280 Texas children died as the result of child abuse and neglect in 2009 — up more than 30% from 2008.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services is still trying to figure out why.
According to one think tank, the reason is likely due to increased teen pregnancies and increased poverty — which seems very probable. But Texas DFPS isn’t convinced.
Another possible cause is case workers being overworked (the average caseworker in the North Texas region is 20 investigations per day) and a turnover rate of nearly 24%.
Just my uneducated assumption is that Texas DFPS is removing far less number of children from their homes over the past five years — it would seem that if you’re removing less children, either parents are doing a better job — or you’re going to end up with more fatalities.
In 2005, DFPS removed 17,428 children from their homes.
In 2009, they removed 12,107 children from their homes.
There may be other factors to this — but that would be the first place I would look.
Austin’s KUT has a report on the issue.
You can also read the full DFPS study online — or I’ll post some highlights tomorrow.
HT Funky Shapes for the photo