{"id":381542,"date":"2026-07-21T22:33:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T22:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/381542\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T22:33:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T22:33:48","slug":"texas-foster-care-agency-cancels-troubled-providers-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/381542\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas foster care agency cancels troubled provider\u2019s contract"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four months after two children\u2019s deaths and other staffing problems at Dallas-based foster care provider EMPOWER forced the state to place it into receivership<\/a>, the agency\u2019s commissioner took action on Tuesday and abruptly canceled the private company\u2019s contract.<\/p>\n

In a letter sent to Texas Family Initiative \u2014 EMPOWER\u2019s parent entity \u2014 Texas Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Audrey O\u2019Neill notified the company that \u201cEMPOWER has failed to perform satisfactorily under its Community-Based Care contract after continuous quality improvement plans, corrective action plans, and other remedial measures.\u201d <\/p>\n

In a separate letter sent to judges, attorneys and advocates, O\u2019Neill said the action came \u201cfollowing an extensive assessment\u201d and was done with \u201cone priority in mind: helping ensure children, youth, and families receive safe, stable, and high-quality services.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agency also noted that the decision came after conditions within EMPOWER continued to present safety problems and contributed to \u201ccritical breakdowns in case planning and decision-making, resulting in the deaths of two children. Additionally, medical mismanagement stemming from staff turnover caused a child to suffer a lupus flare-up and hospitalization.\u201d <\/p>\n

Those services and care to more than 2,000 children in EMPOWER\u2019s care will now transition to two other contractors: Our Community Our Kids (OCOK) and Texas Family Care Network (TFCN). The move prompts even more questions about the state\u2019s rocky progress in handing off state foster care management to private companies.<\/p>\n

A representative for EMPOWER informed The Texas Tribune that it was not allowed to comment on the state\u2019s action without getting its statement pre-cleared by DFPS.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are required to have DFPS vet and approve all incoming media requests,\u201d Frida Cossio, a spokeswoman for the company told the Tribune \u201cWe will begin that process and get back to you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Tribune also reached out and asked the agency why EMPOWER was not allowed to respond openly to reporters\u2019 questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DFPS selected EMPOWER to manage and oversee foster care children in nine north Texas counties: Dallas, Collin, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, Hunt, Kaufman, Navarro and Rockwall. But in its first two years, the state issued more than a dozen notices to the agency outlining its shortcomings when it came to training, staffing and case management.<\/p>\n

More than a year ago, attorneys with the Dallas County district attorney\u2019s office took their complaints to state Sen. Angela Paxton<\/a>, R-McKinney, and she carried a bill creating the receivership process for DFPS to take over the supervision of poor performing foster care contractors.<\/p>\n

After a second child\u2019s death in two years occurred in March, the state petitioned a Dallas County district judge to allow it place EMPOWER under its supervision. The move is the latest challenge to the state\u2019s efforts to privatize all of its foster care management system and occurs as the agency tries to settle its ongoing 15-year federal lawsuit over foster care conditions<\/a>. That lawsuit, which comes with court-appointed monitors of foster care placements and resulting improvements, has cost Texas taxpayers more than $200 million. <\/p>\n

DFPS has declined to offer details about their ongoing negotiations with EMPOWER since it took over the supervision of the company\u2019s work in March. The agency\u2019s supervision was supposed to end in June<\/a>, but instead, DFPS requested that the receivership be extended to August. It also requested that when it files its official progress report on EMPOWER to the Dallas court in August, that it be sealed from public view. <\/p>\n

This is a developing story. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four months after two children\u2019s deaths and other staffing problems at Dallas-based foster care provider EMPOWER forced the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2498,581,74260,1562,287,1564,27,29,293,28,36798,6748],"class_list":["post-381542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-angela-paxton","tag-dallas-county","tag-department-of-family-and-protective-services","tag-health-care","tag-politics","tag-state-government","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-legislature","tag-texas-news","tag-the-texas-tribune","tag-well-b-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}