SAN ANTONIO – Community-based foster care will be coming to Bexar County as a result of Family Tapestry, a division of The Children’s Shelter, having been awarded a contract from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

Passed in 2017, community-based care is a directive from the Texas Legislature, addressing longstanding problems with the state’s foster care system. The idea is to keep kids in their own communities, and placing them closer to familiar environments, even after entering the system.

“We want to make sure that they are able to still be within their own school district, their own church, and people that look like them, sound like them, speak their own language which is really important as children develop, " Child Protective Services Regional Director Erica Banuelos, said.

The Family Tapestry program will be implemented in several stages. It will start monitoring families by February 2019, then, as early as January 2020, it will serve families and provide case management. The final stage will involve offering incentives and remedies to participating families.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services says that more than 2,600 children are currently in the Bexar County foster care system.