The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Article II – Health and Human Services met on February 13 to hear budgetary and operations information for the Department of Family and Protective Services. The Subcommittee heard invited testimony from the Legislative Budget Board, State Auditor’s Office, and the Department of Family Protective Services. The Subcommittee also heard public testimony.
This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight of the discussions on the various topics the committee took up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the hearing but is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer and the desire to get details out as quickly as possible with few errors or omissions.
Opening Comments
- Davis – Last session legislature made investment in child protective services at DFPS, increased staff retention and improved outcomes for children.
- Davis – Will look more closely at community-based care and family-first legislation.
Department of Family and Protective Services
Andrea Nikic, Legislative Budget Board
- $4.3b in all funds, biennial increase of 2.1%
- $1b in all funds for foster care payments
- Adoption subsidies and permanency care assistance $612.4m in all funds, increase of $46.8m. Increase due to caseload growth.
- Daycare, $197.5 in all funds. LBB assumes the increase will be funded entirely by federal funds.
- Report indicates community-based care does not result in better outcomes for children than foster care.
- Recommendations assume reduction in FTEs by 292 in each fiscal year of 20-21 biennium due to outsourcing of case management.
- Adding 491.6 FTEs in 2020 and 625.6 in 2021 in order to maintain caseload ratios
- Davis – Is there any problem with the agency double-counting rate increases?
- Nikic – No.
Michael Simon, State Auditor’s Office
- Performed audit of Adult Protective Services
- did not consistently follow procedures for in-home investigations and should improve controls over user access to certain information systems.
Matt Owens, State Auditor’s Office
- had policies and procedures that required periodic contacts with clients to verify safety. These contacts required during investigations and after investigations are closed.
- Caseworkers did not follow this policy in many cases.
- In 19 of 61 cases the Dept. did not submit a required review within 10 days.
- For 25 of 26 investigations Dept. followed procedures for initiating investigations.
- did not always interview alleged perpetrator, as is required
- Followed policies for closing investigations with non-cooperative clients
- did not ensure access to info systems was restricted to users who needed the info to perform their jobs and did not disable access for users when access was no longer needed.
- Davis – For the access to accounts and info systems, is that just APS?
- Owens – We were looking at an info system that would have had an impact on the entire agency.
- Davis – There has been publicity surrounding this issue and allegations of falsifying case entries, have you found any evidence of that?
- Owens – We looked for that and did not find evidence of it.
- Turner – You only investigated a certain number of cases, was that just a sampling method?
- Owens – Yes because the population is so large and a program with as much inherent risk as this program we use a risk-based approach to sampling. We used data analysis tools to determine which cases were the most likely to be non-compliant or the most potential impact if the rules were not complied with.
- Turner – And they have responded with their proposals which are mentioned in the report?
- Owens – Yes
- Turner – So now the investigations are over and it is just a matter of implementing the changes?
- Owens – Yes.
- Davis – this audit is unfortunate but should not come as a surprise.
Hank Whitman, Commissioner, Department of Family and Protective Services
- Davis – There is an article in the Houston Chronicle alleging false entries into the case management system. It seems like it is not nefarious, but is that the proper protocol and something we need to address?
- Whitman – I have never seen a positive news story about our agency. Falsifying data is a felony, so we immediately investigate when we get allegations of that. We have dismissed employees and turned them over to district attorneys in the past for this issue.
- We welcome any kind of audit and they help us improve.
David Kinsey, CFO, Department of Family and Protective Services
- 9 exceptional items totaling $350m all funds
- Reduced compared to original LAR because HB 1 includes projections that closely align with DFPS’s projections
- Additional funding to meet caseload-per-worker targets
- Enhance community-based care initiatives
- Fill key gaps in programs and agency operations
- Enhance commitment to prevention and early intervention services
- APS request mirrors what CPS got last session
- Item 5 for additional staff to support CPS caseworkers
- Item 6 for additional staff to ensure proper medical care for foster children
- Davis – Is this medical staff a new group of employees, and under the current system is the caseworker responsible for ensuring these children get medical care?
