The innocents died brutally.

But in their pain, they acted as messengers who touched the hearts and minds of Texas' elected officials.

It took the horrors of Tasjean Sanders, Amber Pacheco, Davontae Williams and others like them -- children fatally beaten, starved, neglected, abused -- to focus lawmakers on the many ways in which the state's Child Protective Services agency has increasingly been unable to live up to its name.

CPS workers and advocates involved with troubled families had warned for years about the unmanageable caseloads that sometimes led to inadequate monitoring of children in danger.

They lamented the high caseworker turnover -- four in 10 leaving after two years -- that magnifies the workload and compounds stress for those who continue in the field. They advocated more training so that inexperienced caseworkers wouldn't be ill-prepared to assess complicated or ambiguous situations in a reliable fashion.

Small improvements have taken place in recent years, but problems have persisted because resources, both in funding and in personnel, have lagged far beyond the need.

Now that state leaders are listening closely, wide-ranging legislation is moving through the state Senate and pending in the House in an attempt to help a very complex system right itself.

Among the most promising elements are these:

• More attention to prevention programs, which lost funding in 2003.

Senate Bill 6, by Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, calls for a plan to combine state and local money to support families with the aim of keeping children out of foster care. The bill also would set up a grant system for community programs addressing less serious abuse and neglect cases.

An example is NETCARE, which the Tarrant County Youth Collaboration started in 2002 with an Amon G. Carter Foundation grant.

Through NETCARE, The Parenting Center offers services, such as utility assistance, medical aid and counseling, to at-risk families that don't require CPS intervention. More than 602 families accepted NETCARE services during the program's first two years, and the program recently secured a federal earmark.

• Joint training for CPS investigators and law enforcement officers in dealing with the most serious cases.

SB 6 also will recommend housing CPS workers with law officers in children's advocacy centers in larger counties. There already are 60 centers across the state, and the model has worked well in Tarrant County, which has locations in Fort Worth, Arlington and Hurst that handle the most serious abuse cases that CPS gets.

• Medical passports for foster children. Because foster children might change homes frequently, it's essential that CPS maintain complete, updated medical information that moves with a child or is immediately accessible.

Perhaps the most troublesome aspect of pending legislation has been the requirement that CPS contract out foster care and adoption services, including recruitment of foster parents, case management, and operation and oversight of group homes.

Though the Legislature can require strict oversight, financial audits of residential care facilities, contract performance standards and other safeguards, privatization shouldn't be implemented unless it's clear that the state can contract for those services and still protect children's safety and ensure that tax dollars are being wisely spent.

Any of the changes being considered will have limited impact, though, without the commitment of money and people included in Gov. Rick Perry's budget proposal.

The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees CPS, is seeking $327 million over two years to improve technology, boost salaries and add 800 investigators, plus some 40 screeners, 300 case aides and 240 clerical workers, with the goal of reducing monthly caseloads from 74 to 44 by 2007.

It's a start, and a necessary one. But lawmakers shouldn't consider their work done once they've made one series of fixes this year.

A caseload of 44 still is far more than the nationally recommended standard. Overhauling the agency won't automatically improve its operation, nor will it magically make parents better equipped for their job.

Texas must continue to support families, reduce caseloads, recruit CPS workers and ensure that those who are entrusted with vulnerable children's safety do indeed act in their best interests.

But it is going to take political courage -- and will.