Over 100 children have died in Texas' child welfare system since 2020, report says

by Reese Oxner, Texas Tribune


More than 100 children have died in Texas since 2020 while in the state’s child welfare system, including two who died from COVID-19 complications, according to a Texas Department of Family and Protective Services report provided to lawmakers Friday.

Forty-four children died in 2020 and 38 in 2021 while they were in the state’s care, according to a DFPS report obtained by The Texas Tribune. The numbers are on par with those reported in previous years. Twenty-two children have died in the first three months of this year, or about half the number of deaths in each of the previous five years.

The state cared for 45,870 children in 2021. The children who died last year represent about 0.08% of kids under the state’s care. Children in foster care are 42% more likely to die than children in the general population, according to a study by The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania referenced in the DFPS report.

The report was produced in response to questions from a House Health Services committee hearing last month. The hearing came after allegations of abuse at a state-licensed foster care facility in Bastrop renewed lawmakers’ interest in the state’s troubled child welfare system.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/04/04/texas-foster-care-children-deaths/