This chart counts the number of unique children in DFPS custody who lived in an adoptive placement at some point during the fiscal year and the total number of adoptive placements during the year. Children can have more than one adoptive placement. This chart includes children in DFPS custody for whom a court has appointed DFPS legal responsibility through Permanent Managing Conservatorship.

An adoptive placement occurs when the child's caseworker, the family's case manager, and the adoptive family sign paperwork officially placing the child in the home for adoption. Before the paperwork can be signed, a child must be free for adoption (meaning a court has terminated parental rights), have a permanency goal of adoption and the family must have been approved for adoption through a licensed child placing agency.

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

The average monthly salary for active Child Protective staff as of the last day of the fiscal year by staff type.

The county and region of the employees are determined by the office to which they are assigned.

More information at www.dfps.texas.gov
NOTE: Child Protective Investigations (CPI), Child Care Investigations (CCI), and Child Protective Services (CPS) Staff are all included.

Child Care Investigations (CCI), which is a part of CPI and include Day Care Investigations (DCI) and Residential Child Care Investigations (RCCI) are only available from 2018 onward. This is due to the split of those job functions from Child Care Licensing, which was a part of DFPS until 2017, when it was transferred to the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC).

This addresses Texas Human Resource Code Section 40.0516(11).

This chart counts children who exited DFPS custody to adoption during the fiscal year. To be adopted, a court must have terminated parental rights, the child must have lived with the adoptive family for at least 6 months, the family must have been approved for adoption through a licensed child placing agency and a court must have ordered legal custody to the adoptive parents.

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

Average monthly count of unduplicated children in paid foster care per month by fiscal year. This dataset counts unique children regardless of payment types during the month.
Calculations exclude children and young adults where cost of care was not covered by Title IV-E or state paid foster care.

A young adult is any person in foster care who was 18 to 21 years of age at anytime during the fiscal year.

Some children are served in more than one eligibility type in a month.

ABOUT THIS CHART
This chart includes data on abuse/neglect allegations in a fiscal year by allegation type, disposition, and the type of operation in which the allegation originated.

1. Abuse/neglect investigations can contain multiple allegations, each with their own disposition.

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

3. This dashboard addresses Texas Family Code Section 264.017.(b)(13) and Texas Human Resources Code Section 40.0516(1)(B).

This chart counts the different legal statuses granted during the fiscal year for children in DFPS custody. 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.

This chart includes any child in DFPS custody at some point during the year. Children may be duplicated in the count, if they were in and out of DFPS custody more than once during the fiscal year.

A description of the different types of legal statuses is in the CPS glossary: https://www.dfps.texas.gov/About_DFPS/Data_Book/Child_Protective_Services/Resources/glossary.asp

Visit dfps.texas.gov for information on all DFPS programs

For children who cannot reunify and for whom adoption has been ruled out, the Permanency Care Assistance (PCA) Program provides a monthly subsidy to relatives and fictive kin that take legal custody as a permanent managing conservator and have been a verified foster care provider for the child for at least 6 months. The PCA subsidy is similar to an adoption subsidy.

Does not include non-recurring payments.

Note: The Permanency Care Assistance program began in Fiscal Year 2011.

ABOUT THIS CHART
Allegation Disposition (Findings) Codes:

Valid. Based on the standard of preponderance of the evidence, it is more likely than not that the maltreatment occurred.

Invalid. Based on the standard of preponderance of the evidence, it is more likely than not that the maltreatment did not occur.

Unable to Determine. A preponderance of the available evidence is insufficient to support a finding of Valid or Invalid.

Other. The allegation disposition Other is used when an investigation of the allegation was not completed for some reason, e.g. clients died or cases were misclassified.

1. Family Violence is indicated when a validated investigation has a relative perpetrator, excluding those where financial exploitation is the only confirmed allegation.

2. Beginning in Fiscal Year 2015, services provided during the investigation are documented in the investigation stage and not in a separate service stage.

3. The "Other" Disposition category refers to those investigations that workers could not complete, e.g. clients died or cases were misclassified.

4. The population totals do not match prior DFPS Data Books, printed or online. Past population estimates are adjusted based on the U.S. Census data as it becomes available. This is important to keep the data in line with current best practices, but will cause some past counts, such as Abuse/Neglect Victims per 1,000 Texas Children, to be recalculated.

Population Data Source - Population Estimates and Projections Program, Texas State Data Center, Office of the State Demographer and the Institute for Demographic and Socioeconomic Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio.

Current population estimates and projections for all years from 2014 to 2023 as of December 2023.

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

Family Preservation Services (FPR) are services provided to the child and the family where the caregiver retains legal custody.

Counts children entering Family Based Safety Services Family Preservation Stages during the fiscal year.

NOTE: Family Preservation Services is under the umbrella of Family Based Safety Services (FBSS).

Family Preservation Services are services provided to the child and the family where the caregiver retains legal custody.

This provides a snapshot of how many families were open to services on the final day of the fiscal year. If a family had two family preservation stages open on August 31, they are counted twice.

NOTE: Family Preservation Services is under the umbrella of Family Based Safety Services (FBSS).