Privatizing Child Welfare: Texas’s Gamble With Community-Based Care

Authors

Grace Byers, Southern Methodist University, Dedman School of LawFollow

Abstract

There are arguably few populations with greater vulnerability in the United States than children in active child welfare cases. Beyond the abuse or neglect that triggered a child welfare investigation, the child will endure the trauma of having their life uprooted. A child may encounter dozens of people throughout a child welfare case: investigators, police officers, caseworkers, doctors, psychologists, judges, foster parents, and many others. At this critical junction in a child’s life, the state is appointed as the child’s legal conservator to care for the child, find them a temporary home, and provide services to them and their parents with the ultimate goal of familial reunification.

In Texas, the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) has managed this process for decades. However, after M.D. v. Abbott shined a light on the abuse and neglect children in foster care faced under the state’s watch, Texas legislators approved the privatization of foster care in 2017. Under the new model, known as Community-Based Care (CBC), independent, non-profit organizations assumed the responsibilities of foster care services previously provided by DFPS. As of 2025, with the addition of Dallas and surrounding counties participating in the new system, over half of all children in Texas foster care are now under Community-Based Care.

As independent organizations take on legal responsibility for some of Texas’s most vulnerable residents, the stakes for Community-Based Care are high. The lives of children, whose childhood years are finite, cannot be the subjects for a failed legal and social experiment. This Comment surveys the legal landscape that gave rise to the privatization of foster care in Texas and independent contractors’ legal role in child welfare cases. Further, this Comment analyzes the outcome data of children in Community-Based Care and compares it to that of children in the state-run system. Finally, this Comment proposes returning the foster care system to state control and reforming core policies to recenter the child in child welfare services.

Recommended Citation

Grace Byers, Privatizing Child Welfare: Texas’s Gamble With Community-Based Care, 78 SMU L. Rev. 1127 (2025)