Lawmakers consider privatizing foster care
Bill lays groundwork for community-based system across Texas.
The Texas House Human Services Committee weighed legislation Monday that would hand over control of services in the foster care system to private contractors.
Many child welfare advocates applauded while others were skeptical about a bill filed by state Rep. James Frank, R-Wichita Falls, that would restructure the state’s troubled foster care system so that nonprofits — and not the state — would provide case management.
That means the organizations would make key decisions about the kind of help children receive without needing permission from the state. Currently, those deci- sions are handled by state case managers.
House Bill 6 would lay the groundwork for the so-called community-based foster system, with two regions adopting the structure by the end of 2019 and the goal of eventually privatizing many foster care services statewide.
“No new dr a matic policy changes or anything until now
— I see this as real reform,” said Dee Hobbs, county attorney for Williamson County. “I want community buy-in. I have community foundations that will give to my children’s advocacy center
and my women’s shelter. But you know where they won’t give money? To the state, because their money is going to be diffused throughout the state. I want them to see it as a local problem.”
Those who supported the bill said the current system has been in place far too long and has failed in part because it does not take into account the diverse needs of each region in the state. Others said that nonprofits
that contract with the state would find it hard to dis
entangle financial motives from the services that they provide.
“Contractors are going to be faced with, when it’s time to go to court and tell the judge what they think, they can’t serve two dif- ferent bosses. They can’t serve the best interest of the child while they’re simultaneously trying to fix the fam- ily,” said Johana Scot, executive director of Parent Guid- ance Center, which advo- cates for parental rights in
child welfare cases. Community-based foster care systems have been tested in the Fort Worth area and more recently in the Abilene area.
Since 2014, the Fort Worth pilot program, which is run
through the nonprofit ACH Child and Family Services of Fort Worth, kept a high number of children in their communities, decreased the number of times children moved from home to home
and increased the number of foster homes, particularly in rural areas, according to the Department of Family and Protective Services.
Wayne Carson, head of ACH, said he doesn’t understand concerns that contractors would run into conflicts of interest because it will be up to the state and a judge to decide whether a child should be removed from a home.
“We exist to deal with the best interest of kids. I can’t imagine a system that has more checks and balances,” Carson said.
Scott McCown, a retired state district judge who is a child advocate, said the Fort Worth pilot program has been so successful because the state still retained case management control, which Frank’s bill would hand over to the contractor.
“It’s the nonprofit making the decisions and calling the shots, which I think is really problematic,” he said.
McCown expressed similar concerns in a Senate hearing on a bill that also would privatize aspects of the foster care system.
The committee hadn’t acted on the legislation by Monday evening, but com- mittee members approved HB 5, which would make the Department of Family and Protective Services, which oversees the foster care system and Child Protective Services, its own agency, out of the purview of the Health
and Human Services Commission.
Frank said the move could allow the agency to work more efficiently and accomplish tasks with “laserlike focus.”
The committee also
approved HB 4, proposed by state Rep. Cindy Burkett, R-Sunnyvale, which would give a pay raise for low-in- come foster parents who care for a foster child who is a relative.
Families that make no more than 300 percent of the federal poverty level — or $72,750 for a family of four, according to 2016 federal guidelines — could receive about $4,200 per year per child. The cost to the state would be $32.5 million over the next two years.
Now, such people who take in family foster children are eligible to receive only a one-time payment of up to $1,000 for the oldest child in a sibling group and $495 for each additional child and an annual payment of up to $500 per child for child-related expenses.