HOUSTON - Approximately 200 children die of abuse or neglect in Texas each year; a growing number of those children who die had a prior history with Child Protective Services.

There has been outrage that prior visits were failing to detect warning signs in order to protect children.

A review of the Houston CPS region was ordered in July by the state, after several deaths of children who had a history with CPS. The results from that review were released on Monday.

A team of people with the Department of Family and Protective Services were deployed to Houston for the review. They researched records and cases and did extensive interviews with staff.

The review team concluded that CPS caseworkers are not spending enough time with families and that is partly due to extensive workloads.

Caseworkers missed some risk and safety issues when conducting home visits during investigations, according to the review. In almost half the cases, risk and safety were evaluated appropriately.

Review team members also said that investigative caseworkers are only reviewing and using CPS history in approximately half the cases and need more training in mental health issues.

Reviewers found that cases were transferred out of investigations before all steps had been taken to fully assess risk and safety, which has left regular caseworkers at a disadvantage and the child potentially unsafe.

Decisions made in case reviews lacked sufficient follow-up by caseworkers and supervisors, according to the review.

Reviewers added that in the Family Based Safety Services program, newly reported incidents of alleged abuse or neglect were addressed with families only half the time.

One recommendation made by reviewers is for CPS to hire all the 116 family-based safety service program caseworkers allocated in the previous legislative session and also reviewing whether more employees need to be shifted to this area.

Reviewers also recommended strengthen practices to keep children safe when parents voluntarily place them outside of the home with relatives or family friends.

Gaps in the transfer of cases from investigations to the Family Based Safety Service program need to be eliminated, reviewers said.

The review team also recommended that investigators be given more immediate access to critical case history and information.

On the Web: Child Protective Services Region 6 Operational and Management Review (.pdf) -- http://media2.myfoxhouston.com/news/2009-12-14/region6report.pdf

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/dpp/news/texas/091214-child-protective-services

Emphasis added by H4K Editor