Source of all information provided in this report is the Legislative Budget Board documents.
Funding included in the Committee Substitute for Senate Bill 1 (CSSB1) for the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) for the 2022–23 biennium totals $4.5 billion in All Funds, including $2.6 billion in General Revenue Funds and $8.6 million in General Revenue–Dedicated Funds. These amounts represent a $136.4 million, or 5.4 percent, increase in General Revenue Funds and a $169.5 million, or 3.9 percent, increase in All Funds.
HIGHLIGHTS. Funding includes a total of $1.9 billion in All Funds and $0.9 billion in General Revenue Funds, an increase of $74.3 million in All Funds and $35.6 million in General Revenue Funds from 2020–21 biennial spending levels, for the following client services programs:
- $1.1 billion in All Funds, including $0.5 billion in General Revenue Funds, for Foster Care Payments, including those for Community-based Care (CBC). Funding includes a $15.3 million increase in All Funds, including a $20.9 million increase in General Revenue Funds, from the 2020–21 biennial base. The increase is due primarily to increases of $4.3 million in General Revenue Funds to provide a full biennium of payments to providers to support 24-hour awake supervision, $7.0 million in General Revenue Funds for network support payments for CBC in Region 8B and for new Regions 3E, 4, 5, and 9, and $5.5 million in Federal Funds for provider payments for the Qualified Residential Treatment Program (QRTP) pilot. Additionally, an increase of $11.2 million in General Revenue Funds is offset by an equal decrease in Federal Funds due to less favorable federal medical assistance percentages (FMAP) and the assumed loss of the 6.2 percentage-point increase in FMAP pursuant to the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act;
- $636.5 million in All Funds, including $289.7 million in General Revenue Funds, for Adoption Subsidies and Permanency Care Assistance (PCA) Payments. Funding includes a $28.1 million increase in All Funds ($25.7 million in General Revenue Funds) from the 2020–21 biennial base due primarily to an increase of $24.7 million in All Funds ($12.4 million in General Revenue Funds) for projected caseload growth in both adoption subsidies and PCA. Additionally, changes in the proportion of the program funded with General Revenue Funds are attributed to: (1) an increase of $18.9 million in General Revenue Funds offset by an equal decrease in Federal Funds due to less favorable FMAPs and the assumed loss of the 6.2 percentage-point increase in FMAP; and (2) an increase of $7.8 million in Federal Funds offset by an equal decrease in General Revenue Funds due to increased federal Title IV-E eligibility for adoption subsidies;
- $121.8 million in All Funds, including $18.5 million in General Revenue Funds, for Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) contracted day care services. Funding includes a $32.2 million increase in All Funds (a $5.7 million decrease in General Revenue Funds) from the 2020–21 biennial base due to projected growth in caseload, number of days per child, and average daily cost and to maintain a full biennium of rate increases implemented by TWC in October 2019 and October 2020; and
- $49.3 million in All Funds, including $31.9 million in General Revenue Funds, for Relative Caregiver Payments. Funding includes a $1.3 million decrease in All Funds ($0.6 million in General Revenue Funds) from the 2020–21 biennial base due to projected decreases in the number of daily and post-permanency payments.
Funding includes $1.7 billion in All Funds, including $1.2 billion in General Revenue Funds, for Child Protective Services direct delivery staff, including services provided through CBC. This amount includes increased funding to biennialize CBC expansion that occurred during fiscal year 2020 for Stage II in Regions 3B and 2 and for Stage I in Region 1. It also includes a full biennium of funding for CBC expansion into Stage II in Region 8A and Stage I in Region 8B, which has not yet occurred. This amount also provides funding to expand CBC into Stage II in Regions 8B and 1, and into Stage II in Regions 3E, 4, 5, and 9. Funding is also provided for an additional 127.0 caseworkers and related staff in fiscal year 2022 and 156.0 in fiscal year 2023.
Funding includes reductions totaling $10.4 million in General Revenue Funds for the 2022–23 biennium. The reduction is associated with the following initiatives identified by the agency: savings for the Statewide Intake Automated Call Distribution System; reduction in mileage reimbursement and other travel savings; reductions in costs for various Prevention and Early Intervention contracts; continued delay of a fingerprint program; savings for the information technology help desk; and savings from conferences and professional development trainings.
Funding includes $62.6 million in All Funds, including $58.9 million in General Revenue, for the 2022–23 biennium to address the foster care litigation. This includes implementing caseload guidelines, additional staff to perform heightened monitoring of residential facilities, investigation staff, staff to perform required documentation of cases, technological upgrades to DFPS’s Information Management Protecting Adults and Children in Texas (IMPACT) system and reimbursing court monitors.
The federal Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) is intended to be fully implemented by September 2021. In accordance with FFPSA, the federal government will no longer provide Title IV-E matching funds for children placed in foster care congregate settings after two weeks of placement unless the child is placed in a QRTP or licensed residential family-based treatment facility. FFPSA also provides a 50 percent federal match if the state invests additional General Revenue Funds in approved prevention programs. Texas received $50.3 million in Federal Funds pursuant to the Family First Transition Act (FFTA) to assist in implementation of FFPSA. Funding for the 2022–23 biennium includes $12.0 million in FFTA Federal Funds for a QRTP pilot and system upgrades, an increase of $7.7 million from the amount budgeted for those purposes in fiscal year 2021, and $3.0 million to expand services for the Nurse Family Partnership program. The remaining $30.9 million in Federal Funds may be directed by the Legislature. Funding included in CSSB1 does not assume increased General Revenue Funds or a loss of Title IV-E Federal Funds for foster care placements, additional funding that may be needed to implement QRTPs, or additional investment in prevention programs to draw additional Title IV-E Federal Funds.
***
The information contained in this publication is the property of Texas Insight. The views expressed in this publication are, unless otherwise stated, those of the author and not those of Texas Insight or its management.