:49:54,120
that particular data point has improved since fiscal year 2024,

482
00:49:58,875 --> 00:50:00,570
and it's currently well, as of july, it was at 29.6%.

483
00:50:05,505 --> 00:50:08,400
we'll talk a little bit more about the children without placement a little later on in this presentation.

484
00:50:12,210 --> 00:50:12,210
but you'll see that we did increase slightly the average number of children in

485
00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:16,680
placement on any given day to 20 children from last year,

486
00:50:21,225 --> 00:50:23,475
it was 16 children. Then I know that you all have been updated on

487
00:50:26,160 --> 00:50:26,160
the various kinship initiatives that are occurring across the state.

488
00:50:30,420 --> 00:50:33,840
we continue to prioritize placing children with family or with a known family friend when at all possible.

489
00:50:39,285 --> 00:50:39,285
you'll see that children in kinship settings has improved to 43.1% as of july 31st.

490
00:50:48,255 --> 00:50:51,750
our goal for september 1st was to be at 45%, we don't have that data yet,

491
00:50:53,610 --> 00:50:53,610
but we do believe we will be very close and we will continue to watch this data closely.

492
00:50:59,910 --> 00:51:03,255
children with kinship at first placement. This is an initiative that child protective investigations and

493
00:51:07,050 --> 00:51:09,270
our family based safety services workers have really been working hard on and they've been

494
00:51:11,490 --> 00:51:15,120
collaborating with ongoing programs regarding children with kinship at first placement and you'll see that we

495
00:51:19,500 --> 00:51:23,250
have improved there as well in placing children immediately upon removal with somebody that they're familiar with,

496
00:51:28,005 --> 00:51:28,005
with the most recent data being that 39.1% of

497
00:51:32,700 --> 00:51:32,700
children are placed immediately with either family or a very close family friend.

498
00:51:38,040 --> 00:51:39,915
>> interrupt you for one second. >> yes. >> I just want to give them a shout out.

499
00:51:42,615 --> 00:51:45,720
the national average for kinship placements, I believe is between about 37 and 38%,

500
00:51:49,170 --> 00:51:49,170
so that our investigator staff have matured

501
00:51:53,940 --> 00:51:53,940
their practices to place 39.1% of children in kinship placements at removal,

502
00:52:00,795 --> 00:52:00,795
which exceeds the national average for kinship placements in total is

503
00:52:05,430 --> 00:52:07,860
a huge accomplishment and you'll see that this will be a real area of intensive focus for us going forward.

504
00:52:12,650 --> 00:52:12,650
>> I'll just add that the goal is 40% by january.

505
00:52:17,460 --> 00:52:17,460
we're still trying to make even more strides,

506
00:52:22,035 --> 00:52:22,035
it is different as we look at the data in different regions and different areas,

507
00:52:28,140 --> 00:52:30,900
there is room for improvement because there are some regions that are much better at making sure we do this than others.

508
00:52:34,605 --> 00:52:34,605
but the goal as commissioner o'neill has stated,

509
00:52:38,910 --> 00:52:40,710
we're very proud of the work that we've done, but there is room to make this of paramount importance.

510
00:52:49,000 --> 00:52:51,710
>> then lastly, on this slide, is just a snapshot of some data related to community-based care.

511
00:52:56,285 --> 00:52:59,330
this data is as of august 31st, so this is very recent data.

512
00:53:01,235 --> 00:53:01,235
48.5% of all children in care across texas

513
00:53:05,555 --> 00:53:05,555
are currently being served through an sscc catchment area.

514
00:53:10,490 --> 00:53:10,490
we're working in various regions to continue implementing cbc statewide.

515
00:53:17,750 --> 00:53:21,590
currently, we have one region as of september 1st, which is in stage one implementation,

516
00:53:24,365 --> 00:53:24,365
and there are four regions across the state in stage two and stage three.

517
00:53:29,375 --> 00:53:31,100
that's just a brief snapshot. I know the office of community-based care will give more updates in just a bit.

518
00:53:35,860 --> 00:53:38,855
>> I have a question before we move on. >> yes. >> going back to the children without placement,

519
00:53:41,255 --> 00:53:43,535
the increase was 20 children. What is the age that increase was for?

520
00:53:46,520 --> 00:53:50,420
was it teenagers? Was it more youth? >> right.

521
00:53:51,215 --> 00:53:53,645
any adult? I mean, young children. >> we have a slide in a bit that will show a little bit more data related to that,

522
00:53:57,830 --> 00:53:58,955
but by and large, the majority of children who are without placement are generally 16 and 17-year old,

523
00:54:05,720 --> 00:54:05,720
but our 14-plus population really makes up for the majority of

524
00:54:10,610 --> 00:54:10,610
the children who have an episode of being without placement.

525
00:54:19,780 --> 00:54:19,780
okay. Overall. Dfps census, as you all know,

526
00:54:25,040 --> 00:54:28,670
it's a high priority for our agency to keep children and youth in the least restrictive and most family-like home setting possible.

527
00:54:33,950 --> 00:54:33,950
of the 16,137 children in care at the end of july,

528
00:54:40,505 --> 00:54:40,505
82.1% resided in a family-like setting.

529
00:54:44,570 --> 00:54:47,000
that's good. But when you look at this, it just gives you an overview of where all of those children are placed.

530
00:54:51,650 --> 00:54:54,065
you'll see on the left, 41.7% of all children are placed in a foster family home.

531
00:54:59,390 --> 00:55:02,660
so that's considered a family-like setting because they're in a foster home that mimics a family setting.

532
00:55:07,325 --> 00:55:10,370
then on the right-hand side, you'll see 39% are in unverified kinship care.

533
00:55:14,060 --> 00:55:14,060
we discussed the kinship rate being a little over 43%.

534
00:55:19,595 --> 00:55:19,595
the reason that says 39% is because the remaining 4%

535
00:55:24,675 --> 00:55:24,675
are licensed and verified homes that would fall under that foster family home percentage,

536
00:55:30,055 --> 00:55:31,750
if that makes sense. Then the other thing that I just want you to note on this slide is

537
00:55:35,710 --> 00:55:35,710
that we're going to be talking more about our children without placement.

538
00:55:39,900 --> 00:55:42,995
it's really important that we continue to focus on those children in youth and their needs.

539
00:55:46,610 --> 00:55:46,610
they do make up 0.1% of the total number of children in care.

540
00:55:57,520 --> 00:56:00,455
children without placement. Between february 1st of this year and august 31st of this year,

541
00:56:06,920 --> 00:56:06,920
410 youth experienced two or more consecutive nights in child watch.

542
00:56:13,460 --> 00:56:15,770
and approximately a third of those, or 33.2% experienced a subsequent episode.

543
00:56:20,030 --> 00:56:22,985
so we were able to find them placement. But for a multitude of reasons,

544
00:56:25,535 --> 00:56:25,535
those placements broke down those children or youth returned to child watch.

545
00:56:30,740 --> 00:56:30,740
on average, a youth who has experienced child watch has experienced

546
00:56:37,025 --> 00:56:37,025
a subsequent child watch episode, averaging 2.98 episodes.

547
00:56:45,365 --> 00:56:45,365
this just really is a reflection of the population of youth that

548
00:56:49,730 --> 00:56:49,730
we're seeing in child watch because they are higher acuity youth.

549
00:56:54,440 --> 00:56:57,635
what we found is that for our higher acuity youth, oftentimes we are able to find them a placement.

550
00:57:00,635 --> 00:57:00,635
we're working with providers who feel that they're able to meet their needs,

551
00:57:05,510 --> 00:57:08,090
but after the child is placed, they realize that the needs are really more complex than what they're able to meet.

552
00:57:13,205 --> 00:57:17,105
and so those children are often returning to child watch. >> can I just add something there real quick, kristin?

553
00:57:19,490 --> 00:57:21,740
I think this really just underscores our reliance on the behavioral health system and

554
00:57:23,750 --> 00:57:26,690
the services and supports that are available in that system. Because, as kristin just said,

555
00:57:29,585 --> 00:57:32,750
we are able to find a solution, but if that solution,

556
00:57:34,250 --> 00:57:34,250
even with a provider who is working very hard,

557
00:57:39,485 --> 00:57:39,485
cannot access the behavioral health services that they need,

558
00:57:44,690 --> 00:57:47,930
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.

559
00:57:53,360 --> 00:57:53,360
and you all are aware that there was a lot of discussion,

560
00:57:57,620 --> 00:58:00,170
and the department really drove a lot of discussion in the last legislative session around

561
00:58:03,350 --> 00:58:06,200
the absolute critical importance of being able to access behavioral health services for these youth.

562
00:58:09,530 --> 00:58:09,530
there have been efforts by the legislature to address those gaps.

563
00:58:14,210 --> 00:58:14,210
this just remains a really critical area

564
00:58:18,755 --> 00:58:18,755
of need for our children and youth with the highest needs possible.

565
00:58:23,390 --> 00:58:23,390
kristin is absolutely right that typically these are older youth.

566
00:58:27,545 --> 00:58:30,680
I will note, and I think we may have shared previously, that we are seeing an emerging trend of younger youth

567
00:58:35,180 --> 00:58:35,180
with co-occurring intellectual and developmental disabilities,

568
00:58:40,960 --> 00:58:40,960
where we are really not able to find appropriate placement resources to meet their needs.

569
00:58:48,320 --> 00:58:48,320
there are specialized packages in t3c to address all of those needs,

570
00:58:54,170 --> 00:58:54,170
both the high behavioral health needs and co-occurring idd needs.

571
00:58:58,520 --> 00:59:00,530
but the reality is, there will probably still be this challenge

572
00:59:03,170 --> 00:59:06,695
with our children and youth with the very highest needs, and really making sure that there is a safety net

573
00:59:09,605 --> 00:59:09,605
available for those children is a high area of focus for us.

574
00:59:15,850 --> 00:59:15,850
>> okay. And so here is another snapshot of our child without placement data.

575
00:59:23,855 --> 00:59:26,945
this is really tiny. I hope you all can see it. For the line chart on the top,

576
00:59:31,610 --> 00:59:31,610
from the left are the numbers from july of 2021,

577
00:59:37,940 --> 00:59:37,940
and on the right is as of august 31st of this year.

578
00:59:42,485 --> 00:59:42,485
you'll see that for total unique children in blue who

579
00:59:47,195 --> 00:59:47,195
had been in a child watch episode at some point since july of 2021,

580
00:59:52,745 --> 00:59:56,660
we have been trending downward overall, which is good. Then also, I believe that the red or orange line

581
01:00:01,940 --> 01:00:01,940
is the average daily census of children who are in child watch,

582
01:00:07,085 --> 01:00:09,140
and that's also been trending down, and we're trending in the right direction for both of

583
01:00:12,950 --> 01:00:12,950
those data points as of august 31st of this year.

584
01:00:19,925 --> 01:00:23,300
for the total unique children that were in child watch, there were 95 unique children in child watch

585
01:00:25,985 --> 01:00:29,210
over the entire course of the month of august, and then the average daily census was right at 21% to 22%.

586
01:00:35,560 --> 01:00:39,410
then you'll see below the child characteristics. The two main characteristics that we're seeing in children who are experiencing

587
01:00:45,815 --> 01:00:48,590
episodes of being without placement are physical aggression and psychiatric hospitalization.

588
01:00:53,600 --> 01:00:53,600
meaning that they have some mental health needs that we're

589
01:00:57,680 --> 01:00:57,680
struggling to find providers who can adequately meet those needs.

590
01:01:01,805 --> 01:01:04,460
then, to the right, on the bottom, is the census looking at the age breakdowns as discussed earlier,

591
01:01:10,010 --> 01:01:10,010
and then also male versus female for august of 2025.

592
01:01:16,265 --> 01:01:19,100
as acting commissioner o'neill indicated, we do see 29% of the zero to nine,

593
01:01:22,265 --> 01:01:22,265
and largely those are younger youth who have some complex needs.

594
01:01:26,570 --> 01:01:29,410
but for the most part, over 56% are 14 or older.

595
01:01:35,490 --> 01:01:35,490
that's just a general overview of the census.

596
01:01:40,135 --> 01:01:40,135
do you have any other questions about any of that data?

597
01:01:55,470 --> 01:01:55,470
>> thank you for the data.

598
01:02:00,055 --> 01:02:03,340
it's excellent information, and I have so many questions, and clearly, there's so much progress.

599
01:02:06,800 --> 01:02:06,800
but I'm thinking about these youth and the behavioral health needs,

600
01:02:11,300 --> 01:02:15,095
and the co-occurring intellectual developmental disabilities. We're seeing this not only in the child welfare system,

601
01:02:18,080 --> 01:02:18,080
but also, unfortunately, in the legal system.

602
01:02:22,420 --> 01:02:22,420
do you have further data in terms of these children without placement?

603
01:02:28,955 --> 01:02:32,090
when do they come into the system first? I'm sure you might not have that readily available.

604
01:02:35,750 --> 01:02:39,200
these children who are coming in very young and what is their age of entry when we first get involved?

605
01:02:42,725 --> 01:02:44,555
and then also, I'm assuming a lot of these children have multiple placements.

606
01:02:48,635 --> 01:02:51,980
I don't know if you have any thoughts on that, but I'm just trying to figure out the trajectory.

607
01:02:59,380 --> 01:03:02,435
>> they do have a higher number of placements, and we don't have that data in here,

608
01:03:03,770 --> 01:03:05,435
but we do absolutely have that data. I will say one thing we have done over the last 2.5 years

609
01:03:09,140 --> 01:03:12,950
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.

610
01:03:20,495 --> 01:03:21,710
it's not included here, but what I know historically is that roughly 38 to 42% of

611
01:03:28,580 --> 01:03:32,270
children who experience episodes of being without placement have been in the system for less than one year.

612
01:03:36,275 --> 01:03:39,980
that was surprising to us. There are certainly children who

613
01:03:42,680 --> 01:03:42,680
have been in the foster care system for a very long time.

614
01:03:46,880 --> 01:03:46,880
but there are also a number of children who are relatively new,

615
01:03:51,590 --> 01:03:51,590
and there is a significant portion of those children who come to

616
01:03:56,090 --> 01:03:56,090
us with a removal reason of refusal to assume parental responsibility,

617
01:04:01,310 --> 01:04:03,920
which we just try really hard to talk about. That means that family was so at their wits' end

618
01:04:10,295 --> 01:04:13,730
that they could not access the resources they needed to access to support their children in their home,

619
01:04:17,570 --> 01:04:19,025
and in some cases, those families end up coming to the child welfare system for solutions.

620
01:04:23,795 --> 01:04:26,990
we are really focused on making sure that we do not just build solutions into the child welfare system

621
01:04:30,290 --> 01:04:33,440
because a parent should never have to surrender their parental rights in order to receive behavioral health services.

622
01:04:37,490 --> 01:04:37,490
>> thank you.

623
01:04:46,300 --> 01:04:49,205
>> all right, alternative response. I thought there was another slide.

624
01:04:51,545 --> 01:04:51,545
let's talk about alternative response.

625
01:04:57,760 --> 01:04:57,760
we were just talking a little bit earlier about traditional investigations

626
01:05:01,970 --> 01:05:05,720
and priority one and priority two investigations. Another way of looking at how we investigate cases is an alternative response.

627
01:05:11,435 --> 01:05:15,380
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.

628
01:05:19,070 --> 01:05:21,455
in traditional investigations, normally, there is an alleged perpetrator.

629
01:05:24,890 --> 01:05:24,890
there is an emphasis on making sure that there's a disposition,

630
01:05:31,445 --> 01:05:33,500
whether a case was a disposition, meaning, whether we found that it was reason to believe that abuse and neglect occurred,

631
01:05:38,870 --> 01:05:42,230
or it was ruled out that abuse or neglect occurred, or unable to determine.

632
01:05:44,105 --> 01:05:47,390
in alternative response cases, we are still emphasizing keeping children safe

633
01:05:50,555 --> 01:05:53,885
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

634
01:05:56,825 --> 01:05:56,825
is that there are no alleged perpetrators.

