Texas is a few months into its reform plan for Child and Adult Protective Services.  Although progress has already been made on some hiring and technology fronts, it’s still too early for significant changes to affect the way the state takes care of its most vulnerable citizens.  The CPS/APS reform plan, HB 6 from the 2005 regular session, includes a number of reform items. Many, however, will be rolled out over time.

 Still, as Carey Cockerell, commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), told legislators Nov. 2, many of the reforms are already underway, or scheduled under a detailed implementation timetable.  To date, the department has transferred the guardianship roles for adults to the Department of Aging and Disability Services, implemented a new APS risk assessment tool, and deployed mobile technology for APS.

The latter includes new tablet personal computers, which have a number of features to allow workers to do their jobs more efficiently. The devices allow caseworkers to take extensive notes – even in cursive writing – which is then converted to digital text. Workers can take photographs on digital cameras or digital audio and download it to the devices. The information can then be sent via wireless email to the caseworkers’ supervisors.  This allows better coordination of services between the workers in the field and in the home office, Cockerell said.

“[The caseworker] can be sitting there in the home...and as he’s interviewing the client and observing things in the home, he can see three or four things that can cause him concern...he can use the digital camera to take pictures of those, download them immediately on the tablet P.C., circle them on the screen, make notes of what his concerns are, and then he can wirelessly, while he’s sitting there, email that to his supervisor back in her office,” Cockerell said.   “They can see the same thing at the same time and even discuss over the mobile phone any concerns that they have, so that by the time he leaves the house, there is the potential that consultation has already been done.”

Most important, he said, the new PC allows for quicker response to Priority One referrals, the most serious cases APS deals with. In the past, a caseworker would have received a page, then would have needed to return to the office to get the information for the case, then drive to the site.  Now, with the tablet PC, the worker can connect to the APS mainframe computer and download the information in the field, then proceed directly to the site.

“The feedback we’ve gotten from the caseworkers has been phenomenal,” Cockerell said, noting the devices were introduced only in the early summer and that workers were still learning to use them to the fullest extent.  Although the computers have been delivered only to APS, they will eventually go to CPS as well.

DFPS will hire up to 2,500 workers, including CPS supervisors, case aides (assistant caseworkers), and investigative caseworkers for CPS. The latter is the largest category of new hires, and was one of the hallmarks of HB 6.  Forty of the senior investigators have been hired, but as with many of the other new hires, they are mostly still in training.

“They will be working on the more serious cases of sexual abuse...serious physical abuse, and they will help train caseworkers on how to do those,” Cockerell said. The senior investigators (officially called “special investigators”) come from a law enforcement and forensic background.  Those who do training for other CPS employees will be certified by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Education.

* DFPS has also created a Caregiver Assistance Program to assist kinship care – the preferential placement of children with relatives. Rules for the program have been adopted and take place on March 1. Under the program, such adopting parents would receive funding from DFPS. In the past, non-relatives who adopted received state assistance, but relatives did not. The new program provides $1,000 per placement initally, plus $500 per child per year.

 * DFPS has issued a Request for Information as part of the plan to implement a medical care delivery system for foster children.

Comments (0)

Comment	smaller | bigger
Name
Write the displayed characters
Subscribe via email (Registered users only) I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.
	Add Comment