2000 Statewide Intake (SWI) and Case Assignment
APS January 2022
Statewide Intake (SWI) receives reports of abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation of people age 65 or older and adults with disabilities.
SWI sends APS allegations to APS routing coordinators, who then assign cases to APS specialists for investigation and service delivery. If there is a need for special handling, the routing coordinator notifies the APS supervisor, so the supervisor can offer guidance in assigning the case.
SWI calls the on-call APS specialist and provides the report information by phone if both of the following apply to the report:
- It is a report of abuse or neglect requiring immediate attention.
- SWI receives it after regular business hours.
2100 Allegation Priorities
APS March 2024
DFPS assigns a priority to each intake report upon receiving it. DFPS uses these priorities to establish time frames for conducting initial face-to-face interviews with clients and for delivering protