Dallas-area foster care overhaul off to a "rocky start," executive admits
DALLAS — Jayla was six years old when her mother passed away. Following her mother's death, her father struggled to care for three children, leading Jayla and her siblings to enter the Texas foster care system.
During her 13 years in the state-run system, Jayla moved more than a dozen times, each move bringing a change in schools and foster parents.
"I even reached a point where I didn't want to make any friends at all because if I made a friend, then the next week I would have to be in a different home," said Jayla, now 20 years old, who has aged out of the system.
Jayla recounted experiencing neglect and abuse in some homes. Her one safe haven was her siblings, but even that was sometimes taken from her. The state's foster care system often split up siblings, sending them to different homes, sometimes in different parts of the state.
"Unless you go through it, I don't think you could understand what we go through," Jayla said. "I don't think anybody can imagine."
Privatizing services in Dallas
Jayla's experience is not unique among foster children. Issues of abuse and neglect have plagued the state's child welfare agency for decades. It is why the Texas foster care system is undergoing a major overhaul, moving to privatize its services.
But nearly seven years into the plan, it's unclear whether the change will work.
In March, the 9-county region centered around Dallas County transitioned its foster care services from a state agency to a private organization called EMPOWER, and the move is off to a rocky start.
When EMPOWER took over, caseworkers in the Dallas area were asked to leave their state jobs, which came with state benefits such as a pension, and join the private company. Many did, but nearly 40% chose not to, leaving the new Dallas contractor short more than 50 caseworkers. This shortage means foster children receive less attention, less support and potentially delays in service.
"On paper, we had enough caseworkers," said EMPOWER Senior Vice President Dr. Linda Garcia. "We had enough to sign on and it just did not happen, and we were caught off guard."
This month, 72 new EMPOWER employees will complete their 13-week training to become caseworkers. Garcia expressed confidence that once they have enough caseworkers in place, her organization can take care of the Dallas-area foster children and connect them with the services they need.
A statewide overhaul
The Dallas area is just the latest region to transition its foster care services to a community-based private organization. In 2011, a national advocacy group sued Texas, alleging the state had failed to protect foster children from abuse and neglect. In 2015, a federal judge ruled the system unconstitutional and placed it under federal oversight.
Two years later, desperate for a solution, Texas lawmakers ordered an overhaul of foster care services. Under the new plan, instead of a government agency running the entire system, the state would be divided into 11 regions, each managed by private contractors. The hope was for local private contractors to better connect foster children with local services and keep them in their communities, rather than sending them across the state.
Today, roughly half of Texas has contractors in place and some have already failed.
This concerns Kathleen LaValle, the president of CASA, a non-profit organization in Dallas made up of advocates for foster children. "The needs of children and families are not being addressed," she said. "It's not a lack of willingness or concern. It's simply, there's too much work for the number of tenured caseworkers in place today."
LaValle said the move to privatize foster care services in Dallas has been even more challenging than anticipated and, even when EMPOWER hires enough caseworkers, there will be challenges with EMPOWER having a largely inexperienced staff.
"We're hoping that with a more reasonably sized workforce, that they'll be able to bring it up to a level that is quality casework but it's not there yet," she said.
Garcia admits the transition has been "a little bit rocky" but remains optimistic that EMPOWER can improve the experience for foster children in the Dallas area.
"I am certain that we can take care of these children," she said.
While EMPOWER is working on bringing more caseworkers on board, one positive aspect the organization can highlight is its success in keeping foster kids close to their home community. Currently, 74% of Dallas-area foster kids are within 50 miles of their home community, exceeding the benchmark set by the state.
Progress across Texas
The transition to privatization has been challenging, not just in Dallas, but across the state. In the San Antonio area, the private vendor Family Tapestry walked away from its contract. Months earlier, the state had put the vendor's emergency shelter on probation. In West Texas, Providence Services Corporation quit after one year due to financial losses.
One of the few successful regions is in Fort Worth. However, the organization in charge, Our Community Our Kids, had to use millions of dollars of its own funds to make it work. They also had a head start, with a pilot program in 2014.
Earlier this year, OCOK took over three additional nearby counties. A spokeswoman told the I-Team the transition to these new counties has been smooth because the vast majority of the state's caseworkers decided to take jobs with the organization.
As of this week, OCOK said their caseload average is 10.5 cases per worker. For EMPOWER, the average caseload per worker is 17.