Children's Policy Research

There are more than 1,200 children under the age of 21 residing in institutions in Texas. Data from other states as well as recent experience in Texas, indicates that 80-90% of these children will not have the opportunity to return to their birth families. While Texas has permanency planning laws in effect that require continued effort be made to move children from institutions, often there are simply no families available to care for these children.

Therefore, there is no place for these children to go. Texas currently lacks an effective system to recruit and develop families to care for children with disabilities who cannot remain with their birth families. The Texas Center for Disability Studies is working closely with agencies and organizations to create systems that provide the opportunity for every child to grow up in a family.

As the state of Texas moves forward with its efforts to comply with the Olmstead decision, it is faced with the challenge of providing sufficient choice of family-based alternatives for children with disabilities living in institutions. Developing a system to recruit and train families to care for these children could promote effective permanency planning and provide quality alternatives to institutionalization of children. In addition to providing opportunities for children currently in residential placements, by creating a system of alternative family options, birth families who are considering an out-of-home placement for their child will have another choice.

This initiative began through the efforts of a broad-based coalition working to increase consumer choice by developing a system of recruitment and training alternate families to provide care for children with disabilities. The coalition's goal is to participate in the development of a model based on best practices by bringing together an array of public and private entities to develop an effective system and facilitate implementation in a targeted area of the state. The system would include a continuum of family-based alternatives ranging from full-time foster care, to shared-parenting, to extended respite opportunities. The project is expected to provide valuable lessons for statewide implementation.

In addition to this important work, Center staff work on policy issues that affect children with disabilities and their families in a variety of other areas, including CHIP, Medicaid, education, health care, and others.

For further information, contact Colleen Horton