Relating to procedures for selecting a placement for a child in the conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective Services.
Summary
SB 2041 amends the Family Code to change how the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) selects a placement for a child in its conservatorship. Before placing a child in contract residential care, DFPS must first attempt to place the child with a relative or other designated caregiver, consistent with existing kinship-placement requirements. The bill also expands the factors DFPS must consider when choosing a contract residential placement.
Under the bill, DFPS must evaluate whether the placement is in the child’s best interest by considering whether it is the least restrictive setting, the closest geographically to the child’s home, the best able to meet the child’s identified needs, responsive to the child’s expressed interests when developmentally appropriate, and able to meet the child’s long-term needs, including placement stability. The bill takes effect September 1, 2025.
Impact
The bill would modify Section 264.107 of the Texas Family Code by adding an explicit preference for relative or designated-caregiver placement before contract residential care and by broadening the best-interest criteria DFPS must use when selecting residential placements. Its practical effect is to strengthen kinship and family-based placement efforts and to require DFPS to document and weigh additional child-centered factors, including proximity, least-restrictive setting, and long-term stability, when residential care is necessary.
Sentiment
The available legislative history suggests the bill moved without recorded opposition in the provided vote data, and there are no committee transcript excerpts indicating controversy. The overall sentiment appears supportive of improving child placement decision-making and aligning placements more closely with a child’s needs and family connections. The bill’s progression to the House General State Calendar indicates it advanced through the process in a routine manner.
Contention
No specific points of contention are reflected in the provided transcripts or votes. Potential areas of policy tension inherent in the bill are the balance between kinship placement and the availability of suitable residential care, and the discretion DFPS retains in determining what placement best serves a child’s needs. Any disagreement would likely center on implementation burdens, placement capacity, or how the new best-interest factors are weighed in practice, but none of those concerns are documented in the supplied materials.
Relating to placement of a child in the conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective Services with an adoptive parent of the child's sibling.
Relating to applying an active efforts standard for the removal of certain children in the managing conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective Services.
Relating to certain procedures in a suit affecting the parent-child relationship for a child placed in the conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective Services and the provision of family preservation services and community-based foster care.
Relating to applying an active efforts standard for the removal of certain children in the managing conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective Services.
Relating to the procedures for the removal of certain children in the managing conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective Services and monetary assistance provided by the Department of Family and Protective Services to certain relative or designated caregivers.
Relating to the establishment of a task force to locate relatives and certain individuals and to the procedures for providing notice to certain individuals on placement of a child in the managing conservatorship of the Department of Family and Protective Services.