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STATE

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OF

TEXAS

October 12, 2016

Mr. Henry “Hank” Whitman, Jr.
Commissioner
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services
701 West 51st Street
Austin, Texas 78751
Dear Commissioner Whitman:
As previously expressed, it is critical that children who are at risk of abuse or neglect are seen in a
timely manner, and we know you share our concerns. State investigators should be making timely
contact with a child who is the subject of an allegation of abuse or neglect without fail. Anything less is
completely unacceptable. While we appreciate your proactive approach to trying to address these
concerns, a lack of timely contact only exacerbates backlogs throughout the entire system and
potentially leaves a child in a dangerous situation.
It is critical that the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) eliminate the backlog of
children not seen within the statutory guidelines. Action plans must be demanded from DFPS regional
management in order to address the current situation and proactively prevent additional lapses in the
required face-to-face visitations and interventions.
While the Texas Legislature has taken significant steps to provide the requested resources to DFPS in
the past several biennia, the increasing number of reports of abuse and neglect are beyond what the
agency’s current workforce can support. We understand that additional resources are required in order
for you to begin to address the increasing number of children requiring the state’s intervention. We are
confident that the Legislature will make judicious budgetary decisions in the 8Sf” Legislative Session to
address the ongoing resource needs for the future biennium. However, we must act now to protect our
children who are in harm’s way.
To that end, we are directing that you immediately initiate the following actions as a focused effort to
apply expedient stop-gap measures to the problem while legislators prepare for and make funding
decisions for the next biennium.
•

Develop a plan to hire and train more special investigators, building on their law enforcement
backgrounds and utilizing the safety and risk assessment tools available to find the children that
the agency has been previously unable to locate. This will assist in reducing the backlog of
initial face-to-face visits.

 Mr. Henry “Hank” Whitman, Jr.
October 12, 2016
Page 2

•

Develop a plan, including a strategic hiring and training schedule, which will ensure DFPS is
staffing an increased number of the necessary caseworkers to account for the increase in
workload and system backlog of serving children and families. In addition, DFPS should
prioritize these hires in the most critical regions across the state.

•

Reinforce the culture of accountability at all levels of management by inspiring
your workforce to rise to the challenge and embrace the commitment to the safety and risk
assessment tools as an aid in their critical decision making.

•

Build upon your ongoing efforts to enhance more partnerships with local faith-based
communities. Their assistance in recruiting amazing families is mission critical, and we need
their support within the child welfare community now more than ever.

Many thoughtful initiatives to improve the agency have begun in the last year. We encourage you to
remain steadfast to those transformation principles as you work toward building a healthier system.
and any immediate progress towards
By the end of next week, please report to us your plan for
carrying out the directives above. Some will, of course, have associated financial costs, but we have
a responsibility to find and protect these vulnerable Texans as soon as possible.

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We would be remiss if we did not acknowledge that quality capacity should be a high priority. It
is unacceptable that children are sleeping in Child Protective Services offices. We also will not tolerate
inferior residential foster care operations. The state’s residential providers must be held to the highest
standards while caring for our most vulnerable or no longer operate in our system. In the coming
weeks, develop an innovative plan as to how the agency and high-quality providers can partner in
solving this challenge. We have faith that there are opportunities available if we call upon the many
Texans who have expressed their commitment to lend a hand.
We appreciate your shared concern and dedication to the children of Texas. We have much work to do;
and while we wish we could give you and your team more time to do so, too much is at stake. We must
act now.
Sincerely,

Greg
ott
Governor
cc:

Dan Patrick
Lieutenant Governor

()oe Straus
Speaker of the House

Commissioner Charles Smith, Texas Department of Health and Human Services