This counts placement types, not unique children in substitute care. Children will be duplicated by moving from foster care to other substitute care or by relative to non-relative placements. For example, a child who spent a portion of the year with a relative, but the rest with a non-relative would be counted twice.

Children in DFPS custody are those for whom a court has appointed DFPS legal responsibility through temporary or permanent managing conservatorship or other court ordered legal basis. These children may be residing in substitute care or may be living with a parent, referred to as a return and monitor. DFPS legal responsibility terminates when a court orders DFPS custody ended or a youth turns 18, whichever comes first.

Substitute care - all children who are living in a DFPS out of home placement. It does not include children in DFPS custody who are living with a parent on a return and monitor. Unless otherwise noted, it does include youth over 18 who are in extended foster care but are not in DFPS custody.

Kinship care- a subset of substitute care that includes all children in DFPS custody who are living with a legal or blood relative or other individual who has a significant relationship with the child or the child's family known as "fictive kin."

Foster care - a subset of substitute care that includes all children living in a placement that has been verified to provide 24-hour residential care for a child, in accordance with Chapter 42 of the Human Resources Code and related regulations. These placements include foster homes, including kinship care where the caregiver has been verified, general residential operations (GRO), emergency shelters, residential treatment centers (RTC), and juvenile facilities.

Paid foster care - a subset of foster care where DFPS is making foster care payments.

Visit dfps.state.tx.us for information on substitute care placements and all DFPS programs.

Recidivism is a measure of the APS clients with investigations closed in a particular fiscal year, who had a separate investigation opened in the same fiscal year.

To protect the identities of clients in counties with very small populations, data from counties with between 1 and 5 cases of Recidivism are displayed as "1-5", and no Recidivism % is provided. Additionally, these counties will be unavailable on the Ranking, Trends, and Gender Balance charts for fiscal years in which they have 5 or fewer cases of Recidivism.

APS may provide or arrange for emergency services to alleviate or prevent further abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation. APS works in partnership with other social service agencies to provide resources to vulnerable adults. These services may be provided through collaboration with other state agencies or community organizations. DFPS may use Purchased Client Services funds and may enter into contracts to provide services to clients. All other available resources must be used where feasible before purchased client services are initiated.

After the victim's immediate safety is assured and investigation is completed, APS may remain involved for a short period to stabilize a low-risk situation. In other cases, victims with more complex problems or deemed at moderate or high risk of further maltreatment or self-neglect may receive more intensive services or assistance for a longer period of time.

Visit dfps.state.tx.us for information on all DFPS programs

This chart counts perpetrators in completed investigations. Completed investigations only include those cases conducted as a traditional investigation that were not administratively closed or merged into another stage. An investigation can only be administratively closed if all allegations have a disposition of administrative closure.

A completed investigation can include more than one alleged victim. Completed investigations do not include any Alternative Response cases.

A confirmed perpetrator on a completed investigation is an individual who is a confirmed perpetrator on at least one allegation with a disposition of reason to believe.

An alleged perpetrator on a completed investigation is an individual where all the allegations on which they were an alleged perpetrator have a disposition of ruled out, unable to complete or unable to determine.

A description of Alternative Response and how it differs from a traditional investigation and the definitions of the different dispositions in a traditional investigation are in the glossary.

FOOTNOTES
1. Each victim may have more than one perpetrator in an investigation.
2. Each perpetrator may have more than one victim.

Visit dfps.state.tx.us for information on CPS Abuse/Neglect Investigations and all DFPS programs.

Child Protective Investigations (CPI) conducts either a traditional investigation or Alternative Response (AR). Both require CPI to assess safety and take needed actions to protect a child and assess the risk of future abuse or neglect in the foreseeable future. AR, however, allows for a more flexible, family engaging approach on lower priority cases involving alleged victims who are age 6 or older. AR differs from traditional investigations in that there is no substantiation of allegations, no entry of perpetrators into the Central Registry (a repository for reports of child abuse and neglect), and there a heightened focus on guiding the family to plan for safety in a way that works for them and therefore sustains the safety.

Completed investigations only include those cases conducted as a traditional investigation that were not administratively closed or merged into another stage. An investigation can only be administratively closed if all allegations have a disposition of administrative closure. A completed investigation can include more than one alleged victim. Completed investigations do not include any Alternative Response cases. A description of Alternative Response and how it differs from a traditional investigation is in the CPS glossary.