635
01:06:01,145 --> 01:06:03,575
there are no dispositions, and there is no central registry to which an alleged perpetrator

636
01:06:07,730 --> 01:06:07,730
might be added if they found reason to believe.

637
01:06:12,695 --> 01:06:12,695
I like to look at it as not taking away those things,

638
01:06:18,665 --> 01:06:21,245
but focusing on the solution. We can talk all day about who did what.

639
01:06:24,785 --> 01:06:26,255
but at the end of the day, if we have a case and we determine how we go forward with the case.

640
01:06:32,165 --> 01:06:35,030
how do we move forward with a solution that helps children stay in homes and keeps children safe?

641
01:06:38,150 --> 01:06:41,030
that, in some cases, can be our focus. So in our alternative response cases,

642
01:06:44,660 --> 01:06:46,835
one of the things that happens is, because we eliminate the fault,

643
01:06:49,655 --> 01:06:49,655
we end up with parents who are many times more

644
01:06:54,170 --> 01:06:54,170
willing to engage us in working on the solution to the situation.

645
01:06:58,640 --> 01:06:58,640
we end up with parents who focus their efforts

646
01:07:03,155 --> 01:07:03,155
on services that we can provide that can help them with this situation.

647
01:07:08,135 --> 01:07:11,810
you end up with caseworkers who are able to focus on locating resources and locating area stakeholders,

648
01:07:16,985 --> 01:07:19,430
or people within the community who might be able to help that family improve their family functioning.

649
01:07:22,250 --> 01:07:24,770
now, this isn't appropriate for all cases. As we mentioned earlier, priority one cases are not

650
01:07:28,160 --> 01:07:28,160
necessarily appropriate for alternative response.

651
01:07:32,270 --> 01:07:32,270
but there are priority two cases that we would look

652
01:07:36,470 --> 01:07:40,265
at and view as appropriate for alternative response. One of the things that we don't talk about in this slide is that,

653
01:07:43,805 --> 01:07:46,490
as we're expanding alternative response, we will have screeners who will screen almost all of our priority two cases,

654
01:07:52,235 --> 01:07:52,235
and we will have more cases that will start going to alternative response.

655
01:07:59,150 --> 01:08:02,150
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,

656
01:08:07,100 --> 01:08:10,160
and we'll be able to work collaboratively with parents to ensure that children are safe and to work with them on their solutions.

657
01:08:15,120 --> 01:08:18,040
>> the regions that are currently in the expanded area of alternative response are region four out in tyler,

658
01:08:22,540 --> 01:08:24,430
region five in baum, actually region 45 are together and they work together.

659
01:08:28,420 --> 01:08:28,420
region 10 in el paso is also

660
01:08:33,310 --> 01:08:33,310
an area that has been working and is working with expansion of alternative response.

661
01:08:39,280 --> 01:08:42,010
because expansion is so large in the state of texas, and I think there's another slide where we'll show the progression.

662
01:08:45,595 --> 01:08:49,045
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,

663
01:08:53,560 --> 01:08:56,470
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

664
01:09:02,710 --> 01:09:05,770
progressing toward getting to the point where everybody is up and running and fully functioning in the expansion of alternative response.

665
01:09:10,180 --> 01:09:12,160
I don't think I mentioned, but the expansion of alternative response would mean in these cases for us because

666
01:09:18,385 --> 01:09:18,385
so many of the program priority two cases would end up normally in alternative response,

667
01:09:24,820 --> 01:09:28,530
they were cases that were the children were 6-years-old and older and and there was limited history.

668
01:09:35,110 --> 01:09:37,450
in order to expand alternative response, we are taking those age ranges away and 0-5 will be considered.

669
01:09:45,550 --> 01:09:47,095
that's why they will be screened. They'll be considered for alternative response,

670
01:09:49,615 --> 01:09:49,615
and some of the history will also be considered.

671
01:09:55,830 --> 01:09:58,990
it will hopefully get us to the point where we're able to expand alternative response and be able to

672
01:10:02,200 --> 01:10:02,200
have more cases that will go down this area and help us work with families.

673
01:10:08,305 --> 01:10:08,305
the statewide training is in completion and it will continue until region 8 is done.

674
01:10:16,000 --> 01:10:19,840
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

675
01:10:23,590 --> 01:10:27,580
cross trained to work alternative response cases. It is very different. Is a very different way of

676
01:10:29,320 --> 01:10:31,990
working investigations and many of our traditional investigators who have been here quite a while,

677
01:10:34,975 --> 01:10:37,355
it is a shift for them. It working with them it's like pulling teeth sometimes,

678
01:10:41,410 --> 01:10:41,410
trying to get them to move to this different way of doing it.

679
01:10:46,060 --> 01:10:46,060
but everybody is in the mode of we're doing what's best for children so they're learning.

680
01:10:52,650 --> 01:10:55,515
our last region that we will be working with is region 8, which is san antonio/bexer county,

681
01:10:57,315 --> 01:10:57,315
and their cross training will happen in 2025.

682
01:11:01,505 --> 01:11:01,505
we are also up up dating policies and practices and the training manuals,

683
01:11:06,790 --> 01:11:06,790
and that is happening now between now and september and october 2025,

684
01:11:13,030 --> 01:11:17,020
in order to make sure that all staff are trained we have training models that have been introduced into

685
01:11:19,090 --> 01:11:22,435
the training academy so that when new staff come on, they are already trained and they're already cross trained.

686
01:11:25,480 --> 01:11:25,480
they have traditional investigation training and alternative response training.

687
01:11:30,270 --> 01:11:30,270
we also have updates to our internal and public websites about alternative response,

688
01:11:35,980 --> 01:11:38,965
and that is set to release in october. There will be testimonial videos, resources,

689
01:11:42,730 --> 01:11:42,730
and more information on expansion that will be available on our website.

690
01:11:47,910 --> 01:11:47,910
also, we have to track how successful this is.

691
01:11:56,770 --> 01:12:00,730
there will be data points that are being developed right now so that we can look at recidivism,

692
01:12:04,615 --> 01:12:08,020
how many alternative response cases are we working and those families come back for an investigation.

693
01:12:13,390 --> 01:12:13,390
we're hoping that this method allows us to reduce recidivism.

694
01:12:18,460 --> 01:12:21,010
we're hoping that this method allows us to decrease removals and alternative response real referrals.

695
01:12:25,165 --> 01:12:27,400
if you do your job successfully, and if this works successfully with the family being involved in helping us do it,

696
01:12:30,850 --> 01:12:34,375
then hopefully we should have fewer real referrals. We're looking at where we're asking workers and surveying workers and

697
01:12:40,960 --> 01:12:44,200
surveying families to find out what their satisfaction level is with

698
01:12:45,910 --> 01:12:49,075
alternative response in this new way that we're working cases. We're also working with referrals to services and we're tracking,

699
01:12:55,810 --> 01:12:58,360
how many new referrals now are coming into alternative response as opposed to in the past.

700
01:13:04,440 --> 01:13:04,440
our pilot region from february of 2024 to august of 2024 was region ten el paso.

701
01:13:16,015 --> 01:13:16,015
all of the proposed changes were tested and yielded in el paso alternative and

702
01:13:23,560 --> 01:13:23,560
we looked at data for how everything worked in el paso,

703
01:13:30,610 --> 01:13:30,610
region 10 from april 2023 to january 2024.

704
01:13:35,455 --> 01:13:35,455
during that time, 20% of all investigations that were worked worked alternative response.

705
01:13:40,825 --> 01:13:43,000
once the pilot started, 41% of all investigations that we were worked worked in alternative response.

706
01:13:47,470 --> 01:13:49,465
that was once the criteria was changed. We saw that we were successful in increasing

707
01:13:52,420 --> 01:13:52,420
the number of investigations that went to alternative response.

708
01:13:56,730 --> 01:13:58,780
the next set of numbers, didn't necessarily we hope that it works this well in all other regions,

709
01:14:02,890 --> 01:14:05,875
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,

710
01:14:12,145 --> 01:14:12,145
during the 10 months before alternative response criteria changed,

711
01:14:18,400 --> 01:14:20,290
there were 59 removals. In the ten months after alternative response criteria change,

712
01:14:23,920 --> 01:14:26,350
there were 32 removals, a 46% decrease in the number of removals.

713
01:14:30,025 --> 01:14:30,025
again, if we had a 46% decrease in the number of

714
01:14:34,240 --> 01:14:37,870
removals across the state, that would be great. But we can't say that. But we're hopeful.

715
01:14:42,970 --> 01:14:46,300
we're hopeful that it helps us to be able to work with families, and we're hopeful it should help us to

716
01:14:48,610 --> 01:14:50,980
be able to decrease removals and work with families and hopefully this model will allow us in many cases to have better outcomes.

717
01:14:59,220 --> 01:15:03,160
the roll out plan for alternative response, we have already started in el paso,

718
01:15:06,670 --> 01:15:09,210
which was the pilot region. It has already started in regions 4 and 5, beaumont,

719
01:15:13,030 --> 01:15:16,360
and tyler, and in region 9, midland. 2026 fiscal year, we will focus on rollout,

720
01:15:21,910 --> 01:15:21,910
and this is full rollout in three west and three east.

721
01:15:25,960 --> 01:15:27,670
that's fort worth and dallas, and region 11, which is corpus christi area.

722
01:15:31,330 --> 01:15:31,330
fiscal year 2027 will be regions 1 and 2 region 7 and region 6b,

723
01:15:39,025 --> 01:15:39,025
and our last two regions in fiscal year 2028 would be region 6a and region 8.

724
01:15:47,275 --> 01:15:49,600
we just show you this to show that again, we are trying to do this slowly and correctly.

725
01:15:54,205 --> 01:15:57,370
many times we can with any agency, but I've been here a while and I've seen us implement

726
01:16:00,730 --> 01:16:04,645
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

727
01:16:08,110 --> 01:16:08,110
and correctly to make sure that we have the best chance for good outcomes.

728
01:16:15,600 --> 01:16:15,600
I think that's it. Questions.

729
01:16:20,100 --> 01:16:23,335
>> thank you so much. Do we have questions? >> I do. I want to say seeing

730
01:16:28,405 --> 01:16:31,690
the rollout and development of alternative response has been something that I'm very grateful to see.

731
01:16:35,245 --> 01:16:39,115
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,

732
01:16:43,420 --> 01:16:46,390
at that time, I thought it was brilliant and I'm really glad to see that this is something that stuck around.

733
01:16:49,000 --> 01:16:52,210
I think at its core, alternative response removes some of the adversarial elements that exist between families and the system.

734
01:16:56,980 --> 01:16:59,185
I think that by addressing that, you can have people have fundamentally different experiences.

735
01:17:02,275 --> 01:17:02,275
it doesn't surprise me one bit to see that in the pilot that there was a 46% reduction,

736
01:17:07,730 --> 01:17:10,320
because if people feel that they can work together and that in a collaborative way that's not punitive,

737
01:17:13,095 --> 01:17:13,095
I think that you're going to get safer families and a stronger system.

738
01:17:17,305 --> 01:17:17,305
being able to see that is really helpful and it's inspiring for the future.

739
01:17:23,165 --> 01:17:26,235
I just think that if that carries forward, every other state in the union is going to be like,

740
01:17:29,370 --> 01:17:32,520
let's do that because I think any child welfare agency would be 50% reduction in removals.

741
01:17:36,025 --> 01:17:36,025
yeah, we're going to do that. Kudos to you all and ktc agency for sticking with it.

742
01:17:42,010 --> 01:17:43,660
I agree the roll out, having it go slow and incorporating cqi in this process to make

743
01:17:47,365 --> 01:17:47,365
sure it's done well will result in a much better system.

744
01:17:54,060 --> 01:17:54,060
>> I'm glad you mentioned that alternative response as been stated,

745
01:18:02,095 --> 01:18:04,120
it's not a new thing. My first alternative response training was probably 2014.

746
01:18:08,485 --> 01:18:08,485
we've been doing this and moving toward it

747
01:18:12,670 --> 01:18:12,670
and ramping it up for quite a while so it's not something that we're new at,

748
01:18:18,115 --> 01:18:18,115
it's just something that we're in the process of expanding.

749
01:18:24,300 --> 01:18:26,455
>> my only comment was, thank you for piloting this in el paso,

750
01:18:29,050 --> 01:18:31,510
and I'm hoping that you found a lot of adaptability within the staff and the willingness to

751
01:18:34,345 --> 01:18:37,420
shift to changes whenever that's needed because I always like to see things getting piloted in el paso.

752
01:18:41,065 --> 01:18:41,065
>> I'll just say that we went to el paso.

753
01:18:45,610 --> 01:18:45,610
our leadership team went to el paso two months ago.

754
01:18:49,840 --> 01:18:49,840
the nicest people in the world are in el paso. I was shocked.

755
01:18:54,325 --> 01:18:54,325
I'm not shocked, I didn't know anything but it

756
01:18:58,390 --> 01:18:58,390
was very nice and then the staff were also.

757
01:19:04,470 --> 01:19:04,470
>> I can at least agree that enrique is one of the nicest people.

758
01:19:10,375 --> 01:19:13,645
just for someone who may not understand how alternative response would be an appropriate solution,

759
01:19:16,495 --> 01:19:19,585
are you able to share a p2 case example, just high level that would be more appropriate for alternative response,

760
01:19:24,520 --> 01:19:27,340
and then I have something another question when you're done. >> a 7-year-old comes

761
01:19:36,400 --> 01:19:36,400
to school dirty and hungry and says,

762
01:19:42,760 --> 01:19:42,760
we don't eat at home and there's not a lot of food

763
01:19:47,080 --> 01:19:47,080
and I don't know if there's food there's going to be food at home when I get home.

764
01:19:54,810 --> 01:19:57,460
the school calls that in, we get the referral, it is referred to alternative response.

765
01:20:00,895 --> 01:20:04,240
alternative response would call the family. Set up a family session,

766
01:20:07,045 --> 01:20:10,000
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,

767
01:20:13,840 --> 01:20:13,840
this is what we got, this is what the situation is that we understand,

768
01:20:18,025 --> 01:20:21,310
tell us how we can help or tell us what the issues are, what the concerns are,

769
01:20:22,450 --> 01:20:22,450
and how can we work together so that if there is a problem with your children eating,

770
01:20:29,695 --> 01:20:31,825
how do we fix that. Then you're able to work with the family,

771
01:20:34,405 --> 01:20:35,740
and they don't look at it like, you're going to rtb me for for physical neglect of my children.

772
01:20:40,600 --> 01:20:44,005
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

773
01:20:47,050 --> 01:20:47,050
with this situation and that situation and whatever their situations are.

774
01:20:51,490 --> 01:20:54,730
we would also talk to the children and make sure that there aren't any other areas that we need to be concerned about.

775
01:20:58,375 --> 01:20:58,375
but when we're able to work with that family and address those needs,

776
01:21:02,785 --> 01:21:05,260
then we close their case. >> can I add just a couple of things to that?

777
01:21:07,345 --> 01:21:07,345
I think that the unique thing about the pilot is previously,

778
01:21:12,040 --> 01:21:15,850
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,

779
01:21:19,165 --> 01:21:21,520
but a 5-year-old would not have. If there was a 5-year-old in the home,

780
01:21:23,785 --> 01:21:23,785
it would have automatically had to be routed as an investigation in our policy.

781
01:21:28,525 --> 01:21:31,710
this enables us, we really want to use the least intrusive tool.

782
01:21:35,545 --> 01:21:39,265
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

783
01:21:44,005 --> 01:21:44,005
mom was a single mom and just struggling to keep all the things going.

784
01:21:53,875 --> 01:21:56,995
the child was particularly adventurous and he got out the front door and onto the highway.

785
01:22:02,545 --> 01:22:02,545
of course, that's a very serious safety concern.

786
01:22:07,795 --> 01:22:07,795
it properly required response by the department but we would have

787
01:22:14,230 --> 01:22:16,975
previously had to route it as an intake and we would have investigated negligent supervision.

