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By Lisa Sandberg
Express-News Austin Bureau
February 09, 2005
Privatized services for kids weighed
AUSTIN — The state would better serve its abused and neglected children if it privatized many of the services it now provides, a top official told lawmakers Tuesday.
Texas' child protection agency should stick to what it does best — intakes and investigations — and leave to private agencies the task of coordinating follow-up care, Anne Heiligenstein, the state's No. 2 official at the Health and Human Services Commission, told a Senate panel looking to overhaul the state's beleaguered child welfare agencies.
"We need to focus on our core mission, which is safety," Heiligenstein said.
The debate over privatizing Child Protective Services dominated much of the daylong hearing before senators on the Health and Human Services committee.
Committee chairman Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, who is the author of a massive reform bill on the protection agencies, favors privatizing some aspects of Child and Adult Protective Services but said she "wrestles" with the issue of giving private agencies, rather than state workers, the authority to "case manage" residents in their care.
Heiligenstein said Texas could benefit from the experience of other states that have privatized many of the programs run by their protection agencies.
She couldn't assure lawmakers the state would save money by privatizing care but said it would enable the agency to free up caseworkers to focus on investigating abuse and neglect allegations.
However, Kansas , which privatized part of its agency, saw its child care costs increase dramatically, Heiligenstein told lawmakers.
Lawmakers in both houses have declared revamping the state's child and adult protection agencies a priority in the wake of stunning failures in which vulnerable adults and children died while their cases were being investigated. Lawmakers and Gov. Rick Perry have called for hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding for more workers and training.
Jack Downey, who heads the private Children's Shelter in San Antonio , told senators Tuesday that privatization was long overdue.
Later, in an interview, he said: "The state is a horrible parent."