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In Corsicana, a 16-month-old boy in the care of a foster family died from a blunt force injury.

The death has been ruled a homicide and police are investigating.

This case comes at a time when the entire foster care system in Texas is set for a big change, and that has some people worried.

The state is funding a program that is supposed to rescue children from households where conditions can be unimaginable.

How serious is child abuse here?  Last year alone in Harris County, 34 children died from it.

Hundreds more were taken by state officers from abusive homes, each child with a heart-breaking story, like Allison.

“Her behind was so bloody she’d had diarrhea so long. She was very thin and pale,” Rosina Thomas, her foster mom, said.

Her mother,  addicted to drug, was incapable of taking care of Allison and her little sister, so the girls ended up with the Thomas family.

They’re foster parents, agreeing to provide emergency temporary care at a moment’s notice.

“With us providing care for these children, hopefully, we will break the cycle for these children,” said Thomas.

But this system run by the state with the help of non-profit foster care agencies is showing signs of strain.

Texas spends less on its child welfare system than almost any other state. And here in Harris County, where more kids die of neglect and abuse than anywhere else in the state, the money is sometimes running out.

Financially speaking, “It’s a struggle every day,” said Celeste Ross.

Ross runs Homes of St. Mark, a non-profit Houston company that places kids the state removes from abusive homes.

But the state doesn’t actually pay St. Mark enough to cover the costs.

“It probably covers about 60 percent of what it costs us,” said Ross. The remaining 40 percent comes from the community.

But those community donations were down and earlier this year, St. Mark was running out of money, unable to pay foster parents the $21 a day they’re owed.

It has since recovered, but what’s ahead is causing new worries.

Texas is now planning to turn over the management of its child welfare system to a private, for-profit company.

Ira Colby is Dean of the University of Houston’s School of Social Work and is very concerned about how Texas is doing this.

“The question is, do we want to have contracts with for-profit companies that are coming into provide social services,” said Colby.l

“That’s not the solution. The solution is more money into the system,” said Susan Craven.

Craven is with a child advocacy group, in Austin and is one of several concerned that letting private companies run government social programs has, at best, a mixed record of success.

“They starved the public sector system, now they’re turning it over to a private sector system and expect a different outcome. We don’t expect a different outcome,” said Craven.

The legislature actually did put more money into the system, millions more but only for child abuse investigations.

In recent months, that has meant an increased number of children removed from abusive homes, creating even more demand for foster care already in short supply.

“They’d give us as many as we’d take almost. It’s to the point where it’s, how many bedrooms do you have? How many can you fit in your house?” Craven said.

The Thomases said they wish they could do more to help. But they’ve got their hands full, they’ve now adopted those two little girls.

For them, the system has worked.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services says privatizing will improve the foster care system.

It’ll be implemented first in San Antonio starting next year, and in Houston later on.

The state says it’ll listen to complaints along the way and make changes as needed.

http://www.khou.com/news/upclose/stories/khou060907_cd_fostercare.79624c8c.html