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.

A removal occurs when CPS determines that a child cannot safely remain in their own home and 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.

For removals at the end of the Fiscal Year, the placement represented may be from the following Fiscal Year.

Children in the Custody of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS)- All children for whom DFPS legal responsibility through court ordered temporary or permanent managing conservatorship or other court ordered legal basis. These children may be residing in substitute care or may be living with a parent, referred to as a trial home visit. DFPS legal responsibility terminates when a court orders DFPS custody ended or a youth turns 18, whichever comes first.

Substitute care - all children who are living in a DFPS out of home placement. It does not include children in DFPS custody who are living with a parent on a return and monitor. Unless otherwise noted, it does include youth over 18 who are in extended foster care but are not in DFPS custody.

Kinship care- a subset of substitute care that includes all children in DFPS custody who are living with a legal or blood relative or other individual who has a significant relationship with the child or the child's family known as "fictive kin."

Foster care - all children in DFPS custody living in a placement that has been verified to provide 24-hour residential care for a child, in accordance with Chapter 42 of the Human Resources Code and related regulations. These placements include foster homes, including kinship care where the caregiver has been verified, general residential operations (GRO), emergency shelters, residential treatment centers (RTC), and juvenile facilities.

Paid foster care - a subset of foster care where DFPS is making foster care payments.

Visit https://www.dfps.texas.gov/ for information on substitute care placements and all DFPS programs

Divides sibling groups into two groups: Those sibling groups where all siblings are in the same placement on August 31 and those who are not all together with an additional filter for sibling group size.

In this context, siblings are defined as children in substitute care who were removed from the same household whether in the same, or separate, removal events.