Who are we?

The mission of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) is to protect the unprotected — children, elderly, and people with disabilities — from abuse, neglect, and exploitation.

DFPS has four main programs

• Child Protective Services
• Adult Protective Services
• Child Care Licensing
• Prevention and Early Intervention

These programs serve to:

• protect children,
• protect adults who are elderly or have disabilities living at home or in state facilities,
• license group day-care homes, day-care centers, registered family homes, 24-hour residential child care facilities and foster homes, and
• manage community-based programs that prevent delinquency, abuse, neglect and exploitation of Texas children.

Every day, almost 10,050 DFPS employees in communities across the state protect the physical safety and emotional well being of the most vulnerable citizens of Texas.

Child abuse and neglect affect the lives of thousands of children each year in Texas.  Unfortunately, home is not always the safe place it should be.  Working with CPS you have the opportunity to work with children and their families to insure secure, nurturing homes.

The protection of people who are elderly or have disabilities continues to be a growing issue in Texas.  These Texans make up almost a quarter of the state’s total population. In APS, our employees work with communities and families to protect a diverse group of clients from abuse, neglect and exploitation.

A new day for DFPS

• With the support of the Texas Legislature, the coming months will see the continuation of dramatic reforms and new resources for DFPS.

• Our renewal initiatives are strengthening investigations, supporting quality casework and reducing caseloads for our CPS and APS staff.

• We are also improving services to families, children and vulnerable adults, building community partnerships and expanding prevention efforts.

• We will be increasing our training and support of DFPS workers as well as adding hundreds of administrative technicians and caseworker assistants to be a part of the protection team.

• New technologies are being introduced to enable our field staff to work smarter and make the most of their work hours.

It is an exciting time for our agency with unprecedented capacity to serve the citizens of Texas more effectively and more efficiently. We look forward to better outcomes for our clients and more satisfying work environment for our staff.