788
01:22:21,340 --> 01:22:25,180
that doesn't necessarily mean we would have substantiated negligent supervision, even if the child did get out into the street.

789
01:22:28,315 --> 01:22:28,315
that happens without a parent demonstrating gross negligence,

790
01:22:34,630 --> 01:22:37,960
and that's the criteria for negligence supervision. However, this enabled us to just have

791
01:22:40,570 --> 01:22:40,570
a family team meeting and there were that mom had supports that were available and we

792
01:22:45,850 --> 01:22:48,400
were able to connect her with community resources and it was really as simple as installing locks higher up

793
01:22:51,430 --> 01:22:54,790
on the door and just connecting that family to each other and to some resources that would allow her to safely parent.

794
01:22:59,190 --> 01:23:01,945
>> I appreciate those responses. I think sometimes in our fear based culture,

795
01:23:05,740 --> 01:23:09,130
not having examples when we're talking about concepts that seem really scary and people aren't always willing to ask the questions,

796
01:23:14,200 --> 01:23:16,135
really helps them understand how this more collaborative approach will be best for everyone.

797
01:23:21,460 --> 01:23:24,790
one of my favorite words is pilot. I use it all the time and I pilot things all the time.

798
01:23:28,375 --> 01:23:30,310
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,

799
01:23:35,845 --> 01:23:39,835
the reduction of removals is really impressive. I wondered what you're going to be doing to continue to track

800
01:23:45,910 --> 01:23:45,910
those cases over time to ensure that the ar was the proper response.

801
01:23:52,090 --> 01:23:53,935
if you have anything in place yet, you may not, but it has it been in consideration.

802
01:23:56,830 --> 01:23:56,830
>> yes. That's part of what the research team is

803
01:24:01,450 --> 01:24:01,450
working on and putting together data points that would allow us

804
01:24:05,950 --> 01:24:09,310
to determine if that family comes back into has another re referral or comes back into and then we have another case with them.

805
01:24:16,915 --> 01:24:20,230
they're they're working on those things to try to track those. Again, you're dallas, I'm dallas so

806
01:24:22,615 --> 01:24:22,615
I don't expect 46% in dallas but I expect it to be better.

807
01:24:32,500 --> 01:24:35,620
there are certain areas- [overlapping] >> we're el paso. I need you to do better. [laughter]

808
01:24:42,520 --> 01:24:44,290
>> I think there are things that happen in rural and urban communities they are just different.

809
01:24:50,100 --> 01:24:52,960
>> yes. But to answer your question, yes, we are working on right now,

810
01:24:55,450 --> 01:24:55,450
figuring out how to track all of those as we expand and how to track the differences too.

811
01:25:01,360 --> 01:25:04,315
how it will be different, how it may be different. In el paso as opposed to houston,

812
01:25:07,270 --> 01:25:07,270
and tracking whether 46% remains 46%.

813
01:25:12,280 --> 01:25:15,570
>> well, thank you for that. It was really helpful. >> I'll just note about the 3-year-old escaping the house.

814
01:25:20,155 --> 01:25:20,155
unfortunately, that's fairly common.

815
01:25:24,180 --> 01:25:24,180
sadly, it takes the intervention of either law enforcement or cps,

816
01:25:29,140 --> 01:25:32,800
because usually what happens is, the mom goes to the says, I need to move the lock up and no,

817
01:25:34,600 --> 01:25:34,600
that's violation of the lease will evict you if you modify or whatever.

818
01:25:39,265 --> 01:25:42,955
my kids getting out. No, that's the rule you can't do it. It takes one of us just being present to say,

819
01:25:46,495 --> 01:25:49,690
sure, we'll change a lock, which it could have done from the beginning, but for some reason, they don't.

820
01:25:50,920 --> 01:25:53,785
it shouldn't be like that, but I have found that's the standard and not the exception when it comes to modifying anything.

821
01:25:57,250 --> 01:26:00,625
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.

822
01:26:02,875 --> 01:26:04,900
unfortunately, we have to get involved to get other people to do what they should have done to begin with.

823
01:26:08,160 --> 01:26:08,160
>> the bigger part of it for our families is we have a situation like that.

824
01:26:13,420 --> 01:26:15,130
the mother's a teacher. If she's root reason to believe for that,

825
01:26:18,295 --> 01:26:21,970
she's on the central registry, now it may affect the job. Now you have a whole different problem.

826
01:26:28,860 --> 01:26:31,150
>> yes, there's no more questions. Thank you so much. That was an excellent presentation.

827
01:26:33,865 --> 01:26:33,865
your data over time and your comparison data is just very impressive,

828
01:26:38,200 --> 01:26:38,200
even know how we compare to other states and national data. Thank you.

829
01:26:44,995 --> 01:26:48,150
>> thank you. >> with that, next,

830
01:26:52,450 --> 01:26:52,450
we'll have holly mims to give a cbc update from the department and then randy neff,

831
01:26:59,875 --> 01:27:02,440
who's the senior vp from empower, to share with us an update on the community based care in their region. Thank you.

832
01:27:07,390 --> 01:27:07,390
>> good morning. I'll try again. Good morning.

833
01:27:12,310 --> 01:27:13,585
my name is holly mims, and I am with the community based care operations division,

834
01:27:16,720 --> 01:27:19,870
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.

835
01:27:25,660 --> 01:27:29,155
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.

836
01:27:34,465 --> 01:27:37,810
recent news since the last time we were able to give you guys an update is on september 1st belong,

837
01:27:41,890 --> 01:27:41,890
our sscc and region 8a moved to stage 1.

838
01:27:45,910 --> 01:27:45,910
very exciting, took a lot of work between dfps and

839
01:27:49,990 --> 01:27:49,990
our sscc partner and it was very successful transition to stage 1.

840
01:27:54,175 --> 01:27:54,175
they moved immediately into stage 2 readiness on that day.

841
01:27:58,915 --> 01:27:58,915
also, of note, region 6a and 6b depelchin is our sscc provider in that area.

842
01:28:05,725 --> 01:28:08,230
they moved into stage 1 readiness. Kickoff was late last month.

843
01:28:10,060 --> 01:28:10,060
it's exciting. You saw the stats a couple of slides ago.

844
01:28:14,530 --> 01:28:14,530
cbc is at that point where almost half the youth in texas are covered by cbc and in sscc.

845
01:28:21,580 --> 01:28:23,830
on our next slide, I want to bring to your attention our current procurement activities and our future procurement plans.

846
01:28:30,385 --> 01:28:30,385
speaking of pilots, senate bill 513 was passed in the 89th regular legislative session.

847
01:28:37,840 --> 01:28:37,840
it gives dfps an opportunity to pilot with entity

848
01:28:43,045 --> 01:28:43,045
to design and build a model for community based care in rural areas.

849
01:28:48,910 --> 01:28:52,900
we are in the quiet period right now for our procurement. We're very excited to see what comes of that pilot.

850
01:28:56,440 --> 01:28:56,440
our interagency contract with the university of texas at

851
01:29:00,685 --> 01:29:00,685
austin is our final report will be received from ut on the 31st.

852
01:29:06,610 --> 01:29:10,270
as a reminder, this contract was for our cbc process evaluation to see what has

853
01:29:13,420 --> 01:29:13,420
worked as we've moved cbc forward and what we can improve on.

854
01:29:17,710 --> 01:29:20,890
we hope to incorporate those findings and recommendations to better our services to families across the state.

855
01:29:24,850 --> 01:29:26,380
last but not least, our agency was funded to expand

856
01:29:28,900 --> 01:29:28,900
community based care to four more regions in the coming biennium.

857
01:29:33,565 --> 01:29:36,160
region 7a, 7b, 11a, and 11b.

858
01:29:37,990 --> 01:29:40,120
we are in the procurement planning for those areas and hope to release those rfas later this year.

859
01:29:44,620 --> 01:29:48,235
they will be staggered, and our implementation will be staggered, as you've seen in the recent years.

860
01:29:51,340 --> 01:29:54,490
we've talked about lessons learned, so that was definitely one of them. Also, our region 2 re procurement is underway.

861
01:30:00,460 --> 01:30:03,335
we'll be releasing a procurement for that, an rfa for that area in fiscal year 26.

862
01:30:10,035 --> 01:30:12,585
we are planning for that now because our sscc contracts are five years with an optional one time five year renewal.

863
01:30:18,590 --> 01:30:22,555
to engage our sscc provider out there and dfps, utilize that optional renewal and we're getting toward the end of that period.

864
01:30:28,090 --> 01:30:29,680
those are my updates for you, but I did want to share that all of these items,

865
01:30:33,700 --> 01:30:33,700
any new happenings, any legislative reports are on our cbc website.

866
01:30:38,500 --> 01:30:41,965
it's communitybasedcare.org, no hyphen. Then also on the site,

867
01:30:43,540 --> 01:30:45,955
you can sign up for our gov delivery list, or any of these updates will come straight to your inbox.

868
01:30:49,885 --> 01:30:49,885
with that, I thank you for your time and I'm open to questions.

869
01:30:55,560 --> 01:30:55,560
what was the website again?

870
01:31:02,905 --> 01:31:02,905
communitybasedcare.org, no hyphen.

871
01:31:12,780 --> 01:31:14,260
>> thank you. >> thank you. No questions [laughter] thank you so much.

872
01:31:23,010 --> 01:31:26,260
>> next, randy. Yes. I'm in power. Thank you.

873
01:31:35,460 --> 01:31:39,070
>> thank you. It's a honor to be here today. When I received the invitation to, I misread the email.

874
01:31:43,060 --> 01:31:46,525
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,

875
01:31:53,905 --> 01:31:56,155
there's a lot of stuff going on community based care. I'm honored to be a part of the community-based care model.

876
01:31:59,185 --> 01:32:01,105
in fact, what holley was presenting, actually I started my career when I was 20,

877
01:32:03,970 --> 01:32:06,145
and I was at dfps for about 18 years. As community based care implementation started,

878
01:32:09,505 --> 01:32:11,560
from region 2, so to engage, and I actually made the decision to move over to work for

879
01:32:15,430 --> 01:32:15,430
tfi and implementation to engage and was part of stage 1 and 2 there.

880
01:32:20,815 --> 01:32:24,535
to hear how long it's been, I feel like wow, I've actually had the unique experience of being a part of

881
01:32:28,360 --> 01:32:28,360
implementation of stage 1 and 2 and in the rural area with to engage,

882
01:32:33,055 --> 01:32:33,055
and then I started helping with empower in june of last year.

883
01:32:38,575 --> 01:32:38,575
you got to experience another implementation in the urban area.

884
01:32:44,125 --> 01:32:46,060
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.

885
01:32:49,990 --> 01:32:53,110
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.

886
01:32:57,145 --> 01:32:59,110
empower, as you can see, we have the dallas county and eight other counties.

887
01:33:02,770 --> 01:33:06,490
we have grayson, fannin, colin hunt, rock-wall, kaufman, ellis, and navarro.

888
01:33:08,275 --> 01:33:08,275
that's the nine counties we serve with dallas being obviously the largest.

889
01:33:12,475 --> 01:33:12,475
empower, as we prepared for our implementation,

890
01:33:18,550 --> 01:33:21,400
we developed some really strong relationships with providers and actually have a collaborative and that's ck family services,

891
01:33:24,370 --> 01:33:27,670
jonathan's place, bar foundation and pathways. They are at the table with us as we look at service delivery,

892
01:33:32,080 --> 01:33:34,885
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,

893
01:33:38,290 --> 01:33:42,145
community providers and residential providers with empower. What I wanted to just talk through is where we've been and where we're headed.

894
01:33:48,295 --> 01:33:51,040
on the next slide, I just want to highlight some of the early challenges that we had in the progress that we've made.

895
01:33:55,750 --> 01:33:59,140
the first one is workforce. I want to go over that. We launched stage 2,

896
01:34:01,030 --> 01:34:04,285
the case management piece in march of 2024. On march 1, we felt really good about the resource transfer,

897
01:34:08,290 --> 01:34:09,640
the staff that transferred to us. We felt really good about it until about march 15,

898
01:34:13,090 --> 01:34:15,100
and then we felt pretty uneasy about it. What we saw is a lot of dfps staff that transferred over.

899
01:34:19,330 --> 01:34:19,330
we're planning to do this work and then change your mind pretty quickly.

900
01:34:23,650 --> 01:34:26,110
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.

901
01:34:32,335 --> 01:34:34,465
as we recognize that, in the impact that has on your workforce,

902
01:34:36,745 --> 01:34:40,540
we decided that we're going to have to really overhire, because as commissioner o'neill has said,

903
01:34:42,490 --> 01:34:42,490
the workforce is critical to your ability to be successful.

904
01:34:47,290 --> 01:34:49,945
unfortunately, what you see early on in the transition is you see a lot of your experienced staff that don't come over,

905
01:34:55,300 --> 01:34:56,725
that you lose some of that knowledge too. There's just a lot of new staff and staff that are new to child welfare

906
01:35:00,130 --> 01:35:00,130
and that can create some challenges,

907
01:35:04,150 --> 01:35:07,090
some challenges that it just takes time to work through because you've got to build experience and train your new staff,

908
01:35:09,880 --> 01:35:11,260
mentor them and in child welfare. It takes time to learn how to do this work and really learn how to

909
01:35:14,790 --> 01:35:17,310
be efficient with all the different demands that are involved in the child welfare system.

910
01:35:19,620 --> 01:35:21,315
what you'll see is, again, the reflection of our increased numbers there is we overhired,

911
01:35:24,480 --> 01:35:28,395
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,

912
01:35:30,840 --> 01:35:32,670
they're going to be like, there's no way I can keep doing this work and they're going to pursue other opportunities.

913
01:35:35,010 --> 01:35:37,500
but we have stabilized our workforce, and on the next slide, you'll see some progress there.

914
01:35:40,200 --> 01:35:42,885
we were again, reflective march 24, august is some of the staff that some of those never even got out of training.

915
01:35:47,790 --> 01:35:51,420
they figured out during training that work wasn't for them. Some of them did, but recognized pretty quickly

916
01:35:53,670 --> 01:35:57,295
that child welfare just wasn't the field for them. But what we've seen is the progress of our resignation.

917
01:36:00,715 --> 01:36:04,540
we were seeing almost, we've cut it not quite in half, but we've reduced it significantly as far as the turnover.

918
01:36:07,450 --> 01:36:09,400
that's significant because that's less disruption for children and families because every time you have a staff leave,

919
01:36:12,640 --> 01:36:16,270
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,

920
01:36:19,330 --> 01:36:22,930
it can cause challenges with their case and progress, all that. We are celebrating that we have reduced that,

921
01:36:26,185 --> 01:36:28,900
and we're very hopeful we'll continue to see that progress in the workforce and reduced turnover as well.

922
01:36:32,515 --> 01:36:36,130
one of the things that want to really emphasize though with the workforce that I can't give you a slide about,

923
01:36:39,430 --> 01:36:42,835
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

924
01:36:45,895 --> 01:36:48,670
all staff meetings and just hear them present about their cases and we make sure every meeting that we have,

925
01:36:51,550 --> 01:36:55,390
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

926
01:36:58,810 --> 01:37:00,955
the support and do not lose sight of the impact they're making with children and families in the community.

927
01:37:04,495 --> 01:37:08,050
anyhow, if there's a metric for that, we would be off the charts. But of course, it's hard to measure that.

928
01:37:10,555 --> 01:37:13,450
caseloads. I know that looks pretty busy there, but that's a good slide right there.

929
01:37:14,980 --> 01:37:18,070
[laughter] that's a slide that just helps me sleep really well at night. Because the top bar, march of 2024.

930
01:37:23,095 --> 01:37:26,020
what that means is that 42% of our staff had their caseload under 17 kids.

931
01:37:34,105 --> 01:37:37,420
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.

932
01:37:44,170 --> 01:37:47,395
you had over half that had more than that. Of course, we had some with up to over 25 kids,

933
01:37:50,140 --> 01:37:51,880
and as you can imagine, that's pretty tough to keep up with when you have that high of

934
01:37:54,250 --> 01:37:57,535
a caseload and unfortunately, it got worse. We hit all the way down to 15% that were under 17.

