Among technology and technology-related items of appropriation is “providing access to DFPS services by managing a 24-hour call center,” which has more than $33 million each year. This is listed in the goal-based budget lines.
This call center is part of the Statewide Intake Division (SWI), an around-the-clock unit that takes abuse, neglect and exploitation tips from callers. These calls address both children and adults.
The SWI homepage reports that the center logged 599,641 phone calls in 2022, of which 56 percent met the legal criteria for follow-up investigation. There are also options to report online, via fax or by postal mail. These numbers don’t include calls that were made to local law enforcement or other agencies.
Other technology in the capital budget breaks down as follows:
- Acquisition of information resource technologies including seat management, the Information Management Protecting Adults and Children in Texas (IMPACT) system, administrative systems and a smartphone refresh at a total of $60.6 million for the biennium
- Data center/shared technology services at $51.8 million for the biennium
CIO Drew McGrath in Industry Insider — Texas’ May CIO Q&A said the agency plans to request funding for a modernization project during the 89th Legislature.
“We took a conservative approach to our legislative asks for [this] biennium,” he said. “For IT, we focused mainly on increasing funding so we could keep up with our state data center obligations, funding to help manage some of our technical debt, additional funds to speed up interoperability as it relates to Community-Based Care (CBC), and a few strategic IT projects like digital signatures. We did include a request for funds and FTEs to help with planning for modernizing our case management system.”
