The Texas Department of Child Protective Services continues to fall short when it comes to responding to investigations in a timely manner, reports The Austin American-Stateman.
However, things have improved somewhat at the embattled agency. Since CPS was ordered to clean up its operation by lawmakers, employee workloads have diminished, and the agency has hired more caseworkers. But when it comes to responding to calls regarding children in potential danger, the organization is still lagging behind.
The State of Texas is requiring CPS to respond to 95% of all high-priority cases within 24 hours. At last look, the agency was only seeing about 91% of such cases. Hank Whitman, Commissioner of the agency that oversees CPS, explained that some of the families of the children in question were purposely evading CPS.
Last year, the State Legislature approved pay raises for CPS workers.