Storm Advisory for Foster Parents and Child Placing Agencies

As you may know, some coastal areas of Texas have experienced flooding because of heavy rains from Tropical Storm Erin. A second storm, Hurricane Dean, is also approaching the continental U.S. and could affect the Texas coast this week. This is a powerful storm and should be taken seriously.

A new contract requirement addressed your Disaster and Emergency Response Plan. To assist you in complying with the contract requirement, DFPS is developing two methods of communication to let us know of the children's location after reaching their evacuation destination.

Foster parents verified by child placing agencies (CPA) should contact their CPA. CPAs and all other types of residential contract providers should then provide information to DFPS about the children in their care by completing an online or telephone survey, after they reach their evacuation destinations. Both of these reporting methods will be operational no later than Tuesday morning, August 21st, and may be available sooner. For online reporting, visit the DFPS public website (www.dfps.state.tx.us) and look on the homepage for a link in the Hurricane News box. You may also provide this information by calling 1-800-252-5400 and selecting the prompt for Hurricane Dean.

Hopefully, none of this will become necessary. If it does, we appreciate your attention to providing us with the necessary information about the location of your families and facilities while taking the measures necessary to protect yourselves and our children.