In Texas, foster care providers have clashed with court judges over a senator’s proposal to privatize foster care.
As The Dallas Morning News reports, the debate centers around whether private contractors in Texas should be allowed to completely take over supervision of abused and neglected children.
As it stands now, private contractors already provide 90 percent of foster care in the state. But under Sen. Charles Schwertner’s plan, “case management” would also be outsourced. That would mean that social workers working for private companies would take over the duties of CPS workers.
These private workers would coordinate foster kids' therapies, visit with birth families, write court reports and appear before judges.
Critics say this solution would lead the private contractors to take advantage of the state’s inability to handle the work, and jack up prices, thus costing taxpayers more in the long run.
