Here are some news items from last week related to foster care, adoption, and child welfare that caught our eye:
Texas has poured more than $100 million into the state’s aging foster care software known as IMPACT. This one 1990s-era application helps caseworkers keep track of where abused and neglected children are placed, as well as what health care services and schooling they have received. But despite complaints from weary Texas Department of Family and Protective Services caseworkers who use the antiquated system daily and from lawmakers who hear about the system’s shortcomings every legislative session, and even a reprimand from a federal judge, there’s no plan to replace it anytime soon.
A director at Texas’ troubled child welfare agency resigned abruptly on Wednesday, describing a chaotic work environment within her division. Sharon Fonvielle-Baughman, the director of special investigations, said in a notice of her retirement that the Department of Family and Protective Services “has become untenable” and “demonstrates a lack of respect and concern for their dedicated staff as well as the children and families we serve.”
Every year, the state of Texas goes to court and asks a judge to free it from the responsibility of caring for dozens of foster kids who are missing or runaways. The Department of Family and Protective Services said they can’t tell us why they closed 40 missing minor cases in 2021, the last year they have released data for. It’s confidential. But some former CPS workers, parents and lawyers TPR spoke with have suggested the department drops or “nonsuits” missing kids to limit its legal liability or to better use resources to serve kids still in care.
A Texas lawmaker says the crisis for families after the state’s abrupt shutdown of a Fort Worth residential clinic exposed failings in the system meant to protect children. Advocates agree with that assessment, saying Texas needs to develop a better safety net for the children who are displaced when the state closes a facility. The Star-Telegram reported in February that, after the state shut down Fort Behavioral Health, at least two children ended up in hospital emergency rooms because families had no other immediate options for intensive treatment. State Sen. Charles Perry, a Lubbock Republican who is vice chair of the Senate’s Health and Human Services Commission, said there doesn’t appear to be a system in place to transition kids to new treatment plans.
Researchers examining mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other sources from 1999 to 2020 found that after years of declines in childhood mortality the trend sharply reversed beginning in 2019. Four years ago, the all-cause mortality rate was about 25 deaths per 100,000 children. By 2021, that number had jumped 20% to 30 deaths per 100,000 children, according to a chart of the data analysis by researchers. The data involve children ages 1 to 19. Babies were the only age group that didn’t experience a significant increase in mortality. Unlike with adults, the sharp rise in the child mortality rate was not attributed to COVID-19, at least not directly. Increased deaths were related instead to injuries from events such as car accidents, homicides, suicides and poisonings, most often overdoses, according to researchers.
Nationwide, an estimated 5% of all children and youth in foster care qualify for Social Security Administration disability and survivor benefits. But when they receive them, child welfare agencies often intercept payments that can amount to more than $900 a month. An investigation by the Marshall Project and National Public Radio estimated that in 2018 alone, child welfare agencies in 49 states and the District of Columbia seized at least $165 million owed to foster youth, and used the money to pay for the cost of their placements in the child welfare system.
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