New Runaway Prevention Training
October 2023The new Runaway Prevention Training is available now on the DFPS website.
The training is for foster parents, prospective adoptive parents, and kinship caregivers of children and youth who are in foster care and at least 10 years old. It provides important information about:
- How trauma affects behaviors in children and youth, including how "trauma triggers" can increase the risk that a child or youth will run away or go missing.
- Strategies to prevent or reduce the risk that children and youth in foster care will run away or go missing.
- Steps to follow when a child or youth in foster care runs away or goes missing.
Taking the training is simple. Visit the Runaway Prevention Training page on the DFPS website, choose the English or Spanish version, and start the course.
State law requires caregivers of children in DFPS conservatorship to complete training on runaway prevention and the steps to take if a child or youth runs away (Texas Family Code, Section 264.015). If you have already taken a runaway training from DFPS or a child placing agency as part of your licensing requirements, you are not required to take this one.