935
01:38:01,690 --> 01:38:01,690
but as you saw on the graph a minute ago, we overhired,

936
01:38:06,520 --> 01:38:06,520
we increase the number of staff in training and eventually climbed out of that.

937
01:38:12,070 --> 01:38:12,070
we are holding steady at having about 98% compliance with our staff being under 17.

938
01:38:18,850 --> 01:38:20,410
again, that's just reflective, they have the bandwidth to just be more

939
01:38:23,380 --> 01:38:23,380
effective in their work and just spend more time with children and families.

940
01:38:28,560 --> 01:38:28,560
it's definitely a beautiful slide for me to see today.

941
01:38:32,605 --> 01:38:36,070
>> just real quick. I'm assuming you're measuring the kids because some cases have multiple children as opposed to measuring cases?

942
01:38:39,115 --> 01:38:42,745
>> correct. Each kid counts as a case. For a sibling group of five, that's just still in the same.

943
01:38:44,575 --> 01:38:45,445
>> thank you. >> yes, sir. Again, that was definitely

944
01:38:50,155 --> 01:38:50,155
a process for us to go through having so much transition and building our workforce,

945
01:38:57,790 --> 01:38:57,790
but pretty good about where we are today after this last 18 months or so.

946
01:39:06,100 --> 01:39:08,185
on the next slide, another thing that we are really

947
01:39:11,110 --> 01:39:14,260
pleased with is I don't like to say children without place. I like to talk about let's talk about children in placement.

948
01:39:16,600 --> 01:39:16,600
I know in the dallas area, this catchment area,

949
01:39:21,700 --> 01:39:23,950
before and empower took over, I believe the children without placement was double digits at any point in time,

950
01:39:27,520 --> 01:39:30,175
is what I understand that that was a high number. Next slide, you'll see our progress with that.

951
01:39:32,995 --> 01:39:32,995
you'll see that it's a total number of sscc supervision.

952
01:39:37,090 --> 01:39:37,090
what you'll see is there is a lot of the episodes that we

953
01:39:41,590 --> 01:39:41,590
have you're seeing fewer nights as far as it may be one child,

954
01:39:46,000 --> 01:39:47,980
but there's been just one night. What that is that first column is just the number of episodes of sscc supervision,

955
01:39:54,160 --> 01:39:58,000
and that could be the same child, multiple times or something like that. We didn't break it down like that.

956
01:39:59,545 --> 01:39:59,545
now, you'll see in october and november was pretty intense that period of time.

957
01:40:07,075 --> 01:40:07,075
but we got through that period and got that stabilized again.

958
01:40:11,140 --> 01:40:11,140
what this takes is it takes a really strong relationship with

959
01:40:15,295 --> 01:40:17,890
the community providers to make sure that again that they have the resources they need, the support they need,

960
01:40:20,650 --> 01:40:20,650
and the confidence they need in the sscc to know that this is a collaborative effort,

961
01:40:25,900 --> 01:40:25,900
that we're going to work together to ensure that we have the services for children,

962
01:40:30,190 --> 01:40:31,525
that we have the support, or collaborating on what's best for children.

963
01:40:34,525 --> 01:40:34,525
it's been a tremendous partnership with our residential providers,

964
01:40:39,340 --> 01:40:41,470
child placing agencies gros, residential treatment providers to really just make sure that

965
01:40:43,810 --> 01:40:46,030
we are all collaborating and making sure that they also take ownership for when we are unable to get a kid into placement timely.

966
01:40:51,085 --> 01:40:51,085
again, seeing the single digits is a lot more

967
01:40:55,690 --> 01:40:55,690
comforting to know versus having multiple kids at one night.

968
01:41:00,445 --> 01:41:00,445
again, I guess we want to emphasize on this slide is if you had 20 kids and

969
01:41:05,140 --> 01:41:05,140
then if you times that by a night for each of them and multiple nights,

970
01:41:11,845 --> 01:41:14,650
number is going to be in a hundreds real quickly. On the next slide, you'll see also again,

971
01:41:17,380 --> 01:41:17,380
we measure again the actually episodes of supervision and also the total night.

972
01:41:24,550 --> 01:41:26,770
as you see those numbers match, that just means again, it was maybe for one night and then we quickly got them into placement.

973
01:41:29,215 --> 01:41:30,775
I think that's significant. When we did have that period of time in the october and november,

974
01:41:36,640 --> 01:41:39,450
we did have a youth that was under sscc supervision or our child without placement for quite a while,

975
01:41:44,590 --> 01:41:46,960
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,

976
01:41:52,210 --> 01:41:54,565
autism, some developmental issues there. Is a real challenge, and fortunately,

977
01:41:56,680 --> 01:41:58,540
we had a lot of support from the state to help us secure placement at the state living center,

978
01:42:02,515 --> 01:42:04,240
one of the state supported living centers, but just took some time for all the different processes to work out.

979
01:42:07,000 --> 01:42:10,750
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.

980
01:42:15,520 --> 01:42:18,580
>> this is again, something we're really encouraged by to see our growth in kinship on this next slide.

981
01:42:23,125 --> 01:42:23,125
we've increased since march of 2024 from 33% of our kids to being in kinship,

982
01:42:28,300 --> 01:42:30,295
and we are at 40% now. We actually hit 42% in march of 2025.

983
01:42:34,435 --> 01:42:37,000
I feel like our number would be a little bit higher, but we got hit pretty hard over the summer with removals.

984
01:42:41,350 --> 01:42:42,700
I really didn't slow down. A lot of times you anticipate when schools out you may not see as many referrals,

985
01:42:46,390 --> 01:42:50,270
but they didn't take the summer off. It's been busy. But we are really looking at our model,

986
01:42:55,360 --> 01:42:58,870
just really pleased with where we are with our numbers of kinship increasing. We have a model where we have family finders,

987
01:43:01,495 --> 01:43:02,770
a team of family finders. Anytime that a child enters the foster care system,

988
01:43:06,115 --> 01:43:07,690
if they are not in a kinship placement, if they're in paid placement or gro foster home,

989
01:43:12,370 --> 01:43:14,800
they hit the ground run, and they'll do a case review. They'll look and start reaching out to

990
01:43:16,615 --> 01:43:19,930
the different supports that may be involved in that child's life. Just to really start figuring what would it

991
01:43:22,090 --> 01:43:25,945
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.

992
01:43:30,385 --> 01:43:34,000
then also, again, our partnership with investigations and their initiative has just made a huge difference in the community is increasing our numbers.

993
01:43:38,065 --> 01:43:40,480
always something you'd like to see is an increase in children being with their families for sure.

994
01:43:42,760 --> 01:43:45,100
>> let me ask a quick question. >> yes, sir. >> earlier, the previous presentation,

995
01:43:46,930 --> 01:43:48,670
we heard that it was around almost 40% of people were having kinship as their first placement.

996
01:43:53,455 --> 01:43:53,455
what are you seeing in terms of people having their first placement with kinship?

997
01:44:00,360 --> 01:44:00,360
>> that would be a vincent question to get what that community's data looks like.

998
01:44:05,215 --> 01:44:07,750
I know we see a lot of subsequent placements and we see our family finders helping find some subsequent placements,

999
01:44:11,020 --> 01:44:13,180
but I just don't have the data that tells me what our numbers are for the initial placement.

1000
01:44:16,015 --> 01:44:16,015
I just don't have it. I hate to give you a number because it would probably be incorrect.

1001
01:44:21,115 --> 01:44:22,150
>> thank you. >> but I think it's contributing to our numbers for sure.

1002
01:44:26,850 --> 01:44:29,535
I do want to give that credit, but I just don't know what it is. >> I just want to interrupt very quick.

1003
01:44:31,140 --> 01:44:32,385
we can get that data for you. We have it by [inaudible], so that's not a problem.

1004
01:44:35,205 --> 01:44:35,205
>> thank you. On the next slide, also,

1005
01:44:39,370 --> 01:44:42,460
one of the other things we're again, really pleased with is our life skills training.

1006
01:44:44,650 --> 01:44:48,415
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.

1007
01:44:52,270 --> 01:44:55,345
the requirement is that youth before they turn 18-years-old need to have a complete the curriculum of life skills,

1008
01:45:00,370 --> 01:45:00,370
which gives them an overview of budgeting and how to advocate

1009
01:45:05,290 --> 01:45:05,290
for their health needs and job berating, all those things.

1010
01:45:10,705 --> 01:45:14,110
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%.

1011
01:45:17,380 --> 01:45:17,380
we didn't have one youth miss their life skills requirement.

1012
01:45:21,880 --> 01:45:24,730
we did have a few that we've missed this quarter, but our compliance is pretty high.

1013
01:45:27,040 --> 01:45:29,760
it's in the high 90s. Again, I think that what's really significant about this is

1014
01:45:32,995 --> 01:45:35,905
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,

1015
01:45:38,905 --> 01:45:42,040
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.

1016
01:45:45,640 --> 01:45:48,850
we again, just really appreciate our staff's diligence

1017
01:45:52,720 --> 01:45:55,780
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.

1018
01:46:01,020 --> 01:46:03,325
the future is bright. What I just went over is reflective of

1019
01:46:06,475 --> 01:46:09,910
a 18 months or so that we've been at this because we went live with stage 1 in september of 2023,

1020
01:46:13,540 --> 01:46:17,440
and here we are about to celebrate a two year anniversary of stage 1 and we launched stage 2 in march of 24.

1021
01:46:22,165 --> 01:46:25,420
we just celebrated our one year anniversary just recently for that. The transition is tough.

1022
01:46:27,145 --> 01:46:27,145
again, having the unique experience of being through that twice now.

1023
01:46:31,840 --> 01:46:31,840
when you take a system and move it from the state to the private entity,

1024
01:46:36,445 --> 01:46:38,560
there's just a lot of turbulence that happens, but as you can see, you work through that,

1025
01:46:41,440 --> 01:46:44,785
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

1026
01:46:47,560 --> 01:46:50,740
are working on implementation of solution based casework. This is our practice model that we have used in other jurisdictions as well.

1027
01:46:56,380 --> 01:46:59,230
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,

1028
01:47:05,830 --> 01:47:06,970
you're going to see an increase in reunification outcomes and families being engaged in a higher level,

1029
01:47:10,810 --> 01:47:13,210
and it's built on the foundation of early engagement. We want to get to those families just as quickly as possible.

1030
01:47:16,615 --> 01:47:19,165
I think, like chair amedia said, just earlier on, the interaction with families is huge.

1031
01:47:23,410 --> 01:47:26,800
it is huge to build that partnership, and that's what solution based casework does. It gives our staff the framework to

1032
01:47:29,185 --> 01:47:31,840
really engage families as quickly as early as possible, build that relationship and that port,

1033
01:47:34,090 --> 01:47:37,330
and start sorting out with them. What got them in the situation? What were the daily patterns in their life

1034
01:47:41,020 --> 01:47:41,020
that maybe allowed this situation to happen that required the need for intervention.

1035
01:47:45,340 --> 01:47:48,280
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

1036
01:47:50,260 --> 01:47:52,750
behavioral change to make sure that it doesn't happen again so we can get the kids back to them

1037
01:47:54,880 --> 01:47:58,105
and there's not that recidivism that will happen. As we make that progress,

1038
01:47:59,860 --> 01:47:59,860
documenting celebrating change and doing that alongside families in that partnership.

1039
01:48:05,470 --> 01:48:05,470
I'll tell you one of the things that my experience at dfps,

1040
01:48:10,240 --> 01:48:10,240
and being a part of implementing solution based casework in the past.

1041
01:48:15,060 --> 01:48:15,060
there's a lot more. I was started to get

1042
01:48:19,450 --> 01:48:22,840
some calls from families and they were calling me not to complain, but to praise a caseworker.

1043
01:48:24,070 --> 01:48:24,070
I thought this is not normal. It's just different.

1044
01:48:28,770 --> 01:48:32,500
because again, I was in the role at dfps as a problem administrator, I got a lot of complaints about case managers.

1045
01:48:34,810 --> 01:48:38,290
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,

1046
01:48:42,490 --> 01:48:46,015
staff start getting certified in their solution based casework. You start to see the increase in reunification outcomes.

1047
01:48:48,805 --> 01:48:50,890
I'm really excited about that. We just actually finished the initial training for all of our staff.

1048
01:48:53,320 --> 01:48:56,740
now they are on the path of using the tools and becoming proficient and we'll be handing their certification.

1049
01:49:00,700 --> 01:49:03,790
again, just a preview if we come back, maybe this time next year, I might have a slide that shows you that increase

1050
01:49:05,950 --> 01:49:09,805
that doctor christiansen assured us that we'd see and we have seen in the past. Another thing we have.

1051
01:49:11,755 --> 01:49:13,870
this is, again, as timothy was talking earlier, something that I'm really looking forward to next week,

1052
01:49:16,405 --> 01:49:16,405
week from yesterday, and we'll call it next chapter life after foster care.

1053
01:49:21,400 --> 01:49:21,400
what this is is we recognize that our youth,

1054
01:49:26,785 --> 01:49:26,785
they need opportunities and resources to first keep them in the community.

1055
01:49:31,090 --> 01:49:34,210
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.

1056
01:49:38,605 --> 01:49:41,290
we have worked in partnership with the dfps state office transitional living team has been a huge support to us,

1057
01:49:45,790 --> 01:49:48,820
and lots of just community providers. But we have invited a lot of our residential providers,

1058
01:49:51,700 --> 01:49:51,700
child placing hcgros those that serve youth in their programs.

1059
01:49:56,005 --> 01:49:56,005
then also, we've partnered with trac that offers our after care case management contract.

1060
01:50:01,855 --> 01:50:05,740
we also have invited the local school districts, the education service center, that work with foster care liaisons, housing authorities.

1061
01:50:10,180 --> 01:50:10,180
we've invited just as many as possible to come to this meeting here,

1062
01:50:14,425 --> 01:50:16,150
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.

1063
01:50:18,730 --> 01:50:22,600
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

1064
01:50:24,910 --> 01:50:27,955
14 and over and where they are. Let's change that. Let's get these kids back in the community,

1065
01:50:29,440 --> 01:50:32,200
and what can each of us do to make that happen. When we started this, I thought,

1066
01:50:34,345 --> 01:50:36,280
I'd be pretty content if we could have about 30 or 40 people show up and last time I saw we're worried,

1067
01:50:40,390 --> 01:50:42,370
we're going to have about 100 and we're worried about the space because we're doing this at dallas college.

1068
01:50:45,295 --> 01:50:48,475
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.

1069
01:50:54,195 --> 01:50:56,820
it's pretty unique when we had a conversation with several providers about this and the word started spreading and like,

1070
01:51:00,390 --> 01:51:02,595
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,

1071
01:51:05,220 --> 01:51:08,200
but they want to be a part of this. The committee is on fire for this, and I'm really excited.

1072
01:51:09,745 --> 01:51:09,745
I'd be thinking about a week from yesterday as we get ready to start this journey.

1073
01:51:14,560 --> 01:51:16,750
again, my hope is if we come back a year from now, you're going to start to see some more exciting things

1074
01:51:19,150 --> 01:51:23,140
after we have this meeting and start to work together on this collaborating. We've also launched another initiative.

1075
01:51:26,515 --> 01:51:28,945
again, as you guys have heard, capacity is a challenge.

1076
01:51:30,595 --> 01:51:30,595
we just need more of it and we need more foster home beds.

1077
01:51:35,425 --> 01:51:39,310
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.

1078
01:51:43,495 --> 01:51:43,495
a few months ago, we launched our sibling bond campaign.

1079
01:51:47,575 --> 01:51:47,575
what that is is we have 10 sponsor directors and we

1080
01:51:51,730 --> 01:51:53,470
asked them to submit a sibling group that is currently separated that we want to get back together.

1081
01:51:56,200 --> 01:51:58,735
we bring all of our providers together, and we present those sibling groups.

