Texas
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Pre-Service Training

Prospective foster and adoptive parents (including kin who want to be verified foster parents) are trained using the 19-hour Texas adaptation of the National Training and Development Curriculum for Foster and Adoptive Parents (NTDC) training program. In addition to NTDC, prospective foster and adoptive parents may be required to complete the following topics as a part of their pre-service training: Psychotropic Medication, Certification in First Aid and Infant/Child/Adult CPR, Medical Consent, Preventing and Recognizing Sexual Abuse and Victimization of Youth in Foster Care, and AS+K? online training for suicide intervention and prevention.   

A shortened training program was developed for kinship families who are considered adoption-only and are not becoming verified as a foster home. Relatives may also have access to NTDC modules designed specifically for kinship families, but they are not required.  

Services Offered Through the State’s Post-Permanency Support Program

Post-adoption services in Texas are provided statewide through contracts with three providers serving particular regions in the state: Centers for Children and Families, CK Family Services, and Arms Wide Adoption Services. Families who took permanent managing conservatorship of children from the state’s foster care system are eligible for services only in the regions served by Arms Wide.  

Services include:

Staff will meet with the family in the home whenever possible to assess the child’s and family’s needs and develop a personalized service plan. 

After the assessment, staff at each agency work with the family to implement the service plan. Case management services can be offered for as long as they are determined necessary for the family. Contact is required on a monthly basis. The staff help connect the family with community resources and provide needed consultation and training. They can also support the family at school and other community meetings. Plans are reviewed and updated every six months or more frequently as needed.  

Support is available 24-7 from each provider via an after-hours phone number answered by an on-call staff member. 

Each provider can offer financial assistance for in-home or out-of-home respite care. The family must find their own provider and request reimbursement. Some regions also offer activities for parents that may provide respite.

All three providers offer parent training. In the Dallas area, CK Families Services helps connect families with training relevant to the family’s need, child’s diagnoses, or family situation. The agency reimburses up to a certain amount to cover the cost of trainings parents attend. The training has to pertain to child development, adoption issues, or mental health diagnoses.   

All agencies provide information and referral to community providers for therapeutic services, crisis intervention, educational advocacy, training, and support groups. Information and referral services can be provided to adoptive parents and guardians who are not eligible for other services.  

Post-permanency financial supports are available in regions 6 and 11 as a pilot project. Providers may reimburse eligible families for the cost of participation in therapeutic camps, day treatment, and residential care. Payment for residential care, which is available only to adoptive families, can be provided for a maximum of 12 months only after other options such as therapy, respite, and day treatment have been tried. Limited funding is available to support residential treatment and is provided on a first-come, first-served basis. Requests can be made for coverage, through direct pay or reimbursement to the family, of costs for services not included in existing programs. Approval for such requests is made on a case-by-case basis. 

For more information, visit https://www.dfps.texas.gov/Child_Protection/Adoption/adoption_support.asp 

Geographic Area Covered

The state contracts with three providers to offer services statewide. Services vary slightly by provider.  

Eligible Population for the Overall Post-Permanency Program

  • All families who adopted from the state’s foster care system 

Variations in Eligibility for the Post-Permanency Program

Post-permanency conservatorship families are eligible for services only in regions 6 and 11 as part of a pilot that began in 2017.  

Financial supports are available in regions 6 and 11 only, as a pilot project. Post-permanency conservatorship families are not eligible for financial support for residential treatment. 

All types of adoptive and guardianship families can receive information and referral services. 

Accessibility

There are English/Spanish bilingual staff serving families in the Houston area and in the South Texas area.  

Outreach and Engagement

The Texas Adoptive Placement Agreement provides adoptive families with information about post-adoption services and the providers across the state. It also gives adoptive families an opportunity to consent to the release of their contact information to the post-adoption services provider in their area, for outreach and engagement. Caseworkers also inform the families about service availability prior to finalization by providing a brochure. When the subsidy is being negotiated, the negotiator also informs the family of service availability. When a family is recertified every five years for adoption or permanency care assistance, the recertification letter includes a reminder about services and guides the family to a website.  

How the Post-Permanency Program Is Operated

  • Through contracts or grants with multiple private agencies that offer mostly the same set of services, each operating in a different region. 

Notes About Who Provides Which Service(s)

Texas contracts with three agencies to provide post-permanency services, with each agency serving different areas:  

  • Centers for Children and Families — Beaumont, Lufkin, Lubbock, Abilene, Tyler, Austin, San Antonio, Midland/Odessa, and El Paso areas (regions 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10) 

Adoption/Guardianship Assistance/Subsidy Review and Changes

The state is required to review adoptive families’ and subsidized conservators’ continued eligibility for adoption or permanency care assistance at least every five years as long as the child is under the age of 18.  Adoptive families and conservators are contacted via mail for up to three attempts—the third through certified letter. When the regional adoption assistance eligibility specialist does not hear from the adoptive parent or conservator after the third attempt, the state may—on a case-by-case basis—suspend the assistance payments and Medicaid and research the case to see if the child is still in the home or if the adoptive parent or conservator is still supporting the child.  

An adoptive family can request a subsidy after an adoption has been finalized, provided it is determined that the child has a special need that pre-existed the finalization of the adoption.  This option is not available for conservators. 

Tracking Adoption/Guardianship Discontinuity

DFPS tracks adoption dissolutions that happen within 12 months of finalization.  

Post-Permanency Program Spending (FY 2023)

  • $2 million – $4,999,999 million

Funding Sources for the Post-Permanency Program (FY 2023)

  1. Title IV-E funds (including Prevention Services Grant Program/PSGP or IV-E training dollars) 
  1. State funds 

 

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