Nearly 2,300 employees have left the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services since the beginning of the year, stressing an agency that has already experienced some of the highest turnover rates of any large state department.
In interviews and at public town halls, more than two dozen current and former employees described a department that has been stretched thin for more than a year, needlessly losing passionate workers who carry decades of experience and knowledge. From dangerous overtime shifts watching children in hotels to political drama to problems with their supervisors, workers say the agency has lost its mission — and in the end, it’s Texas kids who suffer for it.
One child welfare worker said she knew she needed to quit when, last year, she visited the home of a parent suspected of child neglect. The mother failed a drug test for methamphetamine, but because there was no “immediate danger,” the caseworker could not remove the child from the home, she said. She lost sleep for weeks.
CPS caseworkers earned an average salary of $53,600 in the last fiscal year, but pay is often much lower for entry-level employees.
Cases ‘closed that shouldn’t be’
At the core of their jobs, CPS workers take on cases — allegations of child neglect, the placement of a child recently orphaned, the anonymous tip claiming abuse. But employees say they are being assigned too many cases, and are expected to close them too quickly, jeopardizing the integrity of their work.
‘Turning on family members’
Though workers have been raising concerns about the unplaced children for more than a year, many said they are disheartened that department leaders, or Abbott, have declined to meaningfully intervene.
Some child welfare employees have considered the same for political reasons, accusing the state’s Republican leadership of using Child Protective Services as an outlet to further their own agendas. The agency saw a string of departures this spring, after Abbott directed CPS to investigate families for child abuse if they provide their transgender children with gender-affirming care, such as puberty blockers.
Abbott and other Republicans have argued that those treatments take away a child’s constitutional right to procreate when they are too young to legally consent, and the medication could result in physical and mental harm. Most major medical organizations support gender-affirming care, which is linked to reduced rates of attempted suicide, depression and drug use.
Shelby McCowen, who worked as an investigator in a Travis County office, said the directive to investigate transgender care was the “last straw” for many employees. She’d only worked at the agency for 10 months but burned out quickly — she was averaging 50- to 60-hour work weeks and responsible for upward of 100 children at a time.