1082
01:52:00,625 --> 01:52:00,625
we ask them to think about capacity that we don't have today,

1083
01:52:04,810 --> 01:52:06,610
but we'll have very soon. That meaning maybe some upcoming discharges that will create

1084
01:52:09,670 --> 01:52:09,670
an opening or families they have that are very close to being licensed.

1085
01:52:14,395 --> 01:52:18,115
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,

1086
01:52:21,790 --> 01:52:24,895
I believe four meetings because we do these every month. We've had four meetings and out of the four meetings,

1087
01:52:27,820 --> 01:52:27,820
three of them, we've been get siblings that are separated back together.

1088
01:52:31,860 --> 01:52:31,860
that's huge to be able to say that.

1089
01:52:35,875 --> 01:52:38,170
I think the other thing it's done is created that culture of our providers being really diligent

1090
01:52:40,330 --> 01:52:40,330
and just thinking about how do we expand our beds or as we engage families,

1091
01:52:44,400 --> 01:52:46,350
how do we really just communicate the need to increase the number of siblings we're taking.

1092
01:52:50,350 --> 01:52:53,050
I've asked our providers to take that tape measure, double measure, make sure is that room big enough for more than one child.

1093
01:52:56,620 --> 01:52:59,050
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.

1094
01:53:04,660 --> 01:53:04,660
those are a few of the campaigns that we have, initiatives we have.

1095
01:53:08,860 --> 01:53:08,860
I think on the next slide, the next slide is wrapping up.

1096
01:53:12,940 --> 01:53:15,340
as I close, I just want to say this. The opportunities working in a community based care model are significant. It's not easy.

1097
01:53:21,295 --> 01:53:23,125
there's a lot of challenges, but that's why it's called community based care because we're not in this alone.

1098
01:53:26,140 --> 01:53:28,795
it's not empower based care rather it's the community. We just need each and everyone to come together,

1099
01:53:31,690 --> 01:53:33,745
help us figure out solutions. I think again, what's unique is if we find something's not working,

1100
01:53:37,855 --> 01:53:40,165
let's go back to drawing board and do something different. I just appreciate all the community support

1101
01:53:42,370 --> 01:53:45,070
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,

1102
01:53:48,910 --> 01:53:52,710
but I did my best to ring that in. >> I'm sorry, your name's not written on here. What is your name again?

1103
01:53:56,590 --> 01:53:59,365
>> randy neff, n-e-f-f. >> thank you.

1104
01:54:00,925 --> 01:54:00,925
>> yes, sir.

1105
01:54:05,910 --> 01:54:05,910
>> no question. That was an excellent presentation.

1106
01:54:10,765 --> 01:54:13,690
in focusing on the siblings, I don't think we talk enough about that,

1107
01:54:16,510 --> 01:54:16,510
but I'm so glad that you mentioned that and that is partly what you're doing,

1108
01:54:22,075 --> 01:54:25,450
very collaborative approach again, keeping children together and siblings together when you can.

1109
01:54:28,765 --> 01:54:30,925
I do have a question about the data. I noticed april was zero. If you go back.

1110
01:54:35,635 --> 01:54:39,520
>> let's go back to the slide. >> go back to your slides. It's the one on the out of children without placement.

1111
01:54:48,000 --> 01:54:48,000
I think it's that one.

1112
01:54:53,400 --> 01:54:55,990
do you know why it's zero? >> I'm looking.

1113
01:54:57,490 --> 01:55:01,440
>> april 2024. >> I don't know. I don't want to say that's accurate.

1114
01:55:04,390 --> 01:55:04,390
that can be an error. I'm going to say probably it's an error.

1115
01:55:10,030 --> 01:55:12,250
>> was it a zero? >> may be when I emailed the slide deck because I'd be surprised.

1116
01:55:17,890 --> 01:55:19,510
but I'm going to suspect it's an error, but I need to double check that make sure.

1117
01:55:22,375 --> 01:55:22,375
I do know we have actually had lots of streaks of no sscc supervision and no cwap.

1118
01:55:29,365 --> 01:55:30,610
we put together streaks, but I'm not going to say that's accurate.

1119
01:55:34,120 --> 01:55:36,595
>> it could be. It just stood out, so I was just wondering.

1120
01:55:40,020 --> 01:55:42,115
>> I'm glad you caught that. >> thank you so much. I don't have any other questions.

1121
01:55:45,340 --> 01:55:49,270
are there any other questions? Great presentation. >> thank you so much. I appreciate it.

1122
01:55:50,380 --> 01:55:50,380
appreciate you guys having me. Thank you.

1123
01:56:01,110 --> 01:56:01,110
>> I think we're going to have kristin harris

1124
01:56:06,460 --> 01:56:06,460
back to talk about transition age youth. Thank you.

1125
01:56:13,470 --> 01:56:15,790
>> good morning again. >> thank you.

1126
01:56:19,860 --> 01:56:22,930
>> again, my name is kristin harris. I am the director over transitional living services here at state office,

1127
01:56:26,920 --> 01:56:28,570
as I stated earlier, one of a couple of divisions that I work with.

1128
01:56:32,305 --> 01:56:32,305
I just want to say that working with our youth is one of my favorite things.

1129
01:56:38,215 --> 01:56:40,750
when you meet with them individually, they're just so inspiring and so resilient.

1130
01:56:43,795 --> 01:56:43,795
I think that I'm just very gracious to be here today to talk about transition age youth,

1131
01:56:50,605 --> 01:56:52,510
how we're working with them. Where maybe some of our deficits are where we need to continue to focus,

1132
01:56:57,340 --> 01:56:57,340
and here if you all have any ideas or answer any questions you might have.

1133
01:57:02,290 --> 01:57:04,060
thank you for having me. This presentation, I will warn you,

1134
01:57:06,925 --> 01:57:09,325
it is very data heavy. But data tells a story.

1135
01:57:12,145 --> 01:57:15,040
I'm going to be walking you through the data, sharing information with you and feel free to just

1136
01:57:17,890 --> 01:57:21,580
ask questions along the way because it is data heavy. This first slide here,

1137
01:57:24,970 --> 01:57:24,970
this shows you the trend of the population of our 14+ youth in care since 2018.

1138
01:57:33,115 --> 01:57:33,115
we talked earlier and I know that you all have been updated probably many times about how

1139
01:57:38,440 --> 01:57:41,440
the population of children in youth in foster care has been decreasing significantly over the past several years.

1140
01:57:45,610 --> 01:57:49,030
in 2018, in that year, we had about 30,000 children in foster care,

1141
01:57:51,880 --> 01:57:53,920
and in 2024, as you'll recall, just earlier today, we talked about how we're just over 16,000.

1142
01:57:59,035 --> 01:58:02,560
our fiscal year has ended. We don't have those final numbers, but we were 16,100 and something as of july 31.

1143
01:58:07,915 --> 01:58:07,915
but you'll see that the trend for our transition age youth,

1144
01:58:12,115 --> 01:58:14,425
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.

1145
01:58:19,645 --> 01:58:19,645
the trend has been that even as the total population has decreased,

1146
01:58:25,750 --> 01:58:25,750
the percentage of children of youth over the age of 14 has continued to increase.

1147
01:58:32,035 --> 01:58:35,020
as of fiscal year 2024 about 22.3% of all of the children in youth and care were age 14 or older.

1148
01:58:42,420 --> 01:58:42,420
you'll also see this slide demonstrates where our 14 plus population was residing.

1149
01:58:49,795 --> 01:58:49,795
we like to look at this information because it gives us a depiction of,

1150
01:58:54,295 --> 01:58:57,340
well, first of all, are they living in the least restrictive setting, or are they in more restrictive settings?

1151
01:58:59,185 --> 01:59:01,600
if they happen to be in more restrictive settings, that may give us some idea of what their needs are.

1152
01:59:05,580 --> 01:59:05,580
in 2018, 2018 is noted by the blue,

1153
01:59:10,345 --> 01:59:13,465
and 2024 is the yellow. In 2018, you'll see that there were

1154
01:59:16,405 --> 01:59:16,405
significantly more 14 plus youth who were

1155
01:59:20,500 --> 01:59:20,500
residing in a non relative foster home or a kinship placement.

1156
01:59:24,895 --> 01:59:28,780
then there also were some residing more in emergency shelters and residential treatment facilities.

1157
01:59:32,965 --> 01:59:36,490
this basically tells us that as those numbers have decreased for the less restrictive placement,

1158
01:59:39,550 --> 01:59:43,480
then we see the numbers increasing for the more restrictive placements. Our basic childcare went up by 4%.

1159
01:59:46,975 --> 01:59:49,945
those are congregate care settings. Mostly, the youth placed in those settings do have more basic level needs,

1160
01:59:54,280 --> 01:59:57,475
but it is congregate care, so it's not family like. Then in our other foster care and

1161
01:59:59,620 --> 02:00:02,980
our other substitute care settings there on the far right. Those have increased pretty significantly by 5% and 3% respectively.

1162
02:00:08,680 --> 02:00:10,480
>> those are capturing. It's a catch-all for our placement.

1163
02:00:13,150 --> 02:00:13,150
it's capturing children and youth who are in a psychiatric setting,

1164
02:00:18,295 --> 02:00:18,295
children and youth who are in texas juvenile justice department,

1165
02:00:22,960 --> 02:00:26,935
are missing or runaway youth are captured in those two settings, and so psychiatric hospitalization.

1166
02:00:29,770 --> 02:00:32,950
generally, those are higher acuity youth. This slide again, just really demonstrates that as the years have gone by, again,

1167
02:00:38,935 --> 02:00:38,935
our transition age youth population is increasing percentage-wise,

1168
02:00:44,435 --> 02:00:44,435
but it's all they're also generally having higher acuity needs.

1169
02:00:49,755 --> 02:00:49,755
>> I do have a question on the other foster care,

1170
02:00:53,775 --> 02:00:57,485
would that include treatment foster care? What is included in other foster care?

1171
02:01:00,610 --> 02:01:00,610
>> other foster care is the texas juvenile justice department facilities and hospitals.

1172
02:01:07,770 --> 02:01:07,770
your rtc settings or your treatment settings.

1173
02:01:13,440 --> 02:01:16,220
>> thank you. >> this slide also shows the way in which our transition-aged youth have exited care.

1174
02:01:22,665 --> 02:01:25,590
you'll see that a larger percentage of our 14+ population are exiting care by way of aging out at the age of 18.

1175
02:01:30,755 --> 02:01:33,340
that's the blue line on the top. You'll also see that there are slightly fewer youth who are leaving

1176
02:01:38,230 --> 02:01:38,230
custody of dfps because the custody is transferred to a relative.

1177
02:01:42,805 --> 02:01:44,305
that's the red line, and slightly fewer who returned home to their parents.

1178
02:01:49,345 --> 02:01:53,080
we track this information because we do want to see the trend in population of the youth who are aging out of care.

1179
02:01:57,250 --> 02:02:00,580
but it's also interesting to see are these youth able to be returned home to less restrictive settings,

1180
02:02:03,925 --> 02:02:05,950
and are they exiting that way, or are they lingering in foster care longer.

1181
02:02:08,950 --> 02:02:11,320
>> kristin, can I interrupt you for just a second? I think this is a good time to highlight that we

1182
02:02:15,160 --> 02:02:15,160
talk about changes to the population of children in foster care,

1183
02:02:19,180 --> 02:02:19,180
and those changes skew the level of need of children is what we're seeing,

1184
02:02:26,890 --> 02:02:29,380
and we're seeing that across the foster care system. A child who is removed today into foster care,

1185
02:02:32,890 --> 02:02:36,790
I can just anecdotally tell you, has more serious needs, whether they're two or 10 or 15,

1186
02:02:40,270 --> 02:02:42,910
than they did five years ago. That is a transition that has happened in the system as we ensure that we

1187
02:02:47,980 --> 02:02:47,980
are only removing kids who absolutely need to be in foster care.

1188
02:02:53,275 --> 02:02:56,320
but it does impact these numbers. I just think it's really important to keep the context in mind.

1189
02:02:59,020 --> 02:02:59,020
I think about this a lot with kinship to where we cannot just compare 2018 to

1190
02:03:07,210 --> 02:03:07,210
2024 because the makeup of the population and

1191
02:03:11,830 --> 02:03:11,830
the needs of that population has changed so very much over the years,

1192
02:03:17,260 --> 02:03:21,130
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.

1193
02:03:25,315 --> 02:03:25,315
it means that we need to hyper focus on additional services

1194
02:03:30,130 --> 02:03:30,130
and supports to help those youth get the treatment they need,

1195
02:03:35,380 --> 02:03:38,230
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,

1196
02:03:43,240 --> 02:03:43,240
or if they absolutely must age out to ensure that we are equipping them to be adults.

1197
02:03:48,265 --> 02:03:48,265
>> absolutely. Keeping that in mind,

1198
02:03:52,315 --> 02:03:55,210
we're going to move to talking about the services and supports that are available to our transition-aged youth.

1199
02:03:58,525 --> 02:04:00,880
again, we're also going to talk about some of the gaps and things that we know that we need to work on.

1200
02:04:05,220 --> 02:04:05,220
this is a list of the services that transition-age youth are generally provided.

1201
02:04:11,830 --> 02:04:15,730
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,

1202
02:04:23,515 --> 02:04:26,740
who really serve as the subject matter experts for all things related to transitional living services.

1203
02:04:31,210 --> 02:04:34,795
all of our youth have a case worker who's working their legal case and working with

1204
02:04:37,360 --> 02:04:41,170
their parents and working with their support system in order to identify the best form of permanency

1205
02:04:45,900 --> 02:04:45,900
for them and urgently work towards that permanency plan.

1206
02:04:51,000 --> 02:04:54,630
but they also have a subject matter expert in the legacy areas, we refer to them as pal staff,

1207
02:04:56,430 --> 02:04:58,685
preparation for adult living. These are really our people who are

1208
02:05:01,450 --> 02:05:04,870
the experts in knowing the services that are available to our transition-aged youth and making sure that

1209
02:05:08,440 --> 02:05:08,440
those services are adequately executed for the individual youth on their caseload.

1210
02:05:13,885 --> 02:05:16,150
I'm going to run through these and just give you a very brief overview of what the service is.

1211
02:05:19,480 --> 02:05:23,125
first, you'll see we have the life skills assessment. This is an assessment that is done with youth beginning when they turn 14.

1212
02:05:29,185 --> 02:05:29,185
they have a pre-assessment that just gauges where they're at in terms

1213
02:05:33,640 --> 02:05:33,640
of their ability to respond independently to things.

1214
02:05:38,620 --> 02:05:38,620
it might gauge their ability on their understanding of financial management,

1215
02:05:43,510 --> 02:05:43,510
their understanding of obtaining housing and signing leases and taking out loans,

1216
02:05:53,260 --> 02:05:57,130
those things, as well as your daily life skills of cooking, cleaning, all of that stuff.

1217
02:05:58,960 --> 02:06:02,020
they're given a pre-assessment beginning at age 14. They're also given a post assessment after they

1218
02:06:04,780 --> 02:06:07,570
complete their life skills training classes, which mr. Neff spoke briefly about,

1219
02:06:11,080 --> 02:06:13,570
our life skills training classes, our classes for youth,

1220
02:06:16,180 --> 02:06:20,005
with youth, with hands-on discussions about all of the things that they need to know in order to be a successful adult.

1221
02:06:24,370 --> 02:06:27,610
they complete a series of classes that addresses six core competencies in the area of independent living.

1222
02:06:31,825 --> 02:06:34,150
then after they complete those classes, they also take a post assessment to see what did they learn from those classes,

1223
02:06:39,985 --> 02:06:43,480
and where do we still need to help them to move the needle further for their ability to be a successful independent adult?

1224
02:06:47,635 --> 02:06:47,635
we also have transition and financial support services.

1225
02:06:51,745 --> 02:06:53,530
this is a contracted service. We have contracted providers in every region across the state.

1226
02:06:58,285 --> 02:07:01,990
mr. Neff mentioned one, he mentioned track. Track is our provider in the dallas-fort worth area.

