We share the Department of Family and Protective Service’s goals of keeping more families safely together; giving more children in foster care the healing experience of living with a well-prepared foster family or in a safe, supportive, and licensed facility; and ensuring that more Texas youth are on a path to grow up healthy, succeed in school, and thrive as adults.
To address those goals, we are submitting the following recommendations to the Legislative Budget Board regarding the budget request submitted by DFPS. The budget request is also known as a "Legislative Appropriations Request" or "LAR." The LAR represents a first step towards the 2024-2025 budget that the Legislature will develop during the 2023 legislative session.
To Keep Texas Children with their Families and Safely Out of Foster Care
Recommendation 1: Support the DFPS $90.2 million Exceptional Item request to increase funding for Prevention and Child Well-being (PCW) programs.
Recommendation 2: Ensure Texas begins to use Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) Title IV-E funds to support ongoing or new family preservation efforts.
To Promote the Safety and Well-being of Children in Foster Care
Recommendation 3: Support the Exceptional Item request for $6.9 million to support “kinship caregivers” such as grandparents, aunts, and uncles — and increase the funding.
Recommendation 4: Incorporate Foster Care Rate Modernization when it is added to the LAR.
Recommendation 5: Add funding to support SB 1575 Workgroup’s recommendations to improve the quality of foster care facilities in Texas.
Recommendation 6: Renew Rider 49 to continue studying foster care capacity.