A Petition in Behalf of the
Forsaken Children
of Texas to the
Governor and the 76th Legislature
IV. METHODOLOGY
To show that CPS is asked to do too much with too little, this petition compares 1) the performance and resources of CPS over fourteen years, and 2) the performance of Texas to the performance of other states. Unless otherwise noted, the facts and figures in this petition come from the following sources. The CPS data is drawn from the published CPS's Annual Reports and Legislative Data Books (1985 - 1997). In addition, unpublished information was obtained from CPS. The Fiscal Year 1998 data is unpublished, preliminary, and, in some instances, estimates.
The national statistics are drawn from Current Trends in Child Abuse Reporting and Fatalities: Fifty State Survey (1991-1997)(The Center on Child Abuse Prevention Research, a program of the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse); and Child Maltreatment 1996: Reports from the States to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (1996)(U. S. Department of Health and Human Services). In comparing Texas to the U.S., we will look at detail at 1996 because it is the most recent year with complete, published numbers.
