Caseworkers and foster care providers in Texas often get incomplete and inaccurate information about foster kids in their care because of the state child welfare agency’s archaic technology system.
A Texas Department of Family and Protective Services employee’s desk at the agency’s Austin office in 2019. The limited functionality of the system DFPS uses to track and manage services for foster care children means caseworkers can’t easily upload or store documents needed to assess a child’s academic and health care needs., The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.
“Before we say we need to replace more of the technology or throw IMPACT out and start something new, it's very important that you have your business process set,” Muth said, tempering the Houston representative’s urgency and expectations for an overhaul. “It would not be a process that takes a biennium or two, and you'd have to plan for that. So I still think we're talking about down the road.
“Inherent problems with DFPS’s outdated IMPACT system further impede caseworkers’ ability to review important electronic case file information,” Jack first said in 2015. “This creates opportunities for important safety-related tasks to ‘fall through the cracks,’ especially when cases are transferred between workers.”
Christie Carrington worked as a state caseworker for 13 years before retiring last April. Because school records cannot be uploaded, she would visit a school’s registrar to get information about a child’s schooling. And because residential treatment centers cannot access the system, she would also regularly fill out lengthy forms before a child was placed in the facility. After 13 years, she said all that inputting became part of the job.
As an incentive, lawyers in the federal litigation against DFPS have offered to give up the legal fees they have won to the state to fund a new technology system. “Now we are talking to other states about their experiences, and evaluating our own needs, before deciding next steps,” said Patrick Crimmins, the DFPS spokesperson.
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