Tracks six month, one year, and five year outcomes for children who returned home from DFPS custody exiting CPS Conservatorship and subsequently alleged as a victim in an investigation within the noted time period.

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.

The six month period is calculated by following those children who exited DFPS Legal Responsibility within the first six months of the fiscal year (FY) and counting forward six months to see if the same child is a designated victim in an abuse/neglect child protective investigation.

For the one year outcome, those children who exited DFPS Legal Responsibility in the prior FY are tracked for one year and reported in the next fiscal year. The outcomes reported in FY 2018 had a beginning cohort from FY 2017.

The five year outcomes starts with the FY five years prior and follows each child for five years to track outcomes. FY 2018 would have a beginning cohort of those children who exited DFPS Legal Responsibility in FY 2013.

This does not track recidivism, which is defined by CPS as subsequent reason to believe finding in a new investigation or subsequent open case to FBSS or removal within a given timeframe.

This dashboard addresses the Texas Human Resources Code Section 40.0516 (a)(9)(A), (B), (C) and (a)(10).

More information at www.dfps.texas.gov

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

This counts children completing Family Based Safety Services Family Preservation Stages during the fiscal year.

Child count is both unduplicated and duplicated by stage of children in FPR stages during the fiscal year. Some children are in more than one Family Preservation Stage at the same time due to having separate caregivers with open stages or having more than one stage opened at different times within the same fiscal year.

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

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.

If a child is suffering from a severe emotional disturbance and voluntarily relinquishing custody of the child for the sole purpose of obtaining mental health services is warranted, the Department of Family and Protective Services may be appointed managing conservator or joint managing conservator.

In this case, the parent will voluntarily relinquish custody of the child to the state. This provision was added to the Texas Family Code in Fiscal Year 2014.

More information at www.dfps.texas.gov

This chart counts the number of unique children in DFPS custody who lived in an adoptive placement at some point during the fiscal year. 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. 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.

Children may have more than one disabling condition.

Drug/Alcohol disabling condition can either be due to self-abuse or exposure to an individual with the condition.

Other includes teen parent or pregnant teen.

Visit dfps.state.tx.us for more information about DFPS and our programs.

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

Allegation Disposition (Findings):

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 2020.

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

The term "contacts" represents information received by DFPS and then entered into IMPACT system. Information may be received in the form of a telephone call, regular mail, via Internet reporting system or via fax. Contacts may not match number of Abuse/Neglect Intakes in respective program sections.

Note: Update to the code reflects a more accurate count of entries recorded in IMPACT and may not reflect information in past Data Books.

Recidivism is calculated as a percentage of all alleged perpetrators in abuse/neglect investigations closed without services who were a confirmed perpetrator within 12 months after the prior investigation was closed without services.

Calculating this way, for example, the Fiscal Year 2019 rate reflects recidivism of alleged perpetrators in investigations closed without services in Fiscal Year 2018, the Fiscal Year 2018 rate reflects recidivism among alleged perpetrators in investigations closed without services in 2017, and so on.

Families served in Family Based Safety Services Family Preservation Stages during the fiscal year. All of the children are living in the home at the time of FBSS services.