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By John Moritz
Star-Telegram Austin Bureau
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Senate panel approves protective-services bill
AUSTIN - The planned overhaul of the state agencies that protect children and seniors from abuse and neglect cleared its first legislative hurdle Tuesday when a Senate panel voted to beef up staffing and better train and supervise caseworkers.
But the panel sidestepped the thorny question of the role that companies should play in running the agencies, which care for elderly and young Texans who have no families or whose loved ones are considered likely to harm them.
"This is probably the most difficult and contentious element of the bill," said Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, the author of Senate Bill 6, which was approved unanimously by the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. "I have agonized over this."
Correcting the well-documented deficiencies in Child Protective Services and Adult Protective Services has been declared a legislative emergency, meaning that it will likely be the first significant bill debated on the Senate floor during the 140-day session, which began Jan. 11.
The overhaul effort began after high-profile reports of youngsters and seniors dying even after being investigated by caseworkers. An internal review of both agencies found that caseworkers are overworked because their ranks have been thinned by high turnover. The review also found inadequate training and poor communication between caseworkers and police.
"Our protective-service agencies are supposed to serve as a lifeline to children and seniors who are being abused or neglected and other vulnerable citizens," Nelson said. "That lifeline is broken, which is why it is so important that we press forward with these emergency reforms."
Nelson's bill, which could reach the Senate floor as early as next week, includes many of the features recommended in the recently completed report by the state Health and Human Services Commission. It calls for slashing the number of cases per worker, overhauling training, and incorporating new technology to cut paperwork and keep track of investigations.
It also encourages CPS caseworkers to share offices with law-enforcement child-abuse investigators whenever possible.
And it calls for better pay and career advancement to promote longevity.
Before the Senate panel approved the measure, members appeared conflicted over hiring more private or nonprofit companies to run the agencies.
Sen. Jon Lindsay, R-Houston, said there should be a pilot program in one region before the lion's share of the agencies' functions is turned over to private companies. He had an unlikely ally in former state District Judge F. Scott McCown, an Austin Democrat who runs the liberal-leaning Center for Public Policy Priorities.
"You have to have strict oversight and careful monitoring," said McCown, adding that private companies could help the state by stretching social-service dollars further. "You have to hold people accountable."
The Health and Human Services Commission "doesn't have a great track record with that," he said.
But Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, said the state should not cede such a vital function to the private sector.
"I think you privatize landscaping and you privatize painting a building and you privatize construction projects, but you don't privatize the care of our kids," he said.