- Kinsey – We have 6 of these staff already, we are adding 5 more.
- Davis – Is that because there were children who were not getting adequate care?
- Whitman – No, but there are more children who need care and we are ensuring we have the employees to oversee that. We absolutely need more people to oversee this.
- Item 7 for additional funding for Child Protective Investigations, continuation and expansion of human trafficking team.
- Item 8 request to expand primary prevention in 4 highly successful programs.
- Item 9 reflects potential cost for compliance with the court’s ruling in the MD lawsuit
Public Testimony
- Katie Olse, CEO of Texas Alliance of Child and Family Services – Support DFPS prevention and early intervention program. Fully supportive of DFPS LAR, but it does not adequately cover the needs of those responsible for providing services, especially in foster care.
- Wu – You brought up increase in number of kids going into care, do you think part of this increase is because DFPS has additional investigators and can do a more thorough job, and in the past the were letting things go when they shouldn’t have?
- Olse – Not necessarily there are a number of factors that could affect it. All cases are handled on a case by case basis.
- Wu – If statewide intake is increased and we do more investigations we would get more cases which would drive up the numbers even further. One of my big concerns is the capacity of the state to deal with kids who have serious psychological needs, what are your thoughts on that?
- Olse – We address that in our recommendations. Children in foster care tend to have their therapeutic needs met. It is a complex issue.
- Kelly White, Co-CEO of SAFE Alliance – Support DFPS rate proposal increase for emergency shelters. Gave overview of SAFE alliance.
- Susan McDowell, CEO of Lifeworks – Support rate increase to emergency shelters. Increase rates for Supported Independent Living.
- Wu – How many kids are close to aging out or have aged out that are at the near-homeless mark?
- McDowell – I do not have the answer.
- Wu – Would raising the rates be sufficient to open up enough capacity in private placement?
- Olse – Trying to prevent further closures of operations.
- Lauren Rose, Texas Network of Youth Services – Support DFPS exceptional item 8 for prevention and early intervention.
- Jennifer Lucy, TX Protects – Strengthen upstream investments in community-based prevention programs.
- Tim Kelleher, AARP – Support exceptional item 4, compensation for frontline staff for APS.
- Davis – The audit speaks for itself in terms of the need for funding for APS.
- Sarah Crockett, Texas CASA – Support DFPS rider 21 for expansion of family finding program.
- Wu – Is what we are doing with kids who ae aging out sufficient to fully measure whether or not they are ready to live on their own, or do we need new metrics?
- Crockett – The main thing we are looking at is whether they are passing classes or not. There are improvements we can make.
- Keri Stitt, Promise House – Support increase in emergency shelter rates. Support increase in supported independent living (SIL) rates. Promise House not currently providing capacity for SIL, would provide capacity if rates were increased.
- Kelly Stallings, Connections Individual and Family Services – Support exceptional item 8 for prevention programs.
- Jo DePrang, Children’s Defense Fund Texas – Increase DFPS budget wherever required to maintain level of services. Support for prevention programs, would reduce the need for other DFPS services.
- Tyler Sheldon, Texas State Employees Union – Support for exceptional item 4, this item would reduce turnover rates in APS.
- Jessica Kilpatrick, Self – Support for prevention and early intervention programs.
- Kimberly Griffin, Nurse-Family Partnership National Service Office – Nurse-family partnerships can save money on education, incarceration, health care. Asking for additional $12m o serve an additional 1200 families.
- Will Francis, National Assoc of Social Workers – Support increase in APS salaries. Support preparation for adult living program.
- Claire McInerny, Texas Parents’ Teachers State Office – Support for home visiting, nurse-family partnerships. Support for exceptional item 8.
- Davis – We have been hearing a lot of common themes about prevention and early intervention.