Texas has poured more than $100 million into the state’s aging foster care software known as IMPACT. This one 1990s-era application helps caseworkers keep track of where abused and neglected children are placed, as well as what health care services and schooling they have received.
But despite complaints from weary Texas Department of Family and Protective Services caseworkers who use the antiquated system daily and from lawmakers who hear about the system’s shortcomings every legislative session, and even a reprimand from a federal judge, there’s no plan to replace it anytime soon.
At a House committee hearing last month, state Rep. Gene Wu, D-Houston, pressed the DFPS commissioner about modernizing IMPACT: “I've seen buildings go up in less time. … Can we throw money at this problem? Can we speed that up?”
