Earlier this month, two teenagers in foster care were struck by a vehicle after running away from Child Protective Services (CPS) offices in Houston, where they had been staying because of a lack of appropriate placement options. One, a 15-year-old girl, died from her injuries. The tragic fatality has heightened attention on Texas’ foster care capacity crisis, but it is important to recognize that the issues Texas must address are much broader.
Due to challenges with how information was collected and stored in previous years, CPS does not know exactly how many young people who should be in foster care have fled and not returned. The agency does know that 1,068 children ran from care in 2016 and that only 776 of them were located. The whereabouts of the remaining 292 runaways are unknown, but research suggests they are at very high risk of being victimized, particularly by sex traffickers.
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