1227
02:07:05,515 --> 02:07:05,515
these contracted providers they provide case management services.

1228
02:07:10,555 --> 02:07:10,555
they can provide for youth who are preparing to age out of foster care,

1229
02:07:16,105 --> 02:07:19,600
but largely their case loads are for youth who have already left foster care and continue to need some case management services.

1230
02:07:24,715 --> 02:07:28,495
they also have financial support services through them. If a youth is needing some funds in order to set themselves up in an apartment,

1231
02:07:35,335 --> 02:07:38,365
or if they need groceries to be paid for, there's some assistance for them through that.

1232
02:07:40,990 --> 02:07:44,230
the aftercare room and board financial assistance is through the transition and financial support services,

1233
02:07:47,410 --> 02:07:47,410
and it's up to $3,000 that they can receive,

1234
02:07:52,825 --> 02:07:54,130
and it's provided in $500 increments so just to give you an overview on the financial assistance.

1235
02:08:01,135 --> 02:08:04,165
then there's also the transitional living allowance, which youth access through their pal worker.

1236
02:08:07,600 --> 02:08:07,600
the transitional living allowance is up to $1,000 to assist a youth or

1237
02:08:13,120 --> 02:08:15,970
young adult with whatever they might need in order to successfully transition out of foster care.

1238
02:08:19,615 --> 02:08:22,180
then we have a lot of events. I know mr. Belsef had spoken on some that he's been engaged with and involved with.

1239
02:08:28,540 --> 02:08:28,540
we have our statewide team conference that has occurred the last several years at ut,

1240
02:08:33,640 --> 02:08:37,630
and timothy has been amazing to collaborate with because he and his team pull off such an amazing event for our teens.

1241
02:08:42,685 --> 02:08:42,685
but all of these events that are listed lower on this slide are intended

1242
02:08:47,830 --> 02:08:47,830
to provide youth with a forum to come together as a collective.

1243
02:08:53,920 --> 02:08:53,920
it's really important that our young people feel that they're not alone and

1244
02:08:59,080 --> 02:08:59,080
to come in community with other youth who are experiencing similar things.

1245
02:09:04,195 --> 02:09:07,210
also, while they're there to really give them some of those extra educational tidbits that they

1246
02:09:10,120 --> 02:09:10,120
need in order to successfully transition out of foster care.

1247
02:09:14,680 --> 02:09:17,375
we do hold several statewide events. We also work with and support our regional teams and

1248
02:09:22,560 --> 02:09:26,025
our sscc teams so that they can host similar events on a smaller scale for youth in their own communities.

1249
02:09:34,560 --> 02:09:34,560
then this just gives an overview of some other things that we're really

1250
02:09:40,150 --> 02:09:40,150
focused on helping youth who are transition-aged youth with.

1251
02:09:45,100 --> 02:09:45,100
we know that obtaining personal documents for youth in foster care can be a challenge.

1252
02:09:52,180 --> 02:09:55,990
when I mean personal documents, I mean like their birth certificate, their social security card,

1253
02:09:57,790 --> 02:10:00,430
and their state id or driver's license. We know that that can be difficult.

1254
02:10:02,110 --> 02:10:04,090
we also know that, as they move, sometimes things get lost.

1255
02:10:06,505 --> 02:10:06,505
our pal staff and our sscc equivalent staff work with

1256
02:10:12,220 --> 02:10:12,220
the caseworker in their areas in order to help obtain those documents.

1257
02:10:19,255 --> 02:10:22,510
at state office, my team helps with ordering birth certificates for every youth in care who's over the age of 14.

1258
02:10:26,950 --> 02:10:30,610
we do those in batches, and that's just one way that we help to make sure that they have their birth certificate,

1259
02:10:32,725 --> 02:10:35,440
because you really have to have that in order to get the social security card or the state id.

1260
02:10:39,100 --> 02:10:42,730
that's a good start, and then the regional staff work with the caseworker again to get the other documents as well.

1261
02:10:46,210 --> 02:10:50,020
the state office team also assists by conducting annual credit reports for all youth who are over the age of 14.

1262
02:10:55,105 --> 02:10:55,105
we know that our youth sometimes are targeted for identity fraud, identity theft.

1263
02:11:03,415 --> 02:11:07,105
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,

1264
02:11:09,805 --> 02:11:09,805
bad credit that was not something that they did,

1265
02:11:14,725 --> 02:11:16,930
that that's not held against them. We run these annual credit reports,

1266
02:11:19,000 --> 02:11:21,175
we provide them to the regions. If there are any concerns or discrepancies that are noted,

1267
02:11:25,825 --> 02:11:29,425
then we work with the credit bureaus to help get that cleared up. We also work with the regional teams

1268
02:11:33,040 --> 02:11:33,040
to ensure that they're engaging youth employment readiness activities.

1269
02:11:38,110 --> 02:11:41,620
we have a partnership with the texas workforce commission. We work with our local areas to make sure that

1270
02:11:44,620 --> 02:11:47,695
they have partnerships with their local workforce boards, and our regional teams are really great at coming up

1271
02:11:52,390 --> 02:11:52,390
with activities to help youth with interviewing skills,

1272
02:11:56,860 --> 02:11:56,860
to get them what they need in order to successfully apply for or interview for a job.

1273
02:12:04,315 --> 02:12:04,315
I know a lot of regions do clothing drive so that youth can go to

1274
02:12:09,790 --> 02:12:09,790
a clothing event and leave with an outfit that's appropriate for an interview.

1275
02:12:16,090 --> 02:12:18,040
suits and ties are nice, slacks and dresses, that sort of thing.

1276
02:12:21,220 --> 02:12:24,820
then another service that we provide, and I'm sure that all are aware of it is extended foster care

1277
02:12:27,760 --> 02:12:31,405
for youth who are over the age of 18; they can elect to,

1278
02:12:33,130 --> 02:12:35,260
it's a voluntary program. But they can elect to remain in paid placement beginning at age 18,

1279
02:12:41,140 --> 02:12:43,480
if they're still in school, if they're 18 and they're still in high school or working towards a ged,

1280
02:12:48,625 --> 02:12:51,070
or if they're in higher education, maybe they're in vocational school or in college,

1281
02:12:55,210 --> 02:12:58,735
but they want to stay in their paid placement they can do that. They also, over age 18,

1282
02:13:00,760 --> 02:13:00,760
can remain in extended foster care if they're working at least 80 hours a month or

1283
02:13:07,210 --> 02:13:10,810
working towards an independent activity that will help them to gain employment in some way.

1284
02:13:14,890 --> 02:13:17,425
when they hit 20 years old, they can stay until they're 21 if they're

1285
02:13:20,080 --> 02:13:20,080
still in high school or working towards their ged.

1286
02:13:24,115 --> 02:13:27,415
then we also have return to care. Sometimes we have youth who feel like they really are ready to be independent.

1287
02:13:32,650 --> 02:13:32,650
a lot of times, they're just done with being in foster care,

1288
02:13:37,150 --> 02:13:39,670
but there is a return to care option. We also work on homelessness prevention planning.

1289
02:13:42,985 --> 02:13:46,780
I have a youth housing specialist on my team as state office who is very familiar with housing resources across the state,

1290
02:13:51,250 --> 02:13:55,045
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,

1291
02:14:00,145 --> 02:14:00,145
which includes our tuition and fee waiver and our education and training

1292
02:14:04,540 --> 02:14:04,540
voucher for youth to provide them with some additional financial assistance.

1293
02:14:10,530 --> 02:14:13,015
>> 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

1294
02:14:17,380 --> 02:14:19,150
resources that are out there for these students that are going out, especially for education,

1295
02:14:22,480 --> 02:14:25,300
and I never thought about credit report, that annual report that you do with them,

1296
02:14:28,825 --> 02:14:30,820
because you just never know, like you said, but I want to thank you for all these resources that are

1297
02:14:33,910 --> 02:14:37,525
very useful for these young adults going out. Thank you and thank you to your team.

1298
02:14:39,415 --> 02:14:42,280
>> absolutely. They're so important. Thank you. This just gives a quick snapshot.

1299
02:14:46,825 --> 02:14:46,825
four out of 10 youth who exited foster care aged out,

1300
02:14:51,745 --> 02:14:51,745
and about 25% of young adults age 18 opted to participate in extended foster care.

1301
02:15:00,160 --> 02:15:02,350
now I'm told I only have a few minutes, and I really want to get through this.

1302
02:15:04,855 --> 02:15:07,480
extended foster care. This slide really depicts all of the hard work that's been going on

1303
02:15:14,500 --> 02:15:14,500
across the state to really ensure that youth understand what extended foster care is.

1304
02:15:22,135 --> 02:15:24,880
we're not trying to micromanage their lives. We really want them to see extended foster care as an added optional support for them.

1305
02:15:31,390 --> 02:15:33,370
you'll see that in 2020, 655 youth opted to enroll in extended foster care,

1306
02:15:39,025 --> 02:15:41,950
and then we had a peak in 2021, but then it started to decline,

1307
02:15:43,795 --> 02:15:43,795
which you would maybe expect that,

1308
02:15:49,045 --> 02:15:49,045
because the total number of youth in care is declining.

1309
02:15:53,110 --> 02:15:55,030
but then you see this increase, and that's largely because we realized that we needed to remarket extended foster care,

1310
02:16:01,330 --> 02:16:04,990
and particularly our supervised independent living program. Because young people don't necessarily understand that

1311
02:16:08,440 --> 02:16:11,695
supervised independent living is not actually supervised. They're not being watched 24/7.

1312
02:16:13,750 --> 02:16:13,750
there's not somebody there watching them and everything that they do.

1313
02:16:19,060 --> 02:16:19,060
there's not an on-campus or on-site support person there 24/7,

1314
02:16:24,970 --> 02:16:28,630
but there is a person who is a resource for them, and they still have their caseworker who's working with them to make

1315
02:16:33,295 --> 02:16:35,740
sure that anything that they need is addressed when they're in a supervised independent living program.

1316
02:16:38,665 --> 02:16:38,665
I'm happy to see that youth are taking advantage of extended foster care.

1317
02:16:45,180 --> 02:16:48,790
educational outcomes are next. When measuring successes with the general population,

1318
02:16:53,605 --> 02:16:57,010
we generally look at educational outcomes. This educational data is pretty important,

1319
02:17:00,190 --> 02:17:03,670
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,

1320
02:17:09,610 --> 02:17:12,940
this is youth who graduated from high school in the same fiscal year as their 18th birthday.

1321
02:17:16,280 --> 02:17:18,900
we're trending in the right direction for that. We do have more youth who are graduating timely.

1322
02:17:22,020 --> 02:17:24,630
the right that you'll see youth enrolled in higher education following the fiscal year of their 18th birthday.

1323
02:17:28,995 --> 02:17:31,560
we had a decline in 2020, but again, we're starting to trend in the right direction.

1324
02:17:34,340 --> 02:17:34,340
we really are working to try and make sure that youth are able to graduate from

1325
02:17:38,440 --> 02:17:38,440
high school timely so that they can move on to other things.

1326
02:17:47,340 --> 02:17:50,890
>> national youth and transition. This is a data collection system.

1327
02:17:54,055 --> 02:17:57,250
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.

1328
02:18:05,005 --> 02:18:05,005
then a subset of that group of youth that were surveyed at

1329
02:18:09,520 --> 02:18:09,520
age 17 are surveyed again at age 19 and again at age 21.

1330
02:18:15,880 --> 02:18:18,655
this data comes from that data, which, again, we do report it back to the federal government,

1331
02:18:21,790 --> 02:18:25,150
and the government does use it to inform our chafee grants, which acting commissioner o'neill mentioned earlier.

1332
02:18:30,175 --> 02:18:30,175
what we're seeing in texas fiscal year '20 through 2024 is in the yellow,

1333
02:18:39,040 --> 02:18:39,040
and what we're seeing in texas is that we're doing slightly better in terms

1334
02:18:46,180 --> 02:18:47,980
of full-time employment for our 19-year-olds and slightly better also for our part-time employment.

1335
02:18:53,830 --> 02:18:53,830
but high school graduation and current employment in

1336
02:18:58,000 --> 02:18:58,000
an educational program has remained stagnant.

1337
02:19:02,905 --> 02:19:02,905
then on the right is the outcomes for the 21-year-olds.

1338
02:19:08,485 --> 02:19:08,485
again, we're doing a little bit better in all of those areas,

1339
02:19:13,150 --> 02:19:13,150
but we would like to see those numbers continue to improve.

1340
02:19:20,490 --> 02:19:20,490
>> may I ask on the current enrollment in education program?

1341
02:19:25,600 --> 02:19:25,600
is this high school and also college or vocational certification that you're measuring?

1342
02:19:34,075 --> 02:19:34,075
>> yes. The top one is your high school diploma or your ged.

1343
02:19:38,680 --> 02:19:40,495
then the bottom one is, are they currently enrolled in any educational program?

1344
02:19:43,810 --> 02:19:47,530
if they didn't finish high school, are they still enrolled in high school? If they did complete high school,

1345
02:19:49,195 --> 02:19:49,195
have they moved on to either a vocational program or a college?

1346
02:19:53,635 --> 02:19:57,300
>> thank you. >> then this is using the nytd data

1347
02:20:01,435 --> 02:20:01,435
and looking at the national versus the texas comparison,

1348
02:20:06,520 --> 02:20:07,795
texas is in yellow, national is in blue.

1349
02:20:10,675 --> 02:20:13,330
you'll see that overall, our youth are slightly behind the national trends in all of these areas.

1350
02:20:19,310 --> 02:20:19,310
what we're doing to address this is we have education specialists,

1351
02:20:25,335 --> 02:20:28,785
we have one at state office, and we have multiple throughout the state. They've really partnered with our k through 12 school districts.

1352
02:20:33,975 --> 02:20:33,975
they hold educational consortiums to address things that are

1353
02:20:38,280 --> 02:20:38,280
going on with youth who are in dfps custody and also things

1354
02:20:42,570 --> 02:20:42,570
that we might not be aware of as an agency that the k through 12 system sees

1355
02:20:48,250 --> 02:20:48,250
as trends and patterns for them and have a meeting of the mind with these things.

1356
02:20:54,250 --> 02:20:57,460
they also liaison with staff and we'll talk to staff specifically about youth who are struggling in school.

1357
02:21:01,060 --> 02:21:04,255
they're resource, they can attend rd meetings. They can contact the school if there are concerns that maybe a caseworker

1358
02:21:08,470 --> 02:21:08,470
doesn't know enough about the educational system to really address,

1359
02:21:13,165 --> 02:21:13,165
but they're really a resource for them the caseworkers.

1360
02:21:18,625 --> 02:21:21,550
also, recently, our education specialists have been working with our data team to really drill

1361
02:21:24,220 --> 02:21:24,220
down the youth who are should be nearing graduation,

1362
02:21:29,875 --> 02:21:29,875
where are they at in their education and how can we target approaches for youth who are

1363
02:21:34,960 --> 02:21:37,840
struggling so that we can address those struggles earlier on and help get them to graduation.

1364
02:21:43,060 --> 02:21:43,060
then also, again, we're collaborating with our extended foster care programs, our sills,

1365
02:21:49,480 --> 02:21:49,480
because we know that they continue to provide these important supports

1366
02:21:54,250 --> 02:21:54,250
for youth to move them along in their education and on their independent journey.

1367
02:21:59,305 --> 02:21:59,305
we're including them in conversations about education as well.

1368
02:22:05,010 --> 02:22:05,010
this slide shows the nytd data when comparing those in

1369
02:22:09,250 --> 02:22:13,045
extended foster care to those who are not in extended foster care. This really just reiterate some of what I've been saying.

1370
02:22:16,495 --> 02:22:19,675
you'll see that the youth who are in extended foster care are faring better in terms of high school graduation or

1371
02:22:23,650 --> 02:22:23,650
ged completion and also in current enrollment or attendance in education as a whole.

1372
02:22:34,590 --> 02:22:34,590
this is a chart that shows financial support for youth and higher education.

