AUSTIN — The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) published a new research paper titled “A Unified Standard: Ensuring All Children Are Given Active Efforts for Prevention and Reunification.” The paper aims to improve the quality of services provided to preserve and reunite Texas families.

Currently, Child Protective Services (CPS) is mandated to undertake efforts designed to prevent family separation. However, under existing law, CPS must meet a higher standard for these efforts when a child qualifies as a member of a Native American tribe, effectively creating a two-tiered prevention system. One of the key recommendations from the authors is that the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) should apply the higher standard (“active efforts”) to all cases, not just those involving Native American children.

“Removing children from their families into foster care is a drastic action that results in lifelong trauma for children,” said TPPF Vice President of Policy Andrew Brown. “All children, regardless of their racial or ethnic background, deserve the best efforts we can provide to enable them to be raised by their natural families.”

TPPF Policy Scholar Nicholas Armstrong added, “The ‘active efforts’ standard is better defined than the current ‘reasonable efforts’ standard that applies in most CPS cases and provides a detailed list of remedial services that can be offered to families. Requiring CPS to meet the ‘active efforts’ standard in all cases will provide greater accountability for the state and improve the quality of family preservation and reunification services.”