The Texas Center for Child and Family Services (the Center) is launching a series of six trainings across Texas to educate attorneys and judges working with children, youth, and families in the legal system. Funded by a generous grant from the Texas Bar Foundation, the training will be offered in partnership with the Supreme Court of Texas’ Children’s Commission and will focus on enhancing knowledge of Community-Based Care, the Texas model of care for foster care, reunification, and adoption.  

Community-Based Care (CBC) was passed in 2017, and a phased-in implementation has been underway, with more than half the state currently operating under this system. The CBC model shifts decisions and services for kids and families away from a single statewide agency, and creates local networks of care, unique to the region it serves. These regional networks are run by a lead agency (called a single source continuum contractor, or SSCC) who is responsible for building and maintaining a continuum of care to meet the needs in their community. CBC is driven by outcomes, and each region is held accountable via a number of performance metrics, such as keeping kids close to home, keeping siblings together, and placing with family.  

The system shift to CBC is significant and requires the support of system partners to succeed.  

The unique marker of Community-Based Care is a full community embrace that requires all system stakeholders for its success. System-involved families not only interact with caseworkers and agency/operation staff, but nearly every family met with a finding of abuse or neglect will work with attorneys, attorneys ad litem, and judges until their case is closed. Under CBC, ongoing communication and collaboration between the judges, attorneys, and the SSCCs is vital. 

“The purpose of the trainings will be to inform, engage, and respond to questions that the legal community has as it prepares to operate within Community-Based Care and encourage a smooth transition for the families and children who are involved with child welfare system.”

Katie Olse

The training sessions will be hosted to target the Corpus Christi, Rio Grande Valley, El Paso, Permian Basin, Central Texas, and Capital areas. 

About the Texas Bar Foundation:  

Since its inception in 1965, the Texas Bar Foundation has awarded more than $27 million in grants to law-related programs. Supported by members of the State Bar of Texas, the Texas Bar Foundation is the nation’s largest charitably funded bar foundation. 

Learn more about the Center | the Texas Bar Foundation