At the end of a completed investigation, CPI assesses child safety, the risk of abuse or neglect in the foreseeable future, the ability of the family to reduce the risk without CPI intervention, the ability of CPI to provide needed services and other circumstances in the case to decide whether to provide ongoing services.

The Case Action Substitute Care includes investigations that resulted in at least one child (not necessarily all children in the home) being removed. Does not equal number of children removed.

Visit dfps.texas.gov for information on CPS Abuse/Neglect Investigations and all DFPS programs.

APS may provide non-purchased services or purchased services. The chart compares these two types of services.

Non-purchased services can include services provided directly by APS staff or services provided by other entities, including social casework, legal actions, or services provided by other government agencies or community organizations.

APS may purchase services for clients using Purchased Client Services (PCS) funds. Purchased services may include short-term shelter, food, medication, health services, financial help with rent or utilities, transportation, and minor home repair. All other available resources must be used where feasible before purchased client services are initiated.

Visit dfps.state.tx.us for information on all DFPS programs

When interviewing the alleged victim, the APS worker:
• addresses all important factors regarding the allegations and the alleged victim’s overall situation;
• interviews the alleged victim alone in cases involving an alleged perpetrator, but allows the alleged victim to have another person present, if requested by the alleged victim; and
• interviews the alleged victim again at a later time as necessary to resolve discrepancies.

When another person is present during the interview, the APS worker documents whether the alleged victim requested that the person be present and the person’s relationship to the alleged victim.

The APS specialist monitors the alleged victim during the interview to see if the alleged victim appears to be hesitant, withdrawn, or nervous while participating in the interview. Such cues may be indications that the alleged victim is not comfortable speaking openly in the presence of the other person.

FOOTNOTES
1. Includes victims who were also perpetrators (findings of self-neglect.)

2. Victims have been unduplicated by investigation stage.

3. Some investigations were completed without region or county location information being recorded. These investigations are included in the relevant annual total, with "None Specified" as their Region and County values.

This chart shows how many children and the percentage who are placed in their legal region and/or county out of all children in foster care placements.

Chapter 48, Title 2, of the Texas Human Resources Code (HRC) and Chapter 705 of the Texas Administrative Code (TAC) authorizes APS to investigate abuse and financial exploitation of a person age 65 or older or an adult with a disability when the person responsible for the maltreatment is a:
• caretaker;
• paid caretaker;
• family member; or
• person who has an ongoing relationship with the alleged victim. Examples include a personal friend, paramour, or roommate.
In the case of neglect, the perpetrator may also be the victim himself or herself. This is called "Self-neglect".
In cases of family violence, a protective order can be obtained from a court that prohibits a member of a family or household from remaining in the household, and from contacting or coming near the victim. The purpose of the order is to prevent that person from committing further acts of family violence against the victim.
The statutes governing family violence protective orders are set forth in Texas Family Code Chapters 71-87. This order is only available when family violence has been committed by a family member, member of the household, or in some circumstances by a person the victim has dated.

Each victim may have more than one perpetrator in an investigation.

Visit dfps.state.tx.us for information on all DFPS programs.

ABOUT THIS CHART
This dashboard contains information about abuse or neglect investigations that were closed by Residential Child Care Investigations staff during the specified timeframe. If at least one allegation in an investigation is validated, the overall disposition for the investigation is validated.

To see a count of specific allegations, as opposed to investigations as shown here, see the RCCI Types of Abuse dashboard in this section.

1. Child Care Investigations (CCI), which is a part of CPI and includes Day Care Investigations (DCI) and Residential Child Care Investigations (RCCI), conduct investigations of abuse and neglect. After the investigation is complete, the investigation is assigned to Child Care Regulation (CCR) with HHSC, where the investigation is assessed for deficiencies of minimum standards.

2. Exemption requests are submitted to CCR to determine if their operation is subject to regulation.

3. The General Residential Operations (GROs) counts exclude Residential Treatment Centers (RTCs). Though RTCs are a “care type” of GRO, they are counted separately.

4. Agency Homes are excluded from these counts. They were included in some past printed Data Books.

5. This dashboard addresses Texas Family Code Section. 264.017.(c).