Thousands of Texas children in state foster care are being sent far from the neighborhoods they know, and the Houston area has become the main landing spot for those long-distance moves. Last year, more than 3,000 placements crossed DFPS region lines, and advocates say nearly half of those relocated children ended up in Harris, Montgomery or Fort Bend counties. Local guardians and caseworkers warn the dislocations make reunification harder and add extra visits and paperwork for Houston staff who now have to oversee kids from all over the state.
A The Texas Tribune analysis found that in 2025, 34% of foster placements were made outside a child’s assigned DFPS region, up from 22% in 2016, a jump that translated into 3,183 out-of-region placements. The Tribune also reports that 67% of those transfers came from DFPS regions run by private contractors and that about 48% of out-of-region placements ended up in Region 6 (Harris, Montgomery and Fort Bend), more than 1,300 children in total.
State documents show community-based care has concentrated placements in a relatively small number of service areas: as of November 2025 roughly 54% of the state’s ~16,000 children in DFPS conservatorship were being served in 10 privately run catchment areas. DFPS reporting and legislative rider materials also treat the percentage of placements made within 50 miles as a formal contract performance measure, while agency filings note the state lost 598 foster care providers since 2019 and that about $300 million was spent on court-ordered improvements tied to federal oversight, according to a DFPS quarterly implementation report and DFPS' rider report.
Why Houston Is A Magnet
DFPS and private contractors say the Houston region simply has more of the specialized treatment capacity some youth need: a higher concentration of behavioral-health providers, a larger local workforce and zoning that makes it easier to open residential programs. When children require intensive services, they are often routed here instead of staying near home. Contractors including EMPOWER and SJRC/Belong have told reporters that many youth “require specialized services that necessitate placement” outside their home regions, and some providers say the capacity gap predates privatization, as reported by Click2Houston.
Privatization's Promise Versus Reality
Community-based care was pitched as a way to keep children closer to home by turning placement and casework over to local contractors. In practice, the rollout has left gaps in many rural counties and created a heavy dependence on a few regions for higher-level beds. State and reporting data show contractors now cover the majority of children in conservatorship in several catchments, yet advocates say roughly $700 million a year flowing through the private network has not produced enough local capacity to prevent long-distance moves, according to The Texas Tribune.
Advocates Say Kids Lose Connections
Child advocates and court-appointed guardians warn that moving children out of region cuts them off from extended family, disrupts schools and can complicate therapy and monitoring. “Being close to things that are familiar minimizes the level of anxiety the child has to deal with,” Vikki Spriggs of Texas CASA told reporters, and local union leaders say Houston caseworkers are stretched by out-of-region caseloads, as reported by KSAT.
What Comes Next
Policymakers and state agencies have started rolling out fixes meant to boost local capacity. The Legislature passed a bill authorizing a rural community-based care pilot to test regionally led approaches, and DFPS and HHS have posted RFAs and guidance for pilot catchments as they try to design a model that fits nonmetro service realities, per the bill text on the Texas Legislature website and the HHS procurement posting for pilot RFAs (HHS RFA).
For Houston readers, the impact is already here: more children from across Texas are being cared for in local programs, which can deepen clinical expertise in the region but also demands tighter coordination, more foster and therapeutic beds in the communities kids come from, and more support for caseworkers trying to keep tabs on children who now live far from their families. Advocates say the next steps, including funding for local capacity, tougher performance oversight and community buy-in for residential programs, will determine whether the years of reform finally keep kids closer to home.
