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Audrey O’Neill, that took the reins of the Texas foster treatment firm in August after the previous commissioner tipped down after 2 years, has actually formally been called the head of the firm by Gov. Greg Abbott.
Abbott had actually selected O’Neill on Monday as the commissioner for the Division of Family Members and Safety Solutions for a term readied to end on Aug. 31, 2027.
” I am recognized that Guv Abbott has actually left me with the management of the Division of Family Members and Safety Solutions, and I am honored to improve the significant progression the firm has actually transformed the previous numerous years,” stated O’Neill. “I am deeply devoted to the objective of DFPS and to our committed personnel that personify that objective each day.”
O’ Neill entered the duty of acting commissioner for DFPS in August after Stephanie Muth, the previous supervisor, tipped down in July.
Formerly, O’Neill worked as replacement commissioner for programs at the foster treatment firm because 2023. She additionally held the setting of major replacement examiner general at the Wellness and Human Being Provider Workplace of Assessor General.
O’Neill is taking control of a firm that remains to be involved in a long-running claim in which united state Area Court Janis Jack regulationed in 2011 that discovered children were leaving the state’s treatment extra broken than when they got in, after being “shuttled throughout a system where rape, misuse, psychotropic drug, and instability are the standard. In Might, attorneys standing for youngsters in the state’s treatment asked the united state High court to step in after Jack, that got DFPS to set up adjustments throughout the years, was gotten rid of from the situation in October.
In August 2020, there were 50 youngsters categorized as “CWOP” or youngsters without a positioning. That number rose to 400 in August 2021. Various other issues consisted of an examination right into claims that a staff member at a domestic therapy facility for youngsters that were trafficking targets had actually gotten and marketed naked pictures of the home’s homeowners. A grand court decreased to finger the worker as a result of inadequate proof.
O’Neill is the 5th commissioner because 2012 and each of O’Neill’s precursors have actually offered much less than 5 years in the duty.
When Muth took control of 2 years earlier, she assisted reduced the variety of youngsters without positioning. She additionally proceeded the decade-long rollout of the “community-based” treatment design, in which youngsters in foster treatment obtain solutions and are positioned right into treatment near their very own home and loved ones rather than being crossed the state to the very first readily available positioning.
8 of the state firm’s 11 areas currently have an exclusive community-based service provider.
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