State Cuts to Family Services – Texas

Deep cuts in family services proposed for 2012-13, By Corrie MacLaggan, August 20, 2010, Austin American-Statesman: “More than 14,000 Texans who are now in state programs designed to prevent child abuse, neglect and delinquency would lose those services under a state budget-cutting proposal, according to Health and Human Services Executive Commissioner Tom Suehs. The Department of Family and Protective Services is suggesting cutting its prevention and early intervention programs by $73.7 million – 84 percent – in the face of the state’s projected $18 billion shortfall for the 2012-2013 budget. The programs contract with nonprofits and local governments to provide services such as mentoring, parenting classes and family crisis intervention counseling. Advocates for at-risk children say that the cuts would be disastrous for low-income families, who are the primary recipients of such services. And they say that stripping programs designed to keep children out of the juvenile justice and child welfare systems would be costlier to the state in the long term…”