AUSTIN- Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation released a new policy brief explaining how CPS investigations are often unwelcome intrusions in the family sphere and how a new approach called Alternative Response allows CPS to work with parents to develop skills and access to community resources.
The brief, “Alternative Response to Reports of Child Maltreatment: Working with Parents to Improve Child and Family Outcomes,” authored by Brandon Logan, director of the Center for Families & Children at TPPF, argues current investigative practices can often make the problem worse.
“About 70 percent of all children in foster care are there not because of physical abuse, sexual abuse, physical neglect or medical neglect,” Logan said. “The most frequent cause of CPS involvement is not abuse but parental unemployment, housing instability and substance abuse—conditions worsened, rather than solved, by a traditional investigative response. Oftentimes, at-risk families need minimal, targeted assistance from their communities to ensure child safety.”
The full policy brief may be found here.
For more information, please contact Alicia Pierce at [email protected] or 512-472-2700.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit free-market research institute based in Austin that aims to foster human flourishing by protecting and promoting liberty, opportunity, and personal responsibility.
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