Texas has made it easier for relatives to become licensed foster parents and take in their young family members, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Tuesday.
A new streamlined licensing process with fewer administrative requirements will give aunts, uncles, grandparents and other kin quicker access to financial aid and other resources from the state.
“When we eliminate burdensome and unnecessary rules and regulations so children can stay with their families through kinship foster care, we put those children on the best path forward,” Gov. Abbott said in a press release. “Texas will continue to prioritize children in need by removing bureaucratic red tape to keep them with their families.”
The new process will include simplified housing inspections that focus just on health and safety. Some unnecessary training will also be eliminated — for example, relatives taking in teens won’t be required to attend infant safety classes that foster parents generally must attend.
In all, 195 rules are being eliminated — a 75% reduction. Fifty-five “essential kinship foster home rules to safeguard children in care” will remain in place for relatives under the new licensing process.
The changes are part of a yearslong effort to address a placement crisis that left hundreds of foster children without a safe and stable home. An investigation revealed that the state had lost more than 1,000 foster care beds in 2021, which was blamed in part on “an increasingly complex, disjointed, and inefficient process for licensing” foster families.
In 2023, legislators passed a law requiring an independent evaluation of the foster care system’s rules and standards, as well as recommendations on ways to increase capacity.
“By removing unnecessary barriers, we’re helping Texans open their homes to relatives in need,” Cecile Erwin Young, the state’s Health and Human Services executive commissioner said in Tuesday’s press release. “These changes will give more children in foster care the opportunity to grow up in a familiar, loving environment.”
Many children live with relatives who are not formally licensed as foster parents. But being licensed carries numerous benefits including monthly payments, access to mental health services, case management and other resources.
Licensed foster families in Texas receive a minimum of $27.07 per day per child, and up to $92 for kids with more intensive needs. In contrast, a kinship assistance program for unlicensed caregivers provides relatives $23.45 per day, but only for the first year the child is living in the home.
There is broad consensus in the child welfare field that living with family members is the best option for kids who can’t live safely at home with parents.
“Kinship families allow children in foster care to live with caring adults they know and trust,” said Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Audrey O’Neill. “They enable a child to maintain their sense of identity and foster positive self-esteem while remaining connected to their families and communities.”
Currently, 45% of foster youth in Texas live with a relative, a spokesperson for the child welfare agency said.
The changes in Texas align with recent federal policy shifts. In 2023, the Biden administration granted states the authority to develop alternative licensing standards for kinship caregivers and made federal funding available to support these households.
Since that federal change, 19 states and tribes have adopted new kin-specific licensing protocols, and another six are awaiting federal approval on such plans. Nineteen more are working toward the change.
This article has been updated with more current data provided by the Department of Family Protective Services.
