Among Nicolette LaRoe is a court-appointed attorney for kids in the child welfare system. But she advocates for them like they're her own.
That's why she's so passionate about CJ. "CJ" is how a recent court filing refers to the boy, whose full name and age aren't disclosed.
According to the document, CJ was diagnosed in June 2024 with type of lupus induced by Depakote or divalproex sodium, a medication used to treat epilepsy and other conditions.
But caseworkers for EMPOWER — the private nonprofit managing foster care in the Dallas area at the time — didn't properly document CJ's medical needs in his case record and authorized the hospital to give the boy divalproex sodium Nov. 26, 2024.
CJ was admitted to the hospital February 19, 2025, with chest pain and pneumonia, according to the filing — conditions believed to be caused by lupus. In the eight months between his diagnosis and his admission to the hospital with lupus-related conditions, the document states, CJ had five different EMPOWER caseworkers assigned to him.
His medical needs were miscommunicated in the shuffle.
"All the stuff that has happened has been tragic," LaRoe said in a July interview with KERA News. "And while they were going through all these caseworkers and supervisors and different directors and all this crap, it's like trying to hold jelly in your hand. You can never get a grip on anything."
A KERA News analysis of two years of DFPS corrective plans showed CJ's case wasn't seen as an outlier: EMPOWER's caseworkers reportedly weren't showing up to court — and when they were, they were unprepared. Caseworkers dealt with large caseloads, lacked basic training and made simple mistakes that led to negative — and sometimes fatal — outcomes for kids, according to those documents.
KERA News also spoke to educators, attorneys, state lawmakers and child welfare workers who say state intervention with EMPOWER is a start — but it's not enough to fix fundamental issues with Texas' model of what's known as community-based care.
An 'extraordinary' measure
CJ's hospitalization occurred less than a year into EMPOWER providing foster care placement services for more than 3,000 children in state custody in Dallas, Collin, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, Hunt, Kaufman, Navarro and Rockwall counties.
Entrusting foster care management to private contractors like EMPOWER is the basis of the community-based care system — the goal of which is to keep children closer to home and, as a result, improve the services they receive. The model was what Texas lawmakers saw as a fix to a child welfare system plagued by high turnover, documentation issues and less-than-ideal accommodations for foster children.
But months into its takeover, it appeared EMPOWER was crushed under the weight of the same issues. The state's child welfare agency announced it was cutting ties with EMPOWER July 21.
Now, Texas Family Care Network — which operates in 15 southeast Texas counties — will take over management in Dallas County. Our Community Our Kids manages 10 counties, including Tarrant and Denton counties, and will add eight counties previously in EMPOWER's care to its load beginning Oct. 1, according to OCOK's website.
"This decision was made with one priority in mind: helping ensure children, youth, and families receive safe, stable, and high-quality services," DFPS said in an email to community stakeholders.
The news came four months after the death of an infant in EMPOWER's care. Her name was Athaliah Leilani Silva Bernal, according to reporting by The Lab Report.
That same month, the Department of Family and Protective Services asked a Dallas judge to appoint a regional director to oversee EMPOWER's operations in a process known as receivership — an "extraordinary" measure, DFPS said in its petition to the judge, that precedes contract cancelation.
CJ's hospitalization and the deaths of Athaliah and another infant resulted from EMPOWER's "systemic failures" that created an "imminent danger" to kids in state custody, the agency said, even after DFPS imposed more than a dozen action plans meant to improve EMPOWER's performance.
LaRoe, CJ's attorney, asked the judge in June to let her intervene in EMPOWER's case because she said the receivership wasn't child-focused enough and still suffered from grave issues.
"Each child represents a real child with a family with people who love and care about them, including their attorneys," LaRoe said. "And that we, as the people on the ground — I'm talking about lawyers, I'm talking about judges — that we have to deal with the fallout, which are the real-world implications and impacts that our children have to endure that we serve."
