Fostering understanding:
an in-depth look at the foster care system in Tarrant County
391,000.
That is the number of children that were in foster care in the United States in 2021. At least 391,000 children separated from their parents and primary caretakers. At least 391,000 children entering the daunting unknown that is the foster care system. At least 391,000 children who have no idea what tomorrow will bring.
Texas is divided into 11 regions by the Department of Family Protective Services.
Region 3 includes the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex.
In Region 3, Tarrant County has the second highest number of foster children, with 771 children in the system as of March 2024.
The main issues that social workers and foster care workers are facing everywhere include being understaffed, overworked and underpaid. Only about 30% of people have a favorable opinion about the foster care system. This project aims to learn the reality of working in the foster care system and increase understanding for foster care workers.
Taking the blame
The majority of people do not have a favorable opinion about the foster care system because they blame foster care workers for things out of their control.
Dr. Sh’Niqua Alford, assistant professor of professional practice and Bachelor of Social Work program director at Texas Christian University, worked at Child Protective Services for nine years. As a conservatorship worker/supervisor and kinship worker, Alford worked closely with several children and families.
She clarified that although she worked closely with them, she had no control over a child’s initial removal or placement. The most she could do was petition to the court that the child should be removed from a foster family and placed with family.
Alford said a huge misconception is that CPS is to blame for everything, but their hands are often tied.
Dr. Ashley Palmer, assistant professor at TCU, echoed this issue. She said the system makes foster care workers jump through hoops.
“There are a lot of problems with the system that in many ways are out of the case managers control,” Palmer said.
Unlike Alford, Palmer worked in the child placing agency. One challenge she faced was the inability to palace children sometimes. She gave the example that the county may have 11 open beds in foster homes, but six of them are licensed for 10-15 year olds when she tries to place a six month old baby, and the other five homes decline placement. Palmer said she could not, and would not, force a foster home to take a child they were not licensed for or did not want. The goal should always be to support children, and forcing homes to take children would go against that goal.
Palmer said that she always felt responsible if something went wrong, even though it was not her fault.
“It is very difficult to shake that sense of responsibility because people depend on you, but also you don’t necessarily have the power or the resources to do the things that they need.”
Dealing with trauma
Working in foster care means almost never seeing “normal.” It means reading horrific case files and caring for traumatized children and families — every day.
Trauma within the foster care system is complex and impacts those on every side of it. Palmer said that many foster care workers become desensitized to some trauma after seeing it and reading about it 25 times per day.
Another way foster care workers manage second-hand trauma is by relying on their team for support. Alford said that for confidentiality reasons, she could not talk about her cases with people outside of her coworkers. Even if she did, they would never understand. Her coworkers always understood.
Of course, foster care workers can go to therapy — if they have the time and the insurance. They do not have any specialized mental health services, just the same types therapy everyone else has access to (or doesn’t). On top of that, many foster care workers struggle to pay for rent and for food — so therapy is out of the question.
Children in the foster care system have arguably the most trauma. It manifests in different ways, sometimes causing behavioral issues. Alford said that kids are often labeled as “defiant” or “bad,” but often, it’s trauma.
“If they could make the correlation of how the trauma impacted their mental health, I think that would’ve been a great focus for foster care workers to understand,” Alford said.
That said, foster care workers often do not understand the various ways trauma can be expressed in children. Trauma-informed training has only recently been implemented, and it’s minimal. Palmer pointed out that it’s more than a few case workers that are not properly trained on trauma; the system as a whole is not trauma-informed.
“If you are asking foster care workers to use trauma-informed care approaches with their clients, but the organization that they’re working for is not trauma informed, how are they going to do that effectively?” Palmer said.
Mental health of foster care workers
Beyond second-hand trauma, foster care workers deal with several mental health issues. The most common are burnout and a lack of work-life balance.
Regardless of position, foster care workers have a heavy case load. They conduct home and school visits, provide resources to parents, make reports to court, attend trainings, among other tasks.
On average, caseworkers in Texas have 47 cases at once. Consider the amount of traveling each case worker must do, the amount of parents, foster parents and children they meet with and support — just to name a few of the many things they do each day.
Foster care workers will inevitably get burnt out. With such large caseloads, many foster care workers also struggle to set boundaries between their work and personal life. Alford said setting boundaries and finding healthy coping mechanisms is vital to succeed in this field.
In Palmer’s position, she had to check her work phone every 20 minutes at least. It could be a matter of life or death, and it did not matter what she needed to drop in order to pick up the phone.
“If it was Christmas day, and I was celebrating with my family, and my phone rang because there was something going on at a house, I had to take the call,” Palmer remembers.
These issues of burnout and balance are exacerbated by the fact that the foster care system is understaffed and underpaid.
Social worker experiencing burnout (via Pexels)
Social worker experiencing burnout (via Pexels)
Social worker experiencing burnout (via Pexels)
Social worker experiencing burnout (via Pexels)
Back to the root of it all
The lack of understanding for foster care workers, the lack of trauma-informed care, the lack of balance all stem from the same root issue — our communities are unable to break out of systemic issues.
Alford pointed out that people in poverty and people of color are disproportionately impacted by mental health issues, and their children are placed in foster care at disproportionate rates. It’s these systemic issues like race and poverty that we should be focused on changing, she says.
Palmer said that the primary reason children are placed in foster care is neglect. Palmer said it’s not a simple issue.
“No parent steps out… hoping that they’ll not take care of their kid that day. Usually it’s due to poverty, or things that collide, Palmer said. “Maybe there’s some substance misuse but maybe that’s related to some trauma and some abuse that the parent has experienced.”
Palmer said that the foster care system will change for the better when we shift our focus to caring for our community before children are removed. As Tarrant County expands, these systemic issues will need to be examined. Certain laws pertaining to child welfare, like mandatory reporting, are likely due for reform as they are rooted in ideology that amplifies the systemic issues of race, class, etc.
ACH Child and Family Services campus on Wichita St. (Emmaday Ormond)
ACH Child and Family Services campus on Wichita St. (Emmaday Ormond)
ACH is home to Safe Place (Emmaday Ormond)
ACH is home to Safe Place (Emmaday Ormond)
Paul E. Andrews Family welcome Center on ACH Wichita campus (Emmaday Ormond)
Paul E. Andrews Family welcome Center on ACH Wichita campus (Emmaday Ormond)
One non-profit agency that address systemic issues and provides resources to families and children experiencing a variety of issues is ACH Child and Family Services.
Founded in 1915, ACH provides support and resources to children and families. They are experts in crisis intervention, family services, community-based care, foster care & adoption and residential services.
ACH Child and Family Services is also a Safe Place location. Safe place is a national program that provides immediate support for children and teens who are runaways, homeless and are experiencing child abuse or trafficking.
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