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.
