Services
Family Based Safety Services
CPS provides services to help stabilize families and reduce the risk of future abuse or neglect. Family Based Safety Services (FBSS), sometimes called in-home or family preservation services, can help avoid the need to remove children from their homes. Often, these services also make it possible for children to return home by helping families understand and protect their children from danger. Services include family counseling, crisis intervention, parenting classes, substance abuse treatment, domestic violence intervention, and daycare. Most families who benefit from FBSS services have their children living at home. In some cases, children may live elsewhere, usually with family or family friends, until they can safely return home.
For more information, see Family Preservation in the CPS section of DFPS Data Book.
Children in State Care
DFPS looks for every reasonable alternative to keep children safe from abuse and neglect at home. But, when children cannot live safely with their own families, Child Protective Investigations may ask the court to remove them from their homes and temporarily place them with relatives or foster families or in an emergency shelter or foster-care facility. DFPS and the courts must consider relatives and others with close ties to the child or family as an option. DFPS asks parents to name relatives and family friends who might care for their children. DFPS contacts relatives and explains their options and the state support that is available to them. Kinship caregivers may adopt or accept legal responsibility for children when they cannot return home safely. Kinship care gives children more stability and keeps them connected to family when they cannot live with their birth parents.
For more on kinship care, see Placements in Substitute Care in the CPS section of DFPS Data Book .