TAYLOR COUNTY CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION AND PROTECTION PLAN*

Revised: May 14, 2003;Approved by CPS Board on June 17, 2003;Adopted by Commissioners Court on July 22, 2003

I. INTRODUCTION

The citizens of Taylor County have a collective vision to assure a safe, promising, and nurturing future for all Taylor County children and youth. As citizens, we recognize and acknowledge that many Taylor County children are at-risk of abuse and neglect, and we are dedicated to implement the following Child Abuse Prevention and Protection Plan.

A. The goals of the Taylor County Child Abuse Prevention and Protection Plan are as follows:

1. To reduce abuse by developing new methods and continuing current efforts to educate the public of services available in our county, continuing to support existing government and local prevention activities, and creating or expanding other services when the need is identified.

2. To increase public awareness through training programs, media coverage, providing resource materials, planning and continuing special theme events and information activities and providing information when the opportunity is available.

3. To enhance agency cooperation through support of networking opportunities and activities, education and encouraging referrals to other programs when needed.

4. To eliminate duplication of services, which will increase available dollars, by encouraging networking and education efforts, continuing agency cooperation and providing adequate research information when new programs are explored for implementation.

5. To monitor the legislative needs by advocating on children’s behalf, providing education of legislative actions and being aware of our community needs.

6. To strengthen families through parent education programs, prevention activities, support (financial and emotional), program planning, resource sharing and agency cooperation.

7. To reduce the number of teenage pregnancies.

8. To identify additional sources of funding for child abuse prevention programs.

 

B. Taylor County statistics used in preparing the Child Abuse Prevention/Protection Plan are:

	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Child Population (0-17)	34,451	34,202	34,028	34,002	33,603	33,558
At-Risk Population(Srce:PRS, Dept. of Health)	5,581	5,540	5,512	5,508	5,443	5,436
County-Child Abuse Statistics:
Total CPS Investigations:	516	765	678	852	675	851
Total CPS Confirmed Investigations	189	224	171	154	137	206
Avg. Monthly In-home Services:	85	65	68	310	128	145
Children in PRS Legal Responsibility:	125	108	86	107	132	145
Children in PRS Foster Care:	93	89	75	104	114	133
Regulated Child Care Facilities:
Licensed Facilities:
24-Hour: Full-time	33		64	44	54	53
Day-Care: Part-time	287		170	67	77	61
Registered family homes	96		76	68	58	62
Foster,Foster/Adopt Homes:			24	17	17	25
Adoptive Homes			14	18	5	8

 

Births to mothers 17 years of age and younger:

Year	Total	%	White	%	Black	%	Hispanic	%
1997	177	8.7	68	5.0	22	14.0	87	18.3
1998	155	7.7	60	4.0	15	9.0	80	16.6
1999	174	8.4	67	4.9	18	10.4	89	16.3
2000	141	6.9	49	3.6	13	7.8	79	15.1
2001	157	7.8	58	4.4	12	8.6	87	15.2

Note: Denominator for percent is all births for which mother's age was reported for race/ethnic group and geographic area. Source: http://www.tdh.state.tx.us/bvs/stats01.