1373
02:22:42,925 --> 02:22:46,555
this is utilization of our tuition and fee waivers. On the left, you'll see the utilization for

1374
02:22:48,790 --> 02:22:48,790
the adopted students who are utilizing the tuition and fee waiver.

1375
02:22:53,140 --> 02:22:53,140
on the right, you'll see the utilization for former foster youth.

1376
02:22:59,140 --> 02:22:59,140
we recognize in looking at this that for whatever reason,

1377
02:23:05,710 --> 02:23:08,005
and we're not sure of the reasons yet. But for whatever reason,

1378
02:23:09,775 --> 02:23:12,835
the tuition and fee waiver usage has declined, and we really plan to dig into that

1379
02:23:15,040 --> 02:23:15,040
more because we feel like this is an area where we need to focus.

1380
02:23:21,600 --> 02:23:21,600
>> these waivers, are these just state schools or who participates in tuition waivers?

1381
02:23:27,070 --> 02:23:27,070
>> tuition and fee waivers are available to youth to utilize at a state-supported school,

1382
02:23:33,235 --> 02:23:36,430
technical college or university. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. This is a visual of

1383
02:23:39,400 --> 02:23:43,135
the chafee deductions that we've seen since fiscal year 2022. You can see that as stated earlier today,

1384
02:23:45,775 --> 02:23:47,980
it is pretty significant. I will say, and I have so much appreciated the support of our executive staff,

1385
02:23:54,430 --> 02:23:56,620
acting commissioner o'neill included because when we received our chafee allotments earlier,

1386
02:24:00,745 --> 02:24:00,745
it's been a couple of months now for fiscal year 2026, we panicked.

1387
02:24:07,470 --> 02:24:07,470
it really took a lot of communication and collaboration

1388
02:24:12,010 --> 02:24:15,820
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.

1389
02:24:24,760 --> 02:24:27,475
we were able to re-allocate some funds. I will say that our contracted providers for

1390
02:24:29,830 --> 02:24:33,505
life skills training classes are seeing a bit of a reduction. They are training fewer youth because the overall population is decreasing.

1391
02:24:42,250 --> 02:24:45,670
but they also have overhead. They have to pay their trainers. They have to develop the materials.

1392
02:24:48,640 --> 02:24:52,000
they have to update materials when there are changes that are made either because of our policy or because of legislative requirements.

1393
02:24:55,990 --> 02:24:58,885
they do have a significant amount of overhead. We're working with them to support them in any way that we can.

1394
02:25:02,755 --> 02:25:06,340
we also as just a general plan, we do plan to reduce some of our statewide events.

1395
02:25:09,970 --> 02:25:11,500
we will still be having the ut conference because that is just a huge support for our youth.

1396
02:25:18,570 --> 02:25:18,570
we're not going to hold a statewide college conference this year.

1397
02:25:23,545 --> 02:25:27,040
the purpose of that really is because we know that our regions and sscc areas are holding similar events out in their local areas,

1398
02:25:32,620 --> 02:25:35,410
and because it's local to where the youth live, honestly, more youth can participate in those local events.

1399
02:25:38,665 --> 02:25:38,665
we felt like that was one area where we could cut back.

1400
02:25:42,715 --> 02:25:42,715
we're just going to continue to really monitor how things are

1401
02:25:47,530 --> 02:25:47,530
going with the providers who are experiencing cuts and make adjustments as needed.

1402
02:25:54,930 --> 02:25:54,930
this outlines our life skills training completion

1403
02:25:59,695 --> 02:26:03,595
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

1404
02:26:08,590 --> 02:26:08,590
care should have completed life skills training before they leave care.

1405
02:26:13,990 --> 02:26:17,920
as you can see for fiscal year 2025, when the data is pulled,

1406
02:26:19,750 --> 02:26:21,430
we were at 93.7, and we do have some work to do in that area.

1407
02:26:24,625 --> 02:26:24,625
but we monitor this very closely and we work with our regional teams.

1408
02:26:29,470 --> 02:26:29,470
we send out what's called a hot list of youth who are about ready to leave,

1409
02:26:33,640 --> 02:26:36,385
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?

1410
02:26:40,435 --> 02:26:44,305
I will also say mr. Neffet had talked about working with the youth to meet them where they're at,

1411
02:26:49,555 --> 02:26:49,555
if they can't complete an in-person class for whatever reason,

1412
02:26:54,235 --> 02:26:56,590
do it on an individual basis. Our state office team recently updated our independent living study guide,

1413
02:27:00,880 --> 02:27:03,520
which does take the place of the in-person classes if a youth needs to do it independently.

1414
02:27:06,550 --> 02:27:10,390
they walk through those courses with the youth, so it's not done totally independently,

1415
02:27:12,835 --> 02:27:12,835
but we updated the guide so that it would be more current and provided that to staff

1416
02:27:19,105 --> 02:27:20,860
in both the sscc regions and in the legacy region so that they could utilize that with youth.

1417
02:27:26,530 --> 02:27:28,750
>> real quick. If I remember right the chafee formula that they have is not tied to inflation, is that correct?

1418
02:27:33,625 --> 02:27:34,825
>> no, it's not. >> it's still based on 1999 numbers?

1419
02:27:41,220 --> 02:27:45,010
>> I am not absolutely sure if it's tied to that. I think that's the f map,

1420
02:27:46,330 --> 02:27:49,210
and but if it is that, it's 96 numbers. [laughter] many of our title iv funds

1421
02:27:53,665 --> 02:27:53,665
are tied to that 1996 poverty level, which is problematic.

1422
02:27:58,540 --> 02:27:58,540
I am not totally sure if chafee falls into that category, but we can find out.

1423
02:28:03,040 --> 02:28:03,040
>> well, there it's '99 or '96, it's not tied.

1424
02:28:07,330 --> 02:28:07,330
every year, we're losing ground just from funding because of the inflation.

1425
02:28:11,835 --> 02:28:11,835
>> I think the really unfortunate thing about this formula is

1426
02:28:16,035 --> 02:28:16,035
that it's not based on the size of the youth in care.

1427
02:28:20,490 --> 02:28:20,490
it's based on the size of the population of children in care.

1428
02:28:25,690 --> 02:28:25,690
it's not exactly tracking with the makeup of texas youth,

1429
02:28:29,890 --> 02:28:29,890
and there's no consideration given to the needs or the individual circumstances.

1430
02:28:38,095 --> 02:28:38,095
what does the demographic look like in texas versus another state?

1431
02:28:42,625 --> 02:28:46,120
>> that's typical for the feds. Thank you. >> I will just add to there has been a lot of

1432
02:28:50,935 --> 02:28:53,620
conversation occurring at the national level about the chafee funds and the chafee allotments.

1433
02:28:56,785 --> 02:28:56,785
we were contacted by an organization recently that is

1434
02:29:02,110 --> 02:29:02,110
engaging in conversations with our federal government about the chafee allotments.

1435
02:29:07,720 --> 02:29:07,720
I feel like there are conversations occurring at the national level,

1436
02:29:12,205 --> 02:29:12,205
and we hopefully might see some changes in the way the allotment occurs.

1437
02:29:18,265 --> 02:29:20,785
we're going to be watching that closely as well. Just quickly, this slide here,

1438
02:29:23,440 --> 02:29:23,440
this does show you the number of youth who are accessing these services.

1439
02:29:29,890 --> 02:29:32,710
fiscal year 2022 is in blue, fiscal year 2023 is in yellow,

1440
02:29:35,110 --> 02:29:37,675
and fiscal year 2024 is in red. We are seeing a trend downwards in the number of youth accessing these services.

1441
02:29:42,550 --> 02:29:42,550
although we're not happy about the cuts with our funding,

1442
02:29:47,200 --> 02:29:47,200
this does show that fewer youth are accessing services.

1443
02:29:52,735 --> 02:29:55,660
>> I just want to clarify one thing on this slide, kristin, which I should have asked you about before right now,

1444
02:29:57,940 --> 02:30:01,135
the educational and vocational bars, that does not include youth who are accessing

1445
02:30:04,975 --> 02:30:04,975
the tuition waivers through the higher education coordinating board, is that correct?

1446
02:30:10,090 --> 02:30:11,095
>> that's correct. >> the educational and vocational funds here is speaking

1447
02:30:14,440 --> 02:30:18,370
specifically to the funds that we allocate to the regions to address if they need a computer because they're doing online coursework,

1448
02:30:27,925 --> 02:30:27,925
then those funds can be utilized for that or any other need like that.

1449
02:30:35,070 --> 02:30:35,070
just to summarize, overall,

1450
02:30:39,325 --> 02:30:39,325
we've seen a decrease in funds and we're working diligently to increase

1451
02:30:43,450 --> 02:30:43,450
our engagement with our youth at the most critical points in their case.

1452
02:30:49,540 --> 02:30:52,960
we talked about engaging with youth earlier on before graduation to make sure that they're on track to graduate,

1453
02:30:56,935 --> 02:30:56,935
engaging with them earlier on to discuss what are your housing needs?

1454
02:31:01,675 --> 02:31:03,460
let's get a plan down on paper because we don't want to reach the point where you're ready to leave care,

1455
02:31:06,700 --> 02:31:08,560
but you don't have anywhere to go. We're being very diligent about those things.

1456
02:31:12,235 --> 02:31:12,235
but we are seeing a decrease in funds while we're also

1457
02:31:16,930 --> 02:31:16,930
seeing an increase in the percentage of youth over the age of 14 who are in care.

1458
02:31:22,650 --> 02:31:22,650
we're working with our community partners, our sscc stakeholders.

1459
02:31:28,555 --> 02:31:31,150
we're paying close attention to the data, and we're using that to inform our strategic plan moving forward because we do recognize

1460
02:31:38,110 --> 02:31:41,800
that youth who have experienced foster care do have some unique struggles compared to their peers,

1461
02:31:46,570 --> 02:31:46,570
and so we just want to make sure that we're meeting their needs.

1462
02:31:51,070 --> 02:31:53,530
I'll take any questions. >> yes. Thank you for the presentation.

1463
02:31:55,480 --> 02:31:55,480
I wanted to let you get through everything before I ask questions.

1464
02:31:59,995 --> 02:32:02,065
I want to share real quick. I lived in foster care in 20 years ago at this point,

1465
02:32:06,565 --> 02:32:06,565
and I aged out of foster care 17 years ago.

1466
02:32:10,830 --> 02:32:13,150
when I learned about these things, these things put me on the right path, really.

1467
02:32:15,970 --> 02:32:19,960
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.

1468
02:32:22,660 --> 02:32:24,505
I know the resources are real. I know that they're impactful and I know that they're transformative.

1469
02:32:28,480 --> 02:32:30,850
but there are also things that as we started to talk about with inflation and things like that.

1470
02:32:33,175 --> 02:32:36,355
when I accessed the education training voucher in 2008, it was $5,000 a year.

1471
02:32:38,140 --> 02:32:38,140
in 2025, the maximum amount is still $5,000 a year.

1472
02:32:43,300 --> 02:32:46,840
$5,000 a year back then could pay for a lot. Today, doesn't really pay for much.

1473
02:32:48,880 --> 02:32:52,855
that being said, seeing some of the data here is actually concerning. Seeing that through the education training voucher like utilization,

1474
02:33:01,180 --> 02:33:02,620
seeing the numbers go down, I work with students all the time every semester at ut,

1475
02:33:06,670 --> 02:33:09,115
and the first thing we do is apply for etv. Sometimes they're not even eligible to get

1476
02:33:11,125 --> 02:33:11,125
even any award because of the way things are calculated now.

1477
02:33:15,220 --> 02:33:15,220
there's been a lot of changes that have happened over the years that have occurred,

1478
02:33:20,665 --> 02:33:22,180
sometimes at the federal level, sometimes at the state level or both that don't

1479
02:33:25,660 --> 02:33:25,660
factor in how these programs were intended to run,

1480
02:33:29,665 --> 02:33:29,665
and therefore leads to reduced support on the students' behalf.

1481
02:33:33,805 --> 02:33:37,630
it's something that really needs to be considered and examined closely. I'm happy to have students meet who are experiencing

1482
02:33:41,860 --> 02:33:41,860
this firsthand about why this is significant and why this is important.

1483
02:33:48,610 --> 02:33:52,360
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

1484
02:33:54,940 --> 02:33:54,940
reduce as a result of the loss chafee funds to reduce one of the college conferences.

1485
02:34:02,320 --> 02:34:06,310
I know you all are working really diligently to find the funds to really minimize the impact to our population.

1486
02:34:10,795 --> 02:34:13,360
but what are some other things that are potentially looking to be cut as a result of the loss of these funds?

1487
02:34:17,260 --> 02:34:19,945
>> thank you for the question. It really was the pal life skills training classes.

1488
02:34:23,350 --> 02:34:24,460
again, we're working with the contracted providers to make sure that they're still able to

1489
02:34:27,850 --> 02:34:27,850
provide the same level of services to the youth that they're serving through those.

1490
02:34:33,400 --> 02:34:33,400
then also the reduction of the statewide college conference,

1491
02:34:38,440 --> 02:34:41,800
those were the two main things that we reduced. In addition to that, though,

1492
02:34:44,965 --> 02:34:44,965
the allocations that go to the regions for educational vocational services,

1493
02:34:51,820 --> 02:34:51,820
we reduced that pretty significantly.

1494
02:34:55,850 --> 02:34:59,835
we didn't feel comfortable doing it. I'm going to be honest, but we also know that youth are able

1495
02:35:03,540 --> 02:35:07,440
to reach out to their transition and financial support providers that is another contracted service that did not receive

1496
02:35:10,470 --> 02:35:10,470
cuts to tap into their financial resources.

1497
02:35:15,930 --> 02:35:15,930
>> we felt that that was an area where although we didn't love cutting,

1498
02:35:21,230 --> 02:35:23,960
it was an area where we could utilize the resources that were in place in other areas to help offset that.

1499
02:35:28,850 --> 02:35:28,850
then we also are making sure to work with our regions and

1500
02:35:33,650 --> 02:35:36,710
ssc areas to see what community supports they have available in their areas to meet those needs,

1501
02:35:40,385 --> 02:35:43,250
because a lot of times there are community nonprofit organizations that can also help to fill that gap.

1502
02:35:48,380 --> 02:35:48,380
I think it's really just a matter of working even more diligently than we

1503
02:35:54,080 --> 02:35:54,080
already are to identify community resources and explain to them what the need is,

1504
02:36:00,680 --> 02:36:00,680
and why we might be asking now for more funds than we have previously.

1505
02:36:06,155 --> 02:36:06,155
>> thank you, I have one more and I'll make this one quick, I promise.

1506
02:36:10,940 --> 02:36:10,940
one of the things I'm also seeing with students is that as you've presented,

1507
02:36:15,875 --> 02:36:15,875
the transitional living services team is one of my favorite groups of people at dfps,

1508
02:36:21,185 --> 02:36:23,405
I've loved working with them over the years. I loved working with them when I worked at cps,

1509
02:36:26,405 --> 02:36:29,165
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,

1510
02:36:36,410 --> 02:36:36,410
there's people that are achieving permanence or even reunification, which is great.

1511
02:36:45,095 --> 02:36:45,095
however, they've been put on a path working with people starting at age 14,

1512
02:36:49,700 --> 02:36:52,400
working with a transitional living services worker, working with a power worker,

1513
02:36:53,765 --> 02:36:56,495
going through the life skills curriculum, training, and being assured that they're going to have all of these resources to help

1514
02:37:00,710 --> 02:37:00,710
them achieve social mobility once they've emancipated and gone on.

1515
02:37:05,195 --> 02:37:07,880
well, as it turns out, with the push for permanence, these folks are achieving permanence, and some of them,

1516
02:37:10,430 --> 02:37:12,335
a couple of my students, I'm thinking about, did so literally a couple of weeks before they turned 18.

1517
02:37:17,045 --> 02:37:19,235
as a result of that, the path that they were on no longer applied,

1518
02:37:22,070 --> 02:37:25,955
that all the resources that they were hoping to look forward to and access, they were no longer able to access these things.

