A removal occurs when CPS determines that a child cannot safely remain in their own home and that DFPS needs to seek legal custody to ensure child safety. Removals can occur in an investigation, family preservation, family substitute care or family reunification stage.

More information at www.dfps.texas.gov.

The injuries that led to the child's death may have been sustained prior to DFPS being granted to legal custody. For example, in Fiscal Year 2016 six children died while in DFPS Conservatorship (five while in Foster Care). However, four of these children sustained the injuries that led to their death prior to being placed in DFPS custody.

This chart includes child fatalities investigated and confirmed by Child Protective Investigations, Day Care Investigations, and Residential Child Care Investigations, and Adult Protective Services. Fatality information does not include corrections or updates, if any, that may subsequently be made to DFPS data after fiscal year end.

Only Children in DFPS Legal Responsibility (Conservatorship) are included. You can further filter to see how many were in Foster Care at the time of death.

The Adult Protective Provider Investigations division was tranferred to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) in Fiscal Year 2018.

This dashboard addresses Texas Family Code Section 264.017, Subsection (b) (4) and (5).

This chart counts the number of children in DFPS custody on August 31 of the fiscal year who meet all of the following criteria:
(1) a court has terminated all parental rights;
(2) the child has a plan of adoption; and
(3) the child is not in an adoptive placement.

The count includes both children who are in an intended to be permanent home and children who are not in an intended to be permanent home. Use the filter to isolate these counts.

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.

A removal occurs when CPS determines that a child cannot safely remain in their own home and that DFPS needs to seek legal custody to ensure child safety. Removals can occur in an investigation, family preservation, family substitute care or family reunification stage.

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

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.

See CPS Glossary for legal status definitions.

More information at www.dfps.state.tx.us.