![]() SB 1896 codified that change and added flexibility so the model can serve even more children.Īdditionally, lawmakers passed other important bills to support older youth in foster care, working closely with our team and coalition partners. At the beginning of session, DFPS expanded Treatment Foster Care to include children over age 10. (Similarly, Rider 29 in the state budget directs DFPS to report on the availability of these placements.) Our second priority included in the bill addresses Treatment Foster Care, a proven model where a professional foster family receiving additional training and support takes care of a child with significant behavioral health challenges in a home instead of an institution. The first directs DFPS to develop foster care homes prepared to serve unique populations in foster care, including pregnant and parenting youth, trafficking survivors, young adults, and others. The bill includes two priorities championed by our staff. Frank, an omnibus bill to improve the safety and quality of the foster care system. ![]() The Legislature also passed SB 1896 by Sen. QRTPs are facilities certified as meeting certain best practices outlined in the FFPSA - such as trauma-informed care, family engagement, and aftercare services - that will help each child successfully transition from an institutional setting and remain stable with a family in the community. Additionally, thanks to a funding boost via Rider 48 in the state budget, Texas will have an opportunity through a DFPS pilot to develop more QRTPs to serve children in foster care with the most significant behavioral health challenges. The bill also directs the Children’s Commission to conduct a study that could expand these best practices to children in Residential Treatment Centers. The move is a key step for helping children and for complying with the FFPSA. Tom Oliverson will boost judicial oversight to ensure that kids with significant behavior challenges staying in foster care group facilities designated as “Qualified Residential Treatment Programs” (QRTPs) will be transferred to homes with families as soon as possible. Our team worked with legislators to successfully pass several important bills this session. Nonetheless, we’re cautiously optimistic that Texas is largely pointed in the right direction: working to keep children safe with their families and out of foster care when possible and working to ensure that kids who do enter foster care can heal and thrive. There are significant challenges ahead for the Texas child protection system. And we are concerned that the Legislature may be pinning too much hope on Community-Based Care, especially in light of inadequate funding for providers. We are disappointed that the Legislature failed to increase funding for Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI) at DFPS and neglected to increase reimbursement rates to ease the shortage of safe and effective foster care homes and services. We are also pleased to see that several proposals that we opposed did not pass. ![]() Jarvis Johnson, and others on these bills. We appreciate the work by Senator Lois Kolkhorst, Rep. Our team and our partners from the Child Protection Roundtable worked closely with legislators to pass bills that will help more children move more quickly from group facilities to loving families, develop more foster homes equipped to serve pregnant and parenting youth, support older youth in foster care, and leverage the federal Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) to keep more children safe with their families and out of foster care. During the 2021 legislative session, lawmakers passed bills to make significant improvements to the child protection system, but there is much more work to do.
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