The 2025 legislative session saw key victories for families and parental rights—but the fight is far from over.

While we celebrated major wins this year, some key reforms didn’t make it across the finish line. These aren’t just policy points—they’re real issues impacting real families. At the Family Freedom Project, we remain committed to pushing forward these essential reforms in the next legislative session.

1. Ending CPS’s Unethical Evidence Collection Practices

One of the greatest injustices in our current child welfare system is the quality and unethical nature of the evidence used to separate families. In CPS cases, parents can lose custody of their children based on vague allegations, uncorroborated hearsay, or a single misstep that would never stand in a criminal court.

Here is an example of the problem in the current system. After CPS takes your children, they can order you to participate in therapy in order to get your child back. Normally, your therapy sessions are privileged and your therapist is not allowed to share information you give them with others. However, CPS cases are different. Before CPS orders you to engage in therapy, they contract with the therapist, requiring the therapist to report everything you say back to CPS so CPS can use it to keep your children from you. 

That’s why we supported legislation (HB 3758) that would require CPS to follow the same rules of evidence used in other legal proceedings. This simple fix—ensuring fairness and due process—was championed by Senator Middleton and Representative Schatzline. Though it didn’t pass this session, we’re not walking away. Families deserve nothing less than a system that plays by the rules.

2. Ending the Secret Blacklist: CPS’s Abuse Registry

Imagine being placed on a government blacklist—losing your job, failing background checks, and never knowing why.

That’s exactly what happens to many families added to the “Child Abuse Registry,” often without a trial, a hearing, or even their knowledge. This deeply flawed system allows CPS to label people as abusers based on unproven allegations, not actual convictions.

This session, Senator Birdwell and Representative Hull led efforts to fix this. Their reforms would require a fair process: no one would be placed on the registry without first being found guilty in a court of law, and families would finally have a way to petition for removal when appropriate. These bills didn’t make it through this session, but the injustice remains—and so does our commitment to ending it.

3. Raising the Standard for Terminating Parental Rights

Under current law, it’s too easy for the state to remove children from their parents permanently—even when there’s no clear danger to the child. Yet in cases involving Native American families, federal law requires a higher standard to justify removal: evidence showing harm beyond a reasonable doubt. This is the same standard already used in criminal cases. 

Representative Hull’s HB 2216 would have extended that same protection to all Texas families. This bill didn’t pass this year, but it represents a powerful model for protecting family unity, and we’ll continue to support it in the years ahead.

4. Sending Children Home Early

One of the most heartbreaking failures in the CPS system is the limbo that families face after removal. Parents comply with every requirement—parenting classes, drug tests, supervised visits—only to wait, and wait, with no guarantee of when or if their children will be returned.

HB 2399 would have changed that. It introduced a basic but transformative principle: at the 6-month mark, a judge must either reunite the family or clearly explain on the record why it’s still unsafe to do so. It brings clarity, accountability, and most of all—urgency—to a system that too often forgets that children need their families now.

Looking Ahead

These reforms didn’t fail because they were unworthy. They failed because entrenched systems resist change. But momentum is building, and with your continued support, we will keep advancing meaningful reform until every Texas family is protected by a system that values truth, justice, and the sanctity of the parent-child bond.

2027 is coming. So is the next fight. And we’ll be ready.

Written By: Haley Skrnich

Policy Analyst at Family Freedom Project