1519
02:37:29,015 --> 02:37:29,015
I'm curious, and I understand there might not be an answer here right now,

1520
02:37:33,635 --> 02:37:33,635
but is this something that the agency could look at and see is there something

1521
02:37:37,880 --> 02:37:37,880
that we could do if if this is something that's impacting people,

1522
02:37:42,005 --> 02:37:45,725
because it really does cause a lot of stress, anxiety, and honestly just resentment from young people that have been told, yes,

1523
02:37:51,620 --> 02:37:51,620
you can go live in a supervised independent living arrangement on campus or you

1524
02:37:56,120 --> 02:37:56,120
can access the transitional living allowance or this side or the other,

1525
02:38:01,055 --> 02:38:03,065
but actually now you can't. I get it, nobody should have to choose between benefits

1526
02:38:05,210 --> 02:38:07,565
and having a family, but at the same time, I think that if we put people on a certain path,

1527
02:38:09,845 --> 02:38:13,600
we owe it to them to deliver on the promises we've made. >> thank you for that. I have heard of similar situations,

1528
02:38:18,290 --> 02:38:18,290
and I do agree, I think it merits further conversation to see what we can do,

1529
02:38:23,555 --> 02:38:26,015
because as things are set up now, in a case where they reached permanency,

1530
02:38:29,480 --> 02:38:31,760
sometimes just weeks before they turn 18, that does change what they're eligible for.

1531
02:38:35,045 --> 02:38:35,045
I would welcome additional conversation about that for sure.

1532
02:38:41,740 --> 02:38:41,740
>> I think we may need to do some exploration about what we have.

1533
02:38:46,715 --> 02:38:50,630
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.

1534
02:39:00,250 --> 02:39:03,680
>> I just had a quick comment, and thank you for this, it's just so timely.

1535
02:39:05,315 --> 02:39:07,220
in el paso, we've been having a lot of conversations with concern anecdotally hearing that

1536
02:39:11,105 --> 02:39:14,750
adults or transition age youth are starting to hit the adult system and the justice system and we don't want that.

1537
02:39:19,025 --> 02:39:21,590
we're looking at everything we can to address this and understanding better how these programs work

1538
02:39:25,130 --> 02:39:28,040
and individuals may not be taking advantage of the will help us with trying to connect folks in a timely manner.

1539
02:39:31,385 --> 02:39:33,275
we appreciate that very much. Thank you. >> thank you.

1540
02:39:38,800 --> 02:39:41,990
>> thank you so much. Appreciate it. >> thank you.

1541
02:39:44,500 --> 02:39:44,500
>> we were talking about possibly taking a break, but before that,

1542
02:39:50,330 --> 02:39:54,050
we do have amy franks from the management consulting group who will come

1543
02:39:56,420 --> 02:39:59,585
out to present the commissioner's award of excellence. >> good morning. It is my honor to introduce to

1544
02:40:02,780 --> 02:40:06,185
you the recipients of the commissioner's award of excellence, an award that represents the highest level of recognition,

1545
02:40:09,815 --> 02:40:09,815
honoring individuals who exemplify dedication, excellence,

1546
02:40:14,360 --> 02:40:17,180
and an unwavering commitment to serving children, families, and communities across texas.

1547
02:40:19,845 --> 02:40:23,560
today, we celebrate those whose leadership, compassion, and perseverance inspire us all to do more,

1548
02:40:26,770 --> 02:40:30,130
to do better and to serve with greater purpose. It is a privilege to recognize

1549
02:40:32,590 --> 02:40:32,590
these two remarkable individuals in the extraordinary difference they make every day.

1550
02:40:38,180 --> 02:40:38,180
our first recipient is the honorable aurora martinez jones,

1551
02:40:43,310 --> 02:40:46,895
judge martinez jones oversees all travis county, cps cases as the presiding judge for the 126 district civil court.

1552
02:40:53,450 --> 02:40:53,450
her court is also responsible for hearing cases relating to juvenile clients,

1553
02:40:58,565 --> 02:41:02,180
and she oversees other specialized courts in the district. She consistently looks to partner with

1554
02:41:04,550 --> 02:41:07,580
community mentoring organizations to help support the emotional and mental needs of children and youth,

1555
02:41:11,120 --> 02:41:11,120
including piloting a career day initiative where organizations and individuals from

1556
02:41:16,910 --> 02:41:16,910
across sectors share personal career experiences with high school age youth.

1557
02:41:24,245 --> 02:41:24,245
judge martin jones is a community advocate on several social issues

1558
02:41:29,630 --> 02:41:31,520
a judicial processes and community needs and is a founding member of a local collaborative,

1559
02:41:35,915 --> 02:41:35,915
looking for solutions to disparate outcomes in the child welfare system.

1560
02:41:40,520 --> 02:41:40,520
your dedication to protect our most vulnerable population

1561
02:41:44,870 --> 02:41:44,870
is a beacon of excellence across the department and the state of texas.

1562
02:41:48,920 --> 02:41:48,920
[applause]

1563
02:42:29,480 --> 02:42:33,080
our next recipient is misses laura christopherson. Miss christopherson served as the president of

1564
02:42:36,050 --> 02:42:36,050
the aps silver star board of el paso for the past ten years now retired.

1565
02:42:42,185 --> 02:42:43,925
during her leadership tenure, she planned and executed more than ten crimes against the elderly conferences in el paso,

1566
02:42:49,760 --> 02:42:49,760
which often in about 500 attendees.

1567
02:42:53,885 --> 02:42:53,885
the adopt a senior center events held each spring that provide lunch and

1568
02:42:58,880 --> 02:43:00,950
invite local agencies that serve rural communities to educate them about available resources.

1569
02:43:04,730 --> 02:43:08,240
the county attorney's office, christmas blessings project, which distributes donated gifts to the elderly and to veterans,

1570
02:43:12,275 --> 02:43:12,275
often the only gift that our aps clients receive during the holiday season.

1571
02:43:17,300 --> 02:43:17,300
aps is grateful to have had such a wonderful advocate helping create a better community.

1572
02:43:23,045 --> 02:43:26,600
her dedication to protect our most vulnerable population is a beacon of excellence across the department and the state of texas.

1573
02:43:30,275 --> 02:43:33,200
mrs christopherson was not able to join us in person today, but she is watching our live stream

1574
02:43:35,165 --> 02:43:38,000
and will be receiving her certificate through the mail. Thank you. [applause]

1575
02:43:46,790 --> 02:43:46,790
>> do we need a break or we have one more.

1576
02:43:57,850 --> 02:44:00,725
>> we will continue. >> I can talk fast.

1577
02:44:02,840 --> 02:44:05,720
[laughter] good morning. Rachel deer the director of faith based and community engagement.

1578
02:44:08,750 --> 02:44:11,090
actually, I can talk through one of the slides, because julie gave a great assist in talking about the upcoming aps conference,

1579
02:44:15,460 --> 02:44:18,490
but cheryl, we're coming into october, which is financial exploitation month I've provided a couple of graphics.

1580
02:44:22,630 --> 02:44:26,495
we actually have a very robust toolkit on our partnering to protect website that has all these graphics.

1581
02:44:30,590 --> 02:44:32,870
they have twitter feeds, they have facebook posts so that if you want to in your community,

1582
02:44:36,755 --> 02:44:39,230
get the word out about financial exploitation, that tool kit is available to you in the public

1583
02:44:41,960 --> 02:44:45,935
to use that in your organizations, cheryl. Then this is the partner to protect web page.

1584
02:44:49,190 --> 02:44:51,200
this is the new web page that aps launched as part of their partner to protect initiative.

1585
02:44:54,245 --> 02:44:54,245
this really has a lot of great in depth information,

1586
02:44:58,715 --> 02:45:01,400
on how you can partner with law enforcement, how to partner with hospitals,

1587
02:45:02,810 --> 02:45:02,810
how to partner with those nonprofit organizations to promote abuse, neglect,

1588
02:45:09,275 --> 02:45:11,720
and exploitation, awareness in your community and it has also information about financial exploitation.

1589
02:45:18,020 --> 02:45:18,020
it's a great resource for a website for everyone to go and look at.

1590
02:45:24,575 --> 02:45:28,535
then as julie talked about, the conference coming up here in austin, october 14th through 17th.

1591
02:45:30,815 --> 02:45:33,650
in addition to the wonderful workshops that we have, we do have the awards dinner,

1592
02:45:35,660 --> 02:45:38,840
which we will honor those board members that julie discussed, as well as staff that do outstanding work for aps during the year.

1593
02:45:45,245 --> 02:45:48,965
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.

1594
02:45:52,940 --> 02:45:54,800
I talked to kes about this before. He's actually just now coming back from

1595
02:45:57,045 --> 02:45:59,665
the national adult protective services conference. Next year in austin,

1596
02:46:01,240 --> 02:46:04,690
there will be a joint aps and napsa conference here in austin so be ready for that next year as well.

1597
02:46:08,875 --> 02:46:10,480
for those who may not know, napsa actually started out of texas aps.

1598
02:46:13,825 --> 02:46:17,725
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.

1599
02:46:21,465 --> 02:46:23,705
then looking ahead to november, we turn towards adoption month.

1600
02:46:26,330 --> 02:46:28,730
we'll start off on sunday, november 9th with stand sunday.

1601
02:46:30,920 --> 02:46:32,780
I know I've talked about that before. That is an initiative that bishop blake with

1602
02:46:35,390 --> 02:46:39,065
harvest family life ministries and dallas started several years ago, where we encourage faith congregations to stand

1603
02:46:42,050 --> 02:46:42,050
for youth and families who are in the foster adopt system.

1604
02:46:46,610 --> 02:46:49,865
the message is, everybody can do something, even if it's praying,

1605
02:46:51,380 --> 02:46:54,005
but you can up to foster adopt. We will have more information to share with you all on stand sunday coming up.

1606
02:46:59,945 --> 02:47:03,770
in addition to family caregivers month is in november, this website is a great website to a national website that

1607
02:47:07,250 --> 02:47:10,760
has wonderful resources about caregivers across the spectrum from youth and

1608
02:47:14,345 --> 02:47:14,345
children to adults and elderly care giving so that's a great resource.

1609
02:47:19,580 --> 02:47:22,280
then of course, national adoption day is going to be celebrated on november 22nd this year.

1610
02:47:25,040 --> 02:47:27,755
we'll be working with the ssccs, and then our legacy partners on adoption events across the state.

1611
02:47:33,050 --> 02:47:36,980
of course, we will send all the information. We're still gathering the information on financial exploitation activities that we'll send out

1612
02:47:39,980 --> 02:47:42,020
in the next newsletter for you so that you can attend all those events that we have planned around the state,

1613
02:47:44,735 --> 02:47:47,480
which will include both in person conferences, as well as webinars and other events.

1614
02:47:50,570 --> 02:47:50,570
[laughter] any questions?

1615
02:47:57,820 --> 02:47:57,820
no. Thank you so much.

1616
02:48:02,860 --> 02:48:05,270
>> thank you so much. The next item on the agenda is public testimony,

1617
02:48:08,615 --> 02:48:11,000
where we welcome input from the public and stakeholders on the topics laid out on the agenda.

1618
02:48:14,015 --> 02:48:14,015
we always appreciate hearing from the public and we value your input.

1619
02:48:18,215 --> 02:48:20,720
please know that the counsel, audre o'neal and vicki k,

1620
02:48:25,475 --> 02:48:28,340
our general counsel are unable to comment or respond to statements or questions during public testimony.

1621
02:48:32,105 --> 02:48:35,405
this is your opportunity to share information with us. If you plan to talk about a specific case and would like to

1622
02:48:38,690 --> 02:48:41,915
have someone from the office of consumer affairs call, please sign up at the registration table in the back.

1623
02:48:45,095 --> 02:48:48,890
we observe a three minute time limit for all speakers. Our time keeper will keep of the time for you and

1624
02:48:52,940 --> 02:48:52,940
indicate when you have one minute left by flashing the yellow light on the podium.

1625
02:48:57,650 --> 02:49:00,365
when your time is up, the red light will come on, and the time will beep.

1626
02:49:01,835 --> 02:49:05,015
please clearly state your first and last name in the agenda item you will be presenting on.

1627
02:49:08,075 --> 02:49:08,075
our first speaker is valentino valdez.

1628
02:49:28,600 --> 02:49:28,600
>> hello. My name is valentino valdez,

1629
02:49:33,920 --> 02:49:35,570
I'm a behavioral therapist and a former foster youth with over a decade in the cps system.

1630
02:49:39,395 --> 02:49:41,480
I entered care in 2006, and I aged out of care in 2020.

1631
02:49:43,715 --> 02:49:46,235
I begin my point with a question. What kind of help do you think we are entitled to when we go from

1632
02:49:49,310 --> 02:49:52,895
foster children to victims and survivors of the system? When we are physically, mentally, emotionally,

1633
02:49:55,580 --> 02:49:55,580
and even sexually abused by the caregivers dfps, employed or contracted.

1634
02:49:59,765 --> 02:49:59,765
how so dfps make amends to the children it's failed to protect?

1635
02:50:03,980 --> 02:50:03,980
all I was given was this crudely put together a list of

1636
02:50:08,030 --> 02:50:09,920
community resources with no attempt at apology by director of conservatorship hector ortez,

1637
02:50:13,190 --> 02:50:17,120
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.

1638
02:50:21,020 --> 02:50:21,020
how can we not see that it's dfs responsibility when dfps

1639
02:50:25,055 --> 02:50:25,055
is the agency who removed us from our families with a promise of a better future?

1640
02:50:29,285 --> 02:50:29,285
when dfps is in charge of oversight of the homes and placements we were in,

1641
02:50:33,305 --> 02:50:36,290
truth of the matter is, we were failed. It's time to work towards helping the children,

1642
02:50:38,600 --> 02:50:39,935
the system promised to protect, recover from the horrors endured by the people dfps trusted.

1643
02:50:43,880 --> 02:50:46,640
I have taken initiative and built a foundation, if you will, for how that can be done.

1644
02:50:48,560 --> 02:50:50,630
it will be emailed to the council's email and it will also be sent to the relevant legislators.

1645
02:50:53,855 --> 02:50:57,320
this outline covers direct victim compensation, therapeutic, and medical support, education,

1646
02:50:59,600 --> 02:51:03,410
housing and stability, as well as administration and compliance. I also have in my possession my cps records.

1647
02:51:07,355 --> 02:51:09,485
this is my favorite part, they were given to me unredacted.

1648
02:51:13,810 --> 02:51:17,285
which in turn are our burden of proof of negligence, physical abuse, and alteration of records.

1649
02:51:20,435 --> 02:51:20,435
I wish to not implicate anyone as solution and healing is my only goal,

1650
02:51:24,890 --> 02:51:28,760
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,

1651
02:51:31,895 --> 02:51:33,620
that we all publicly release our own private records to bring light to the darkness we've experienced.

1652
02:51:37,535 --> 02:51:37,535
if I as one survivor can document negligence and abuse in my own records,

1653
02:51:42,635 --> 02:51:44,900
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?

1654
02:51:55,115 --> 02:51:59,000
we will no longer carry the burden of what was done to us. It is time we share the weight with those responsible.

1655
02:52:01,910 --> 02:52:05,510
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,

1656
02:52:09,125 --> 02:52:12,950
and as history has taught us, never underestimate the power of one. To any more victims within or have aged out of dfps,

1657
02:52:15,980 --> 02:52:17,555
the fight for you has just begun. I would like to take the remainder of the time to silence for the victims we have

1658
02:52:20,510 --> 02:52:20,510
failed to help and for the ones that we will. Thank you.

1659
02:52:36,370 --> 02:52:36,370
>> thank you. We have no other public comment,

1660
02:52:41,840 --> 02:52:43,640
or have anybody else signed up. With that, I would like to adjourn this meeting.

1661
02:52:48,095 --> 02:52:48,095
>> everybody in favor of that? Thank you so much.