Travis County shows starkest child welfare inequities among large Texas counties

Black children in Travis County disproportionately are the subject of reports of abuse and neglect, investigated by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) and removed from their homes, compared to white children.  

This is according to an Oct. 2 report by the Travis County Child Welfare Race Equity Collaborative analyzing DFPS data from fiscal years 2018 through 2021. A separate report analyzing fiscal year 2023 data and submitted by DFPS to the Texas Legislature on Sept. 29 found “Travis County continues to show the largest disparities of the seven largest counties” in the state.

Aurora Martinez Jones, judge of the 126th District Court presiding over the Child Protective Services (CPS) dockets and co-founder of the collaborative, sees the findings as a call to action. “Travis County must do better,” she said in an Oct. 2 press release. “All of our children deserve actual support and not just reports to CPS.” 

The collaborative report found that “for Black families the disparity grows at each step of (DFPS) involvement.”

Between fiscal years 2018 and 2021, Black children in Travis County were: 

• Four times more likely to have a report to DFPS than white children;
• More than five times more likely to be reported by law enforcement to DFPS than white families; and 
• Six times more likely to be separated from their families than white children.

Travis County’s racial disparities outpace state averages and have only grown worse in recent years, according to DFPS’ latest disproportionality and disparity analysis. 

In fiscal year 2023, Black children in Travis County were 11.3 times more likely to be removed from their homes by DFPS than white children. In comparison, Hispanic children were 2.3 times more likely to be removed. 

Black children in Travis County also were less likely than white children to be routed through alternative response, a “less adversarial” option, according to the collaborative report.

Under DFPS, Child Protective Investigations investigates reports of child abuse and neglect, referring substantiated cases to Child Protective Services, which removes children from their home, places them in foster care and develops a permanency plan, which could involve family reunification or adoption. 

Since 2021, DFPS has offered “alternative response,” in which Child Protective Investigations connects families “that initially present with less immediate safety or risk issues” to community resources, according to the state agency. Alternative response “can help keep families together and avoid the need for foster care.”

Eloise Sepeda, a local restorative justice expert, spoke to the traumatic impact of the child welfare system and family separation. 

“Supporting families and keeping children safe and connected to those they love provides the best outcomes but is not always the result of our current system, especially for families of color,” she said in the same press release. 

The collaborative report found other disparities. Geographically, reports to DFPS and family separation are concentrated among families living along and east of Interstate 35. And, since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Hispanic families have experienced a higher rate of separation than prepandemic. 

The collaborative offers initiatives that aim to reduce these disparities. They include the development of a training module for mandatory reporters – such as doctors, teachers and social workers – with a race equity lens, a documenting and tracking blueprint to enable other communities to replicate the collaborative’s work and regular data sharing. 

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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