Volume 2: The 4th Degree and Changes to the Texas Family Code
During Volume 2 of your training, you will learn about the new requirements and policies for diligent searches and FINDRS outlined in the Texas Family Code. These changes are the result House Bills 2926 and 3041. We will review the House Bills and outline the new procedures in this training.
Approximately 1,200 youth will age out of the Texas foster care system each year without finding a permanent home. This lack of permanency is accompanied by a variety of negative health, educational, and economic outcomes, including a greater risk of involvement with the criminal justice system.
House Bill 2926 adds another tool to the toolbox for achieving permanency for youth at risk of aging out.
Take a look at this site that shows the number of children exiting DFPS legal custody. You can use it to find the numbers in your region or even county!
You can also use this link to access the Data Book!
This House Bill outlines how specific interested parties will be allowed to file for reinstatement of the parent-child relationship in certain circumstances after parental rights have been terminated. The bill establishes notification to all relatives in writing throughout the life of the case. In previous policies, only a verbal notification was required.
House Bill 3041 establishes notification of removal must go to the 4th degree relatives. This is a change from the current policy, which is 3rd degree.
The House Bills amended Texas Family Code section 262.1095, and details the Department's duty to provide information of the child's involvement in care to certain relatives and persons involved with the family including:
You can also access this link to the Texas Family Code Section 262.1095
You're right! Way to pay attention!
Those persons involved with a child and family are already notified when a child comes into care.
HOWEVER, in the updated policy, ANY adult relative of the child within 4 degrees of consanguinity must also be notified. And in writing.
Right?! That is a 200 dollar word if I've ever seen one! Consanguinity basically means blood ties between relatives. Adoptions are also included in consanguinity. Try to use that word in a sentence today!
As you can see from the chart below, the 4th degree of consanguinity consists of Grand Nephews and Neices, First Cousins, Great Aunts and Uncles, and Great-Great Grandparents.
This means that you are going to be exploring families even more than we ever have before!
Currently DFPS has several tools, already in practice, to help you engage and work collaboratively with your families.
Take a moment to review these documents.
*Pro-tip: Save those documents to your computer or make a folder of helpful resources you can use!
Some new strategies will be necessary to engage families. This could include completing a family tree with the family.
If you choose not to use the CFE tool, just sitting with a family and completing a hand-drawn family tree could also be helpful! There are also free online resources that could serve as an activity for families to complete together or with their caseworker.
You may get some push back from parents when talking about involving other family members. Understandably, some may not want to involve other family members, especially to the 4th degree. It is your responsibility to explain the importance of involving family in the process.
Please note that we do not need to have the parents' approval. Notification is required by federal and state law, so not even DFPS has the choice either. However, it should prove to be helpful when building a partnership with parents to keep them informed of who you are required to notify.
Some questions to ask that could help this process are:
• How did your family come to live here?
• Are there other family members in the area?
• Did anyone who wasn't related to you live with you when you were a child?
• Are there members of your family who are not blood-relatives, but who are considered family?
Finding family members are not just for placement. Some family members may not be appropriate or available for placement of the children. They can be an excellent support system for the children, support the child's caregivers, and be motivators for parents!
Fully engaging with families can help them to remember people involved with their family who are important to them.
Whew! Sorry for yelling.
When we say permanency we mean relational permanency, NOT ONLY legal permanency. A support system of relatives does not have to mean the child is placed in that home. Remember, PERMANENCY is NOT a place! Permanency is about having the feeling that youth are connected. The children and youth you work with deserve the opportunity of permanent connections and relationships. Increasing relational permanency by strengthening and formalizing existing relationships between a youth and their relatives or other close adults can help improve all outcomes for a youth leaving care.
There is extensive research available about the importance of a network of people who care about and love the child who are not paid to be there temporarily while the family is in crisis. The research has shown that permanency, including relational permanency, can positively impact a young person's life trajectory, ultimately improving their well-being and educational outcome. Youth who don't have any connections before they leave care are at higher risk for negative outcomes compared to youth who do find permanency.
But first we have to find those connections…
Now you're thinking! Engage the children and youth themselves to identify people significant to them and to their family. Youth deserve to understand the structure and purpose of their permanency planning. As we have learned before, maintaining these connections helps young people feel a sense of community and can lead to a better chance of leaving care with multiple supportive connections.
Simply asking the question, "who do you love and who loves you?" to the child can open up a world of possible connections!
YES! Remember, what we just said about the importance of family, and finding connections who are not paid to be involved in a child's or youth's life?!
If you think about it, foster parents are also strangers, and we don't think twice about placing with them!
These updated procedures also mean that you will be utilizing services through FINDRS more than ever before!
Here are some helpful reminders:
FINDRS Site on the DFPS Safety Net
Remember Though: Policy 6123 requires not only just doing the diligent search request with FINDRS, but actively performing the diligent search actions for everyone listed in the policy AND sending form 2134 Notice to Relatives and Potential Caregivers of Removal of Children to each person when they are located!
To refresh yourself on Policy 6123 click the link!
The databases that are currently in use by FINDRS do not pull relatives to the 4th degree of consanguinity (there are no known databases that can do this). There are options available to you that FINDRS can help with if during the course of exploring a family you are unable to identify any 4th degree relatives and/or you are needing those to be identified.
To do this, it would require an IDENTIFIED 2nd or 3rd degree relative. Once one or more of those are identified, you may submit a Quick Find 2004 or the Diligent Search Form 2277 on the identified 2nd and/or 3rd degree relative(s). You would need to note on the form that the listed person(s) are a 2nd degree relative and you need that individual's relatives ran to the 2nd degree. This will produce a list of 4th degree relatives for the child(ren). For the identified 3rd degree relative(s) you would do the same except you would ask that 1st degree relatives be ran and this would produce a list of 4th degree relatives for the child(ren).
You can dowload these forms by following the link below:
Although it does seem overwhelming, ensuring effective communication with families will go a long way to follow this new policy.
You will also be meeting a critical need to expand legal and relational permanency options for children in State custody, which could lead to:
• Better outcomes for children and youth in care
• More children placed with someone they are connected to
• Less youth aging out of care
• Less children awaiting adoption
That's the spirit! Let's take a look at our objectives and do a quick review to remind us of what we accomplished here today!
1. The most important thing to take away from this course is that you must use the tools we have in IMPACT and through communication with parents, children, and other active family members to identify family members and other significant adults to the 4th degree of consanguinity.
2. Involving 4th degree family members and fictive kin will lead to more positive outcomes for children and youth in care.
3. Finding these familial connections will take more engagement with families, and strategies to get through the "I don't know" in response to questions about family members.
Diligent search actions for folks other than missing parents are required in first 30 days after removal. Finding all the family and identified fictive kin can't wait until the 14-day hearing, and it doesn't stop at the 14-day hearing, even when the child is already placed with family.
Even after the first 30 days, Form 2134 gets sent when someone is found, and although finding family with diligent search actions is no longer required, the family still has a right to be involved in case planning and the child/youth has the right to visit and receive support from family.
You have reached the end of this lesson. You may navigate to any part of the lesson for review, select Print All, or select Ctrl + W to close this window to continue to end this course.
Don't forget to complete and pass the Knowledge Assessment with a grade of 70 or above AND complete the evaluation to get credit for the course. You earned it!
