TexProtects: On 85th Legislature Budget Proposals

Texas Insider Report: DALLAS Texas I applaud Chair Nelson Lt. Gov. Patrick and Speaker Straus for maintaining the emergency Child Protective Services workforce investments stemming the rampant caseworker turnover crisis said Madeline McClure CEO of TexProtects the Texas Association for the Protection of Children following yesterdays dual release of Senate and House budget proposals for the 85^th Legislature in Child Protection.

The compensation correction and new hires are essential ingredients in the formula to create a stable responsive and capable workforce to mitigate the damaging effects on abused children whose outcries for help often go unheeded due to turnover. After that crucial step lawmakers must make a meaningful critical investment in evidence-based prevention programs to keep children from ever entering the CPS or foster care systems. In the rush to address the back end of child maltreatment we must not lose sight of those results-proven family support home visiting programs which have not been adequately addressed in the introduced budget. Investing less than five percent of the total CPS budget in prevention is asking for the system to grow continuing to need more and more expenditures year after year. And for those children that do enter the CPS system budget writers must ensure we invest in evidence-based family preservation services which have been shown to safely keep children in their families. And if removal is the only option relative homes or kinship care support will lead to far better outcomes than our children languishing as state wards in foster care."