Child Advocates Seek Reforms

On an average day in 2009, there were 187 reported cases of child abuse and neglect in Texas. If lawmakers make planned cuts to the Department of Family and Protective Services budget, charities statewide fear those numbers will get worse.

At a Jan. 19 press conference in the Lieutenant Governor's Office, the Child Protection Roundtable – a coalition of about 30 child advocate organizations – laid out its legislative agenda, which seeks to avoid the casualties that come from dramatic budget cuts. Surrounded by 187 children's handprints and 187 stuffed toys – one for each endangered child – Madeline McClure, executive director of TexProtects (shorthand for the Texas Association for the Protection of Children), called for legislators to protect "our state's most precious resource, and it's not water."

The current draft budget proposes a 7% cut in Department of Family and Protect­ive Services funds, with the child abuse and neglect detection division losing 55% of its budget, along with 400 caseworkers and investigators. The department's Prevention and Early Intervention Division is amongst the heaviest hit, while two key prevention programs – Community-Based Family Services and Family Strengthening Services – will be completely defunded.* A new Texans Care for Children paper, titled "A Report on the Bottom Line," argues that these are the wrong programs to axe: DFPS figures show that children with the least access to early intervention services – such as those from rural areas or with disabilities – are most prone to abuse. The authors conclude that the best and most cost-effective way to support these children is to invest in services that keep them at home and with relatives while boosting home-based programs to stop neglect from turning into abuse. Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio, said: "Prevention is the key. We talk about that, but we spend 1 percent of our budget on it."

The roundtable proposed three reforms: expand established prevention training measures, require all state-licensed child-care organizations to adopt written policies on reporting abuse, and change the age limit for the "Baby Moses" rules – which allow a parent to leave an at-risk infant at a safe haven – from 60 days to one year. The proposals drew the support of a bipartisan, bicameral group of health and human services advocates. By presenting a unified agenda, said Austin Rep. Elliott Naishtat, "The roundtable has made our job much more efficient and less contentious."

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*The original version of this article reported that the Prevention and Early Intervention Division would lose 84% of its budget. That was the original legislative appropriations request from Department of Family and Protective Services; the House is currently considering a 55% reduction.