Andrew C. Brown, JD, is the distinguished senior fellow of child and family policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Crises plaguing DFPS, including the recent allegations of sexual exploitation of residents at a state-licensed facility and the high number of “children without placement” (CWOP), are just the latest symptoms of long-recognized structural and cultural issues within the department. Although the Legislature has done admirable work for most of the last decade giving DFPS the tools and financial resources needed to turn things around and enacting reforms necessary to transform the state’s child welfare system, the system will continue to lurch from crisis to crisis until the department’s internal problems are resolved.