'Capacity catastrophe': Texas' big outsourcing of foster care tested by system's woes
AUSTIN — Though the foster care system in Texas has been rocked by a growing shortage of beds and increasingly pointed critiques by a federal judge, leading providers are urging the GOP-led Legislature to double down on a regional privatization approach.
The private providers are advocating brisk rollout of “community based care,” in which one non-state entity is ceded virtual control of a geographic region, even as citations and official rebukes pile up on the two nonprofits in charge of the push in San Antonio and Fort Worth.
Troubles are mounting in both cities, the only urban demonstrations so far of the community based care model that is likely to be imposed on Dallas late next year – assuming there are willing bidders.
The upheaval in San Antonio this week has capped a year of mounting apprehension for advocates of the new approach for purchasing foster-care beds. Community based care involves delegating authority to an area’s lead vendor and, eventually, eliminating the jobs of Child Protective Services workers and shifting case management to private-agency workers.
Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2021/04/30/capacity-catastrophe-texas-big-outsourcing-of-foster-care-tested-by-systems-woes/
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