EMPOWER said in a July 6 emailed statement to KERA News child safety remained its top priority through the receivership, and additional oversight, training and corrective action are meant to address the state's concerns.
"(Community-based care) requires sustained investment, both in funding and in community partnerships, to be successful. And like all cultural changes, transitions of any nature take time," the statement reads. "Our vision remains clear: ensuring children are safe today, strengthening the systems that support them tomorrow and continuing to build a stable, high-performing workforce to serve families across the Metroplex East Region."
Fifteen days later, when DFPS canceled EMPOWER's contract, the nonprofit issued another statement saying EMPOWER was "disappointed" by the termination of its contract. This time, a spokesperson said she was required to send KERA News' request for comment to DFPS for vetting and approval.
"We are proud of our dedicated staff, providers and partners and the positive impact they have made in the lives of countless children and families," the statement reads. "We will work collaboratively with DFPS throughout this new transition to minimize disruption in services for children and families. The well-being of those we serve will continue to guide our efforts every step of the way."
Shaky beginnings
DFPS, home to Child Protective Services, had its own fair share of systemic failures over the decades. That includes foster children sleeping in CPS offices, caseworkers taking on too many cases, high turnover, overmedicated children, human trafficking among foster youth and issues with outdated software.
An ongoing 15-year-long federal lawsuit against the state over its foster care system brought to light many of those issues.
The Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 11 in 2017 to remedy the system's problems using the community-based care model. DFPS would contract with organizations — known as single source continuum contractors, or SSCCs — who could take on CPS' role serving the needs of kids in foster care within their home region.
EMPOWER earned one of those contracts in 2023. Its website describes the entity as a "child welfare collaborative" led by Texas Family Initiative, which is part of a bigger Kansas-based nonprofit called The Family Initiative. EMPOWER took over foster care services in Region 3E after completing a three-stage process March 1, 2024.
By its own account, those staffing issues got EMPOWER off to a shaky start. Its senior vice president told CBS News Texas in 2024 not enough DFPS caseworkers agreed to leave their state jobs to work for EMPOWER, meaning the provider was short more than 50 caseworkers as it began providing services.
That shortage, coupled with staff turnover, led to CJ's rotating cast of caseworkers and miscommunications about his lupus, LaRoe said.
"It was insane," she said. "It was like every other month there was somebody new, and nobody was documenting in any kind of meaningful way so that the next person knew."
EMPOWER's transition was so rough in Collin County, judges set up monthly lunch meetings with EMPOWER and court-appointed attorneys to hash out issues, according to family law attorney Sharon Wilson.
It was an opportunity for attorneys to bring their concerns with EMPOWER directly to judges. When a caseworker insisted on sending time-sensitive drug test requests to Wilson's client —even though Wilson knew her client would receive them faster via text — she said the issue was resolved during a lunch meeting.
But to Wilson, the fact that the meetings were necessary wasn't a good sign.
"If a company is going to be provided a contract by the state of Texas to take over, then they need to be able to take over," Wilson said. "We shouldn't be having to have monthly meetings about all the stuff that they're not doing and all the balls they're dropping."
Documented issues
By the time a hospital mistakenly gave CJ life-threatening medication in 2024, DFPS had put EMPOWER on three continuous quality improvement plans, or CQIs. CQI plans detail a contractor's performance issues and outline paths for improvement.
By the time Athaliah died a little over a year later, EMPOWER had received 17 such plans and two corrective action plans, or CAPs.
The improvement plans show EMPOWER's trouble with hiring and keeping qualified caseworkers led to unbalanced caseloads, as LaValle said. DFPS requires the provider to maintain a ratio of 14-to-17 children per caseworker. More than 60 EMPOWER permanency case managers were over that limit in June 2024.
Currently, 71% of the contractor's case managers are within caseload compliance, with an average caseload of 12 cases, according to EMPOWER. The nonprofit said it will "continue to actively move toward our targeted caseload range."
