Types of Abuse, Neglect and Financial Exploitation -

A single APS case can have more than one allegation.

Neglect is the failure to provide the protection, food, shelter, or care necessary to avoid emotional harm or physical injury. The alleged perpetrator of the neglect may be the victim or the victim's caregiver. There are three types of neglect allegations: Physical Neglect, Medical Neglect, and Mental Health Neglect.

Other allegation types include: Financial Exploitation, Physical Abuse, Emotional or Verbal Abuse, or Sexual Abuse.

The population totals do not match prior DFPS Data Books, printed or ontline. 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.

For HHSC 24-Hour Residential Child Care Facility Rates go to
https://www.dfps.texas.gov/Doing_Business/Purchased_Client_Services/Residential_Child_Care_Contracts/Rates/default.asp

Calculations exclude children where cost of care was not covered by Title IV-E or state paid foster care. Children may be duplicated within a month by funding streams.

Full Time Equivalents (FTEs) are calculated by dividing the days of paid foster care by number of the days in the month.

The total of all payment rate types will include duplicated counts due to changes in service levels during the month. Some children are served in more than one eligibility type in a month.

State Paid Foster Care may be funded with Federal Block Grant (TANF).

The methodology used for this chart was modified in FY16 to evaluate at the county level; therefore, the resulting averages may not match prior data books.

Based on the Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) philosophy, Circles of Support (COS) are meetings that focus on the youth and their plans for transitioning to a successful adulthood. They are led by the youth whenever possible. Participants represent a broad spectrum of the youth’s support network. The youth choses who they want to include in their COS: Participants can be the youth’s siblings, birth family members, foster or kinship care providers, teachers, relatives, church members, friends, mentors, and anyone else who is willing and able to support the youth into adulthood. These participants come together to develop and review the youth's plans for transitioning to a successful adulthood, including strengths, hopes and dreams, and goals. The plans cover needs in the areas of education, employment, mental and physical health, housing, and all Preparation for Adult Living (PAL) life skills training components. The COS is about having discussions with the youth about what is needed and important to the youth and how participants can support the youth.

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).

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.

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).

About this data set:
Texas Families: Together and Safe (TFTS) - The TFTS program funds evidence-based, community-based programs designed to alleviate stress and promote parental competencies and behaviors that increase the ability of families to become self-sufficient and successfully nurture their children.

Fatherhood Effects (FE) - FE funds a variety of contracts with community-based organizations to provide child abuse and neglect prevention services. These include the Fatherhood Effects grants as well as various special initiatives and public awareness campaigns.

Community Based Family Services (CBFS) - The CBFS program serves families who were investigated by CPS but whose allegations were low-priority or unsubstantiated, through community and evidence-based services. Services include home visitation, case management, and additional social services to provide a safe and stable home environment.

Helping through Intervention and Prevention (HIP) - The HIP program provides an extensive family assessment, home visiting that includes parent education and basic needs support to targeted families.

Healthy Outcomes through Prevention and Early Support (HOPES) - The HOPES program provides child abuse and neglect prevention services that target families with children between 0-5 years of age. Contracts have been awarded in eight counties. Each HOPES contract also has a focus on community collaboration that focus on early childhood and the prevention of child abuse and neglect.

Family Strengthening (FSP) and Tertiary Child Abuse Prevention Programs (TPP) - Served families through 2011.

Texas Service Members, Veterans and Families (SMVF) - Formerly Preventive Services for Veterans and Military Families.

FOOTNOTES
HIP and HOPES began services in Fiscal Year 2015.
TFTS and CBFS where discontinued in FY2018.
STAR was renamed to FAYS in FY2020.
CBCAP was renamed to FE in FY2020.
MFVPP was renamed to SMVF in FY2020.

Fiscal Year 2023 data is as of December 21, 2023.

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

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 table addresses Texas Human Resource Code Section 40.0516, subsection (a) (1)(F).

After FY21 SWI screeners completed the screening process for RCCI intakes.
Data can now be found under:
SWI 1.5 Residential Child Care Investigation (RCCI) Intakes Screened Out FY2014-2023
https://data.texas.gov/dataset/SWI-1-5-Residential-Child-Care-Investigation-RCCI-/yip4-ziki/about_data