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.

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

The Adult Protective Provider Investigations (API) division was transferred 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).

As recommended by the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to ensure consistency across all HHSC agencies, in 2012 DFPS adopted the HHSC methodology on how to categorize race and ethnicity. As a result, data broken down by race and ethnicity in 2012 and after is not directly comparable to race and ethnicity data in 2011 and before.

The population totals may not match previously printed DFPS Data Books. 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 may 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 data as of December 2020.

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

This dashboard includes those Foster and Adoptive homes that were screened and approved for child care through DFPS. Most of the FADs in the state are screened and approved for adoption through a private licensed child placing agency.

Adoptive home – A home which has been screened and approved for adoption through DFPS. The Adoptive Home counts do not include homes open only for receipt of adoption subsidy.

Foster-adoptive home – A home that has been approved to provide 24-hour residential care for a child, in accordance with Chapter 42 of the Human Resources Code and related regulations and that has been screened and approved have been approved for adoption through DFPS.

Foster home – A home that has been approved to provide 24-hour residential care for a child, in accordance with Chapter 42 of the Human Resources Code and related regulation.

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 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.

This chart counts victims 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 stages.

A confirmed victim on a completed investigation is a child who is a victim on at least one allegation with a disposition of reason to believe.

An unconfirmed victim on a completed investigation is a child who was an alleged victim on at least one allegation with a disposition of unable to complete, unable to determine or ruled out.

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.

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

Adults age 65 or older are automatically eligible for APS services based on their age. An adult age 18 to 64 old must be substantially impaired to be eligible for APS services.

Substantial impairment is defined as: "When a disability grossly and chronically diminishes an adult’s physical or mental ability to live independently or provide self-care as determined through observation, diagnosis, evaluation, or assessment." (Texas Human Resources Code §48.002(a)(8); 40 Texas Administrative Code §705.1001)

Assessment of a mental, physical, or developmental disability as indicated by one of the following:
• A medical condition
• Professional diagnosis
• Reported or observed behavior that is consistent with such a diagnosis. The disability must cause a long-lasting and considerable inability to live independently or provide self-care.

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.

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.

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

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.