Some EMPOWER caseworkers missed court hearings and failed to submit timely court reports, according to the receivership petition and one CQI plan.
Vicki Spriggs — CEO of Texas CASA, the statewide membership association for court-appointed child advocates — said she hears from frustrated volunteers about EMPOWER's performance. Due to a revolving door of EMPOWER caseworkers assigned to children, she said, CASA volunteers have to fill in the gaps, sometimes getting EMPOWER staff up to speed about a child's case.
"These are volunteers telling the paid person how to do their job," Spriggs said.
Foster children at one point were spending "extended time periods" in EMPOWER offices, according to an April 2024 CQI. The plan didn't specify whether kids were sleeping in offices. A 2021 state law prohibits kids from sleeping in CPS offices.
Then a Hunt County judge held EMPOWER in contempt and fined it $500 in February 2025, ordering the provider to comply with her standing order for CPS cases "regarding the placement of children overnight in hotels or offices without written permission of the court."
EMPOWER isn't the only division of Texas Family Initiative to be held in contempt of court. A child protection judge held the provider 2INgage in contempt last year after a foster teen was transported hundreds of miles from home and had his medications changed without the provider alerting the court or the child's attorney. 2INgage serves a 30-county region that includes Wichita Falls and Abilene.
U.S. District Judge Janis Jack has held DFPS in contempt three times since the foster care lawsuit against the state began for failing to fix conditions for kids in the state's care. A federal appeals court later overturned the latest contempt finding and removed Jack from the case.
Simple miscommunication involving EMPOWER led to or could have led to adverse outcomes for kids on more than one occasion. According to one plan, EMPOWER placed a child in a foster home that was banned from fostering kids. EMPOWER said at the time there was "not a clear process" for who receives the list of banned homes.
In another plan, DFPS faulted EMPOWER after a young adult lacked hot water and possibly faced eviction. EMPOWER said it was because employees weren't contacted via the nonprofit's 24/7 on-call line, the number for which previously wasn't on EMPOWER's website or contact list.
An April 2025 CQI showed some EMPOWER employees were transporting children without car seats, booster seats or both as required by state law. EMPOWER's explanation: staff lacked an understanding of DFPS child transportation policies.
Technology issues worsened communication delays. DFPS uses a more than 30-year-old system called IMPACT — which has its own problems — to keep track of cases. But EMPOWER said their staff didn't use IMPACT and at times wouldn't log into it for a month, which deactivated their access and resulted in possible failure to provide services to children and families, DFPS wrote in one CQI plan.
A combination of all these issues — missed court dates, turnover, miscommunication, technology problems and a lack of training — led to vital information about kids like CJ falling through the cracks. EMPOWER often blamed issues on staff's "lack of training" about numerous work responsibilities, like approving service plans for children, assessing child safety factors and human trafficking.
The same problems
The corrective plans showed EMPOWER tried to address its issues. Yet the cycle of systemic problems that plagued the legacy system repeated themselves with EMPOWER.
Proponents of community-based care say the system facilitates better service and more family reunification. But Spriggs said that's not what she's seen.
"The same problems that are being experienced by the legacy system are the same problem being experienced by community-based care," she said.
Others propose more drastic measures. The Texas State Employees Union called on state lawmakers to stop the rollout of privatized foster care after EMPOWER was placed under receivership until all contractor services are reviewed.
"It's going to require a lot to sit down and make this thing work," said Christie Carrington, a former CPS supervisor and an organizer with the employees union. "Just passing the ball to a private agency is not going to exempt the state from being accountable to our citizens, to our youth and to our families."
End of the road
Before 2025, when a community-based care contractor's performance was lacking, DFPS only had two options: issue CQIs and CAPs or terminate the contract entirely.
As EMPOWER's CQIs stacked up, DFPS took to the Capitol. The agency asked Texas lawmakers to create a third option: a judge, at DFPS' request, could appoint a receiver to oversee certain parts of a community-based care provider's operations, DFPS Commissioner Audrey O'Neill told the Texas House Human Services Committee in April 2025.
