The state's child welfare agency has canceled its contract with EMPOWER, the private contractor that's come under scrutiny in recent months for its management of foster care services in nine North Texas counties, according to an internal email obtained by KERA News Tuesday.
It comes after the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services asked a Dallas judge in March to appoint a DFPS representative to take over EMPOWER's operations following the deaths of two infants and the hospitalization of another child under EMPOWER's care. The process is known as receivership.
Foster care services in Region 3E, which includes Dallas, Collin, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, Hunt, Kaufman, Navarro and Rockwall counties, will transition to two different providers over the next several months, according to the DFPS email. Texas Family Care Network, which manages a region in southeast Texas, will serve Dallas County, and the Tarrant County-based Our Community Our Kids will serve the other eight counties.
EMPOWER will continue providing services until the transition is complete, the email states. The transition will not affect services in the region that includes Abilene and Wichita Falls, which is currently receiving services from 2INgage, another division of EMPOWER's parent company Texas Family Initiative.
“This decision was made with one priority in mind: helping ensure children, youth, and families receive safe, stable, and high-quality services,” DFPS Commissioner Audrey O’Neill wrote in the email. “It also reflects DFPS' continued commitment to the Community-Based Care model and to partnering with organizations that can deliver strong outcomes for children and families.”
KERA News reached out to DFPS and EMPOWER for comment and will update this story with any responses.
EMPOWER has been responsible for managing foster care in Region 3E since 2024 as part of the state's community-based care system. Implemented in 2017, it was meant to help fix a child welfare system that’s come under scrutiny for decades, including in a 15-year-long lawsuit.
DFPS revealed in a March 16 petition for receivership that within the past two years two children died after EMPOWER caseworkers failed to properly monitor and assess the safety of their abusive homes. Another child was hospitalized after EMPOWER staff didn't properly document his medical needs, and the boy was given medication he couldn't have, according to the petition.
Following what DFPS described in the petition as “systemic failures” that created an “imminent danger” to kids in state custody, Dallas County District Judge Monica Purdy appointed George Cannata — a North Texas-based regional director for Child Protective Services — to oversee EMPOWER's daily operations.
The receivership period was set to expire June 16 — 120 days after Cannata's appointment, as required by state law. Before the expiration, both EMPOWER and DFPS asked Purdy in May to extend the receivership for another 60 days until Aug. 17.
The agreement also requires DFPS to file a report assessing EMPOWER's performance every 60 days, but that document is kept under seal by a court order. The reports contain sensitive information about specific children, DFPS said in its May motion to seal the records, risking kids' safety.
Then DFPS, represented by the attorney general's office, filed a motion Friday asking Purdy to allow the state agency to continue EMPOWER's receivership through Oct. 14.
According to the motion, Cannata needed the additional time to implement and sustain corrective measures, further reduce safety and service-delivery risks and "complete a safe and orderly transition to either a fully compliant EMPOWER or an alternative long-term arrangement."
"This requested extension is narrowly tailored in duration and scope and is necessary to protect the health, safety, and welfare of children in DFPS conservatorship served by EMPOWER, to ensure continuity of services, and to fulfill the purposes of the (Texas Family Code)," the filing reads.
Nicolette LaRoe — the attorney for the child hospitalized after mistakenly receiving medicine he couldn't have — asked the judge in June to intervene in the receivership case on behalf of her client, referred to as C.J. in court records.
LaRoe has another case involving a separate child in which the court made findings of medical neglect against EMPOWER, according to the filing. LaRoe brought up concerns regarding EMPOWER's systemic failures to EMPOWER leadership, caseworkers, judges, members of Congress and lawmakers early into the nonprofit's takeover.
The attorney asked to receive non-sealed information about EMPOWER's performance and for the court to set a hearing to address child-specific impacts of the state receivership.
Empower was initially presented to the Court and community stakeholders as a "community-based care" model," LaRoe wrote. "However, in practice, Empower operated as a Kansas-based corporate entity lacking the established local relationships and community infrastructure necessary to adequately support vulnerable Texas children and families."
This story is developing and will be updated.
