Saving Texas children: Abused youths should be a top funding priority in 2017

When local state lawmakers head back to Austin next year, they’ll be determined to do everything they can to protect children from violence and abuse.

“Every time we get a notice that a child has passed away in our care, I feel personally responsible for that,” state Rep. Nicole Collier, D-Fort Worth, said Wednesday during a legislative forum put on by the United Way and its Area Agency on Aging. “We have to do better.

“These are our children that are being left in the gap,” she said. “So, what we need to do is look at the funding we are giving to (Child Protective Services), ... (and) we need to make sure children are our priority instead of border control.”

Already, top state officials have asked state agencies to cut their budget requests, although the state’s embattled child welfare agency was one of the few areas not required to cut.

Some say needs ranging from school financing to border security likely will demand top dollar and no one knows how much money will be available.

But protecting Texas children should be at the top of the to-do list.

“When I first started this job, ... I’m not sure I signed up for the fact that when you get up in the morning you get an email telling you the latest child who had died in Tarrant County,” said state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, who serves on the House Appropriations Committee. “That’s what we get, those emails.

“I will say this, this (CPS) is probably one of the top things for us to look at funding.”

A handful of Tarrant County lawmakers — Collier, Capriglione, state Sen. Konni Burton, R-Colleyville, and state Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie — spoke at the forum at Lena Pope about issues ranging from CPS to public safety to education needs.

CPS

Efforts to improve Texas’ Child Protective Services have been front-burner as the number of child abuse and death cases has risen, leaving children sleeping in state office buildings and even prompting a judge to rule that the foster care system here is “broken.”

Top state officials earlier this year named new leaders to the state agency that oversees CPS and said improving the system geared to help abused children will be a top priority for the 85th Legislature.

Just this week, a handful of CPS regional directors across the state — from Austin to Corpus Christi — were let go as the effort to revamp the agency continues.

Reports show there were 176,868 completed child abuse/neglect investigations in Texas, with 43,848 in the Arlington region, last year.

“My concern, as always, is those who cannot speak for themselves,” Burton said. “I want to prioritize our dollars, our state dollars, in the best way we can.

“And obviously this is a way that we need to prioritize our dollars.”

Child Welfare League of America guidelines have suggested that caseworkers looking into neglect or abuse should have no more than 12 active cases a month. In Texas, the average caseload is about 17.9 cases per worker and staff turnover is about 23 percent, state statistics show.

The starting salary for a CPS worker is around $33,000, although there are added incentives for those who are Spanish speaking, have a masters degree in social work or have past experience in investigations.

“This is a low paying job,” Turner said. “When you are talking about a job that’s physically and emotionally taxing, ...trying to assess children in a negligent or abusive situation, ...that’s going to take an emotional toll.”

More workers need to be hired and a higher pay scale to make the system better, he said.

Earlier this year, the House County Affairs committee held a public hearing in Fort Worth, taking testimony about Child Protective Services and other issues.

Other issues

Even though the Legislature doesn’t begin again until Jan. 10, some local lawmakers already are drafting bills for the 85th Legislature.

They say the budget, CPS, school finance, public safety, property tax reform and transportation likely will be big issues that dominate much of the discussion.

Other issues local lawmakers hope to draw attention to include: lower taxes, higher education and tuition costs, sanctuary cities, criminal justice reforms, mental health care, telemedicine, earned pay sick leave, fair work schedules and the adequacy of health networks.

Lawmakers urged residents to contact them about areas of concern and issues they hope the Texas Legislature will address in 2017.

“Now is the time,” Burton said.

This story was originally published August 31, 2016 at 4:17 PM with the headline "Saving Texas children: Abused youths should be a top funding priority in 2017."