Introduction

This chapter is an overview of the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC). ICPC is a uniform law enacted by all fifty states, the District of Columbia and the US Virgin Islands. The purpose of ICPC is to ensure that children placed out of their home state receive the same protections and services that would be provided, if they remained in their home state. The ICPC can be found at Tex. Fam. Code § 162.102.

To see any specific ICPC regulations mentioned throughout this chapter, please link to the ICPC regulations here:

http://www.aphsa.org/content/AAICPC/en/ICPCRegulations.html

In 2014, CPS underwent an Operational Review and a Sunset Review, and as a result, CPS embarked on streamlining its ICPC policy. The revised policy is not yet available, but the current (unrevised) on the DFPS website may be located here:

https://www.dfps.state.tx.us/handbooks/CPS/Menu/MenuCPS9000.asp

Some recent efforts to improve the Texas ICPC process include:

•   The overall processing of expedited home study requests

•   Regional ICPC coordinators have been tasked to assist Texas caseworkers with the ICPC process

•   Texas ICPC/State office and Regional ICPC coordinators are promoting on-line easily accessible ICPC training

•   Texas ICPC/State Office created a spreadsheet to use jointly with the ICPC regional coordinators to routinely track and check for the status of outgoing home study requests

In addition, DFPS is working on a data report to assist in tracking timeliness of outgoing requests.