Research Impact Spotlight: Evaluating the McLennan County Parent Advocacy Program

The Texas Supreme Court Children’s Commission contracted with Dr. Elissa Madden, associate professor, Diana R. Garland School of Social Work at Baylor University, to evaluate the McLennan County Parent Advocacy Program (PAP). The PAP program aims to help keep families together by providing child welfare-related legal services that some families need but sometimes cannot afford. In addition to informing caregivers of their rights and explaining the process of CPS cases, the organization can help caregivers navigate CPS investigations, as well as other legal issues such as custody modifications, establishing paternity, and obtaining protective orders. Most referrals to PAP come from CPS and other McLennan County service organizations. However, numerous individuals have learned about the new services from family, friends, internet searches, and even their local school district. Dr. Madden adds, "I'm a former conservatorship worker with McLennan County CPS. I was pretty familiar with the need for these services and one of the things that this program is focused on doing is providing legal intervention for families and caregivers that have pre-petition involvement with CPS. That is, involvement with CPS before a child has been removed from the home. CPS is such a large system and it's so overwhelming for families to think about how they're going to manage that investigation process."

Madden’s evaluation focused on determining whether McLennan County Parent Advocacy Program activities have been implemented as intended and tracking available outcomes for the project. The evaluation team, led by Madden, conducted 32 qualitative interviews with caregivers and community stakeholders to assess the program and understand its challenges and strengths. In addition to the interviews, the team created and administered surveys to caregivers. The final report for the evaluation was submitted in February 2024. Findings from the 20-month evaluation include: 

• The program received over 185 referrals from the community and served 51 clients with legal and social services.
• Services provided by the program prevented 91 children from entering the Texas foster care system. 
• The most common reasons clients sought assistance were custody modifications, followed by requests for help with CPS investigation defenses, and assistance with other family law matters. Examples of “other family law matters” include petitioning for the adoption of a child already in the client’s care, assistance with obtaining child support, establishing legal paternity, and interpreting existing legal orders for parents and caregivers. 
• Clients and stakeholders all noted the lack of legal assistance available for parents and caregivers in McLennan County and underscored the need for the PAP program to provide clients with pre-petition representation and short-term advice. 
• All of the clients surveyed reported that they would recommend the program to parents and caregivers experiencing similar circumstances. 

Dr. Madden closed with, "There's likely a need for a PAP program in every community. Our hope is that the lessons that have been learned from this particular program implementation in McLennan County can be used to take this program to other communities and help families with legal representation as they engage with CPS."