Fewer children spending the night at Texas Child Protective Services offices
January 25, 2008
Texas no longer has scores of abused and neglected children sleeping in Child Protective Services offices each month, the agency said Thursday.
But CPS officials told lawmakers they are not sure why the number has dwindled, almost as dramatically as it soared a year ago.
Written by Robert T. Garrett, The Dallas Morning News
More than 100 children slept in a CPS office in May, but the number has been in single digits each of the past three months, according to agency statistics. (photo courtesy www.casa-nyc.org)
"We still can't explain why this suddenly appeared on the radar in January of 2007 and reached its peak in May and has been decreasing ever since," said CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins. "We just don't know, although we do think or would like to believe that it's in large part due to our hard work and efforts with [foster care] providers."
More than 100 children slept in a CPS office in May, but the number has been in single digits each of the past three months, according to agency statistics.
CPS also keeps a count of children it houses in "other locations." They also are youngsters the state can't place in foster care.
Instead of bunking them at an office, though, CPS leases beds at facilities such as Dallas County's Letot Center, a residential treatment center, and the privately run All Church Home for Children in Fort Worth.
Carey Cockerell, state protective services commissioner, admits the situation isn't ideal because the facilities can't provide the loving support of a foster home or even a treatment center. Also, CPS workers must work graveyard shifts to stay with the children at Letot or All Church Home, just as they do if youths sleep in a state office.
"But at least the child was in a residential setting," he said.
About a year ago, CPS noticed it was having more trouble placing children in foster care and started counting the number of times it had to cobble together a makeshift arrangement.
There always have been isolated instances of a child sleeping at a state office, Mr. Cockerell told the House Human Services Committee. But it typically happened after CPS workers removed children from abusive homes in the middle of the night, he said.
Private child-placing agencies and treatment centers have blamed the situation on newly tightened standards and tougher state enforcement after three foster children died in North Texas over a 15-month period.
"There is no forgiveness if something goes wrong," Nancy Holman, executive director of the Texas Alliance of Child and Family Services, said Tuesday. She noted that child-placing agencies and treatment centers can lose their licenses if placements fail – and most of the children not being accepted are very troubled.
Mr. Cockerell said the state in August asked 99 foster care contractors to bid on creating 65 beds for the troubled youths in North Texas and the Panhandle. Only one bid was received, and it was rejected because it offered only 20 beds for boys in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
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