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What is the Family-Based Alternatives Project?

The Family-Based Alternatives Project is contracted to create a system of family-based alternatives to institutional care for children and young adults with developmental disabilities (up to age 22) who currently live in residential facilities in a twelve county area in central Texas. Of an estimated 1500 children and young adults with disabilities who live in residential facilities in Texas, approximately 300 live in the twelve county Project service area.

The Project assists institutionalized children and young adults to return home to their birth families with support; when return home is not possible, the Project recruits alternate families called “Support Families” who are carefully matched with children and their birth families to care for children long-term.

The Project was designed based on research of leading practices around the country. Experience from other states has shown that birth families prefer alternate family care over institutional care when well-trained Support Families are available and carefully prepared and matched. Experience also shows that the number and quality of Support Families available is directly related to the amount of energy devoted to targeted recruitment and development. Prior to the inception of this Project in May 2002, there had been little effort in Texas to develop alternate families specifically for children with disabilities.

In Senate Bill 368, the 77th Texas Legislature authorized the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to develop the Project. HHSC contracted with EveryChild in May 2002 to implement the Project.

What are family-based alternatives?

Family-based alternatives to residential facility care are living arrangements which have as their primary feature a nurturing, enduring parental relationship. Family-based alternatives include the following:

1. Birth families caring for their children at home
   
   Many families sought residential facility care for their children with disabilities because they lacked adequate assistance to care for them at home. The Project works to connect birth families to newly available supports that will allow them to bring their children home.
   
   
2. Support Families caring for children full time

   Learn more about Becoming a Support Family

   
   
   For many institutionalized children, birth family circumstances prevent a child from returning home even with support. The Project devotes much of its energy to recruiting and developing a pool of well-trained Support Families who birth families can choose to care for their child long-term when returning home is not an option. Support Families offer the reliability of a paid caregiver and the nurturing of a family environment.
   
   
3. Birth families and support families sharing in the care of a child
    
   Sometimes birth families want to share the care and parenting of their child with a Support Family on a part-time basis. The two families make a “shared parenting” agreement about  schedules, decision-making and parenting responsibilities based on individual  circumstances and preferences.

For more information on family-based alternatives, see Options for Parents.

Who is eligible for Project services?

To be eligible for Project services a child or young adult must…

•  Live in one of the following types of institutions in the Project service area:
  • Nursing homes licensed by the Texas Department of Aging and Disibility Services
  • Intermediate Care Facility for Persons with Mental Retardation (ICF-MR) licensed by Texas Department of Aging and Disibility Services
  • Institutions Serving Mentally Retarded Children licensed by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services
    
•  Be under age 22
  
•  Have a developmental disability or be medically fragile
   Click here for more information on children with disabilities

The Project serves both children whose birth families voluntarily placed them in residential facility care and children who have state conservatorship though the child protective system.

The Project is responsible for identifying and screening all eligible children and contacting birth families or guardians to discuss possible options to residential facility care.

Where is the Project service area?

The Project currently covers Central Texas along the I-35 corridor from Killeen/Temple north of Austin to San Antonio in the south, the Houston area, the Longview area and the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

What services does the Project provide?

• Identification and screening of eligible children
  
• Collaboration with birth families to explore the possibility of family life for their children, whether that is returning home or living with a Support Family
  
• Collaboration with guardians from the child protective system to explore placement with a Support Family
  
• Assertive recruitment and preparation of Support Families
  
• Linking recruited families with provider agencies for formal screening, assessment and verification

  Read Stories.

• Careful matching of Support Families with children and their birth families
  
• Securing ongoing support and funding for family-based alternatives
  
• Linking together community agencies as partners to provide ongoing support for family-based alternatives
  
• Providing technical assistance to state agencies, providers and other stakeholders
  

How is the Project creating a system of family-based alternatives?

The Project follows a model that is based on national leading practices. The model was initially developed through a grant from the Texas Council for Developmental Disabilities. It is now being operationalized and refined through the Project. The strategies for systems change consist of the following elements and rationales:

1. Identifying and assessing institutionalized children to determine what they will need to live successfully with a family
   
2. Collaborating with birth families to help them explore the possibility of bringing their children with disabilities home and helping them secure the supports to do so
   
3. Helping birth families understand the option of alternate family care for their children with disabilities when returning home is not possible, while encouraging/assisting them to remain involved with their children to the greatest extent possible
   
4. Engaging in assertive recruitment, careful selection and thorough preparation of Support Families who birth families can choose to care long term for their children with developmental disabilities, either full-time or in a shared-parenting arrangement
   
5. Carefully matching Support Families with children and their birth families to find the “best fit,” taking into account the child's needs; Support Family composition, lifestyle, experience and skills; and the preferences of child, birth family and Support Family
   
6. Linking a variety of community agencies together as partners by collaborating and coordinating various elements of the process
   
7. Securing ongoing support and funding for family-based alternatives, both on a child by child basis and at the systems level
   
8. Providing technical assistance to decision-makers, service providers, and other stakeholders in developing policies and implementing programs that support family-based alternatives
   
9. Disseminating success stories in multiple formats for multiple audiences to raise awareness and show the desirability and achievability of family life for children with disabilities.
   
10. Promoting systems change by demonstrating the benefit, feasibility and cost-effectiveness of family-based alternatives
    

Who do I contact for more information?

The Project is implemented by two teams. Each team has a Family Support Coordinator who is responsible for screening children and working with birth families and a Recruitment Coordinator who is responsible for recruiting and developing potential Support Families. One team covers the six counties surrounding Austin and the other covers the six counties surrounding San Antonio.

By creating a system of family-based alternatives,
families will have options when faced with the possibility
of out-of-home placement for their child.