"This would add a tool for, I would say, very serious circumstances where we were maybe approaching termination, but we thought something prior to that could be useful," O'Neill said.
A federal judge once considered placing DFPS under receivership, or partial federal takeover of the state's system.
State Rep. Aicha Davis — a Democrat whose district includes Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Lancaster and parts of Dallas — alluded to the "shortcomings" of the contractor in her district as she presented a bill that would create the receivership process.
Davis put forth a package of bills, along with Republican state Sen. Angela Paxton, R-McKinney, that would try to fix things, including establishing receivership. Paxton's version of the receivership bill took effect in May.
The court-appointed receiver overseeing EMPOWER, George Cannata, is a regional manager with DFPS who's been with the agency for nearly 30 years. Cannata also served as heard of the Office of Community-Based Care Transition and lives in Region 3.
DFPS commissioner O'Neill told members of the agency's Partners for Children and Families Committee in May that Cannata will have full operational authority over EMPOWER's daily functions, focusing on assessment and improvement.
"That is really our critical focus, recognizing that no matter the path forward, this is the workforce in 3E and it is critically important that we ensure they are prepared to act in ways that keep children safe," O'Neill said.
As receiver, Cannata has issued orders around training needs for EMPOWER employees, directed EMPOWER to move toward documenting information directly in the state's IMPACT software, requested data, created a financial account to ensure accountability with funds and conducted regional townhalls with EMPOWER staff.
DFPS staff and EMPOWER caseworkers have conducted safety visits for almost every child in Region 3E, O'Neill said at the time, except for three runaway children for whom staff were actively searching.
Despite the receivership, Davis said in an interview with KERA News — before EMPOWER's contract was canceled — that she had "very little faith" EMPOWER could bounce back from its mistakes and renew its contract in 2028.
"EMPOWER is not a monopoly where there is no one else available," Davis said. "I think right now, we can be looking at those different entities that perhaps aren't as big as EMPOWER, but they have potential, that they have the desire to support children and they have a record of doing so."
In an emailed statement following EMPOWER's contract cancelation, Davis said her priority has always been vulnerable Texas children, not the commercial success of EMPOWER.
"The Department of Family and Protective Services has provided EMPOWER with multiple opportunities since 2023 to improve its practices to ensure the safety of our Texas children, and they have failed to do so," Davis wrote. "There are babies who don't get to grow into adults and reach their full potential because of that failure — that will never be okay.
EMPOWER's successors, Texas Family Care Network and Our Community Our Kids, do have track records of managing foster care under the community-based care model, but it's unclear specifically what made them stand out — or how they'll do with more counties on their plate.
DFPS chose OCOK and TFCN because they are "well positioned" to support Region 3E's transition away from EMPOWER, according to the agency's community-based care website.
State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, told KERA News before EMPOWER's contract cancelation that community-based care can and has worked in North Texas, citing the success of OCOK.
"It is my hope that with oversight from the state and enforcement of contracts, the services in the Metroplex will improve," Kolkhorst said in an emailed statement in June. "I believe it is better for a community to take care of its own children rather than the centralized government in Austin driving a 'one size fits all' model for the rest of the state."
The contract turnover period is 180 days, during which Cannata will still serve as EMPOWER's receiver.
CJ's attorney still has her doubts about sustaining privatized foster care with new, albeit Texas-based, providers. She called the term "community-based care" a misnomer.
"There is nothing community-based about Empower. Nothing," LaRoe said. "They came from Kansas. They know nothing about Texas, they knew nothing about Texas, and they've had years to learn about Texas to gain the resources that they needed to in order to support our babies, and they still weren't able to do it."
Toluwani Osibamowo is KERA's law and justice reporter. Got a tip? Email Toluwani at tosibamowo@kera.org.
KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gift today. Thank you.
Copyright 2026 KERA News