To verify this month's meeting time and place, contact Ashley Harris: (512) 473-2274.
Past meetings:
April 2013
This month, we provided a legislative update on bills impacting child protection and DFPS budget. Below, find the documents provided to those attending the meeting.
This month, we provided a legislative update on the bills impacting child protection and highlights of DFPS budget. Below, you will find the documents provided to those attending the meeting.
Webinar: Legislative Priorities for Texans Care for Children: Improving Education Outcomes for Youth in Foster Care. An overview of Texans Care for Children's legislative priorities related to child welfare will be provided with a focus on education. Representatives from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the Children's Commission will share their work to improve education outcomes for youth in foster care.View presentation slides.
September 2012
Chris Card with Providence Service Corporation presented on
Providence's plan to implement Foster Care Redesign. You can view
highlights from the presentation here.
July 2012
Webinar: Supervised Independent Living (SIL): Promoting Overall Wellâ€being and Securing Positive Transitions to Adulthood. Participants will learned more about the new Supervised Independent Living (SIL) placement option that the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) is expected to introduce later this year and best practices that can help support a youth's overall well-being and positive transition to adulthood. View presentation slides here.
March 2012
Jane Burstain, Senior Policy Analyst with the Center for Public Policy Priorities presented on her new paper, Child Protective Services in Texas: Buying What We Want. The presentation included a detailed overview of how Child Protective Services is funded and what services are provided under the specific funding streams. Recommendations of how Texas can align the funding with the outcomes desired for children and families served by CPS was provided. The presentation slides can be found here.
February 2012
Last meeting, Carol Self, Best Practice and Mental Health Specialist at DFPS discussed the Department's efforts to preserve and reunify families involved in the child welfare system. Please view the DFPS Family Reunification Data provided by our guest and Resources addressing Family Reunification and Preservation compiled by Texans Care for Children.
January 2012
Our
new year started off great with our January Partners meeting and have
to give a BIG THANKS to our guests, newly appointed DFPS Commissioner
Howard Baldwin and DFPS CFO, Cindy Brown. Please view the presentation
provided by both our guests.
November 2011:
Joyce James and Sheila Craig from HHSC's Center for the Elimination of Disproportionality and Disparities (CEDD) presented on addressing disproportionality and disparities across systems. We were joined by our other stakeholder groups, Texas Children's Mental Health Forum and the Texas Juvenile Justice Roundtable. Please view the CEDD description and complete Texas data across systems.
October 2011
Last meeting, we were co-hosted OneVoice Texas in Houston. Please view this summary for detailed information about the meeting.
September 2011
Christine Gendron and project team members from TNOYS' Voices of Experience Project presented their research and recommendations from the report, Voices of Experiences: Mental Health Supports for Homeless and Transitioning Youth. Additionally, Trista Miller and Kristina Pfeiffer participated on a panel to discuss their experiences aging out of foster care and solutions for supporting the needs of transitioning youth. Please view meeting summary.
August 2011
David Whiteside, CPS Director of Purchased Client Services presented on the PEI Budget Cuts and a discussion followed. View the presentation slides provided by DFPS and the meeting notes.
July 2011
SB 653--Creation of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department (TJJD) provided
by Lauren Rose, Mental Health and Juvenile Justice Policy Fellow at Texans Care for Children. Click
HB 1 vs. SB 1 from Jane Burstain of the Center for Public Policy Priorities (Updates: The Senate bill did not wind up using funds from the Rainy Day Fund, and the actual size of the Nurse-Family Partnership cuts is 37%
New initiatives by Casey Family Programs Texas State Strategic Teams. The Appleseed Long-Term Foster Care presentation can be found here, and the Transition Center Convening Summary of Proceedings can be found here.
Child Protective Services 2011 Budget Request. The agenda for this meeting can be found here.
How transitioning services and transition centers are impacted by the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act.
We heard from DFPS's Liz Kromrei, CPS Director of Services and Larry Burgess, CPS Fostering Connections Specialist Lead. The Partners meeting was followed by a Transition Center Improvement Circle meeting from 3-4:30.
Improvement Circles:
Quality and consistency of front-end behavioral and mental health assessments
Transition Centers
We heard from Richard Connell, Ph.D., a child psychologist who sees foster children in Central Texas, who presented on front-end behavioral and mental health assessments for foster children. We also made decisions about the specific deliverables that each of the two Improvement Circles will work on in the coming months. View proposed deliverables.
