New private company will overhaul Dallas foster care system

DALLAS - This month marks the start of a huge overhaul of the way the foster care system is run in Dallas and seven surrounding counties. 

FOX 4 spoke with the woman who is leading the new private company that will be in charge of increasing the number of foster homes in the region and eventually shortening the time children are in the foster care system. 

Liberty Hamilton told her story of having a foster mom who did drugs to a special Senate committee in May 2022. 

"She would always leave pipes lying around that she used to smoke," she said.

Now, Texas Family Initiative LLC has been awarded a contract to oversee foster care in Dallas and its seven surrounding counties. The program is called Empower.

Linda Garcia is the senior vice president.

"Our hope is no child should have to sleep in an office," she said.

Empower's first goal is to recruit and train foster parents to create more licensed foster homes in the Dallas region so children can stay within 50 miles of their original homes.

Their first office in the area is in Irving with plans for more office locations soon.

Empower will begin to place children in foster homes starting Sept. 1. Then a year from now, it is set to take over case management.

Kathleen Lavalle is the CEO of Dallas CASA. She says while children's case workers may change, the CASA volunteers working with them will not change.

"We will bring all our resources and energy to ensure success," she said.

Lavalle says one of the biggest challenges for Empower will be creating more foster homes for children with high therapeutic needs.

And as for recruiting case workers next year, Empower will not be able to offer the state's pension system case workers receive now. But it will offer a 401K.