Sizable majorities in both chambers of the 2017 legislature rallied behind the proposal of Senator Charles Schwertner, then the chair of the Health and Human Services committee, to increase the privatization of child welfare services. Many legislators felt they had been pouring money into DFPS without seeing better outcomes-only terrible headlines. The judge concluded, “Texas’ foster care system is broken, and it has been for decades.”Īll of this spurred newfound urgency for a transformative overhaul of the foster care system. Those tweaks had only yielded a few positive results while fundamental issues persisted, and many children suffered the consequences. Over many years, study after study showed CPS had major problems, and yes, the legislature adjusted the system. Worse, in the judge’s opinion, none of these criticisms were news to the department. CPS had a high staff turnover rate, disrupting relationships with children. The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services relied on “squeaky wheels” for improvement, yet the environment was “unsupportive and punitive” toward workers who complained.
Extensive paperwork requirements resulted in caseworkers spending only 26 percent of their time actually visiting children. Instead of reducing workers’ caseloads, the Department of Family and Protective Services had increased them, with 43 percent of caseworkers managing more than 21 cases. A 2015 court ruling by a federal judge in Corpus Christi demanded changes to the system for foster care kids, “who almost uniformly leave State custody more damaged than when they entered.” Over 260 pages, the judge cited the state’s faults, and the list was long.
To the public, CPS has often felt like a complicated mess that inspires feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. She spent most of her final hours bound by electrical wire in a dark closet. A few months after the grandparents’ complaint, Leiliana was beaten to death by her mother’s boyfriend. The investigator was juggling seventy cases-five times what safety experts recommend. But the assigned investigator was slow to check on the girl and her younger brother and failed to review their mother’s criminal history, which included a felony conviction and a documented history of child abuse.
Her paternal grandparents, alarmed by their granddaughter’s bruises, had sent photos of the girl’s beaten face to CPS. The tidal wave of problems that thrust Child Protective Services into newspaper headlines crested with the 2016 death of Grand Prairie 4-year-old Leiliana Wright.
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