A federal judge has approved an agreement between Texas and plaintiffs representing foster children over the appropriate workload of Child Protective Services (CPS) caseworkers.
In a court order dated Dec. 17, Senior U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack agreed to a guideline of 14-17 children per CPS caseworker and 14-17 investigations per abuse investigator. A similar guideline of 14-17 “tasks” will apply to foster care home inspectors, who work with CPS but fall under the state health commission.
This arrangement is in lieu of an earlier court order last month in which Jack told the state to conduct workload studies to determine an appropriate level of caseload.
The judge wrote, “These agreed guidelines are consistent with the Court’s (earlier) order, as they will save the cost and avoid the delay of workload studies and speed the implementation of improvements to benefit children in the custody of the Texas foster care system.”
The order is a milestone in a long-running class-action lawsuit that culminated in a 2015 ruling that Texas violated the constitutional rights of foster children by placing them at unreasonable risk of harm.
Since then the Texas system has been in part under federal supervision in the form of court-appointed “special masters” who monitor progress on court-ordered reforms. Texas has spent about $10 million fighting the lawsuit and won a partial reversal in a 2019 appeals court ruling, but did not succeed yet in getting out from federal oversight.
Caseload Guidelines
According to the order, a copy of which was obtained by Honest Austin, the caseload guidelines described above are not to be interpreted as a “caseload cap” or an “enforced caseload range.”
Nevertheless, they represent “generally applicable internal caseload standards” within the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) and the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC).
The order could result in new hiring at DFPS and HHSC because the caseloads there are currently somewhat above the new guidelines, particularly for DFPS’ child protective investigations unit, which has an average caseload of 23.9, and for HHSC’s residential child care licensing unit, where caseload is about 22, according to data provided by agency spokespersons.
Judge Jack referred indirectly to the need for additional hiring in her order, setting a deadline for the state agencies “to ensure that the generally applicable, internal caseload standards are utilized to serve as guidance for supervisors who are handling caseload distribution and that Defendants’ hiring goals for all staff are informed by the generally applicable, internal caseload standards.”
She added, “Defendants’ use and implementation of these guidelines will remain subject to supervision by the Monitors and approval of the Court.”
Texas’ child welfare service and foster care system have changed in a number of ways since the 2015 ruling that the state was violating children’s constitutional rights. One big change was a $12,000 pay hike for CPS workers approved by the Legislative Budget Board in December 2016, as well as funding for hiring 810 new CPS workers.
The measures were meant to stem high caseworker turnover and reduce caseload to improve compliance with the federal orders. In a followup report in 2019, Legislative Budget Board staff concluded that the pay hikes had reduced the rate of CPS workers quitting by 8.9% in just the first year after the pay hike.
LBB staff noted that the pay hike was not the only factor, saying that measures to improve the work environment and reduce caseloads were also relevant to staff retention at the child welfare agency.
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