{"id":385704,"date":"2026-07-24T23:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/385704\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T23:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T23:36:11","slug":"dallas-casa-calls-for-volunteers-amid-foster-care-case-shakeup-nbc-5-dallas-fort-worth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/385704\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas CASA calls for volunteers amid foster care case shakeup \u2013 NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallascasa.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Dallas CASA<\/a>, which helps children navigate the foster care system, says the need for volunteers is heightened now.<\/p>\n<p>It comes after a week of turmoil that saw the Texas foster care agency remove the private company overseeing Dallas County cases.<\/p>\n<p>Kathleen LaValle says the current moment requires those <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallascasa.org\/how-to-volunteer\/become-a-volunteer-advocate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">interested in volunteering<\/a> to step up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe timing is incredibly critical,\u201d LaValle said.<\/p>\n<p>The CEO of Dallas CASA, or court appointed special advocates, says this week marks among the most challenging for the foster care system in Dallas County.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, the Texas Department of Family Services removed the private contractor charged with overseeing case management for thousands of children in foster care. <\/p>\n<p>It comes four months after a Dallas County judge placed <a href=\"https:\/\/3empower.org\/about\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">EMPOWER<\/a> under receivership following the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/news\/2026\/03\/18\/after-2-infants-died-court-intervention-sought-over-dallas-area-foster-care-contractor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">deaths of two children in its care<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Texas in recent years has turned to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dfps.texas.gov\/CBC\/default.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">community-based care,<\/a> which allows private contractors \u2013 instead of Child Protective Services \u2013 to handle case management for children in foster care.<\/p>\n<p>LaValle says oftentimes CASA volunteers would help manage cases for EMPOWER case managers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA long run of workforce instability, constant turnover in their case managers, which is very disruptive,\u201d LaValle said. \u201cWe are the consistent element as all of this change occurs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A spokesperson for Kansas-based <a href=\"https:\/\/texas.tfifamily.org\/about\/about-tfi-child\/#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">The Family Initiative Inc<\/a>, which EMPOWER operates under, acknowledged a request for comment, but did not provide a response at the time this story was published.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/txfcn.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Texas Family Care Network<\/a>, which already oversees foster care cases in a portion of East Texas, was appointed by Texas DFPS to take over the contract.<\/p>\n<p>LaValle said CASA representatives from East Texas reported positive experiences working with TFCN.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re hoping whatever practices were working there can translate into a positive outcome for Dallas County,\u201d LaValle said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf this disruption brings us to a point where we have consistently high-quality casework, then it will be worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas CASA, which helps children navigate the foster care system, says the need for volunteers is heightened now.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[670,102,104,103],"class_list":["post-385704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-children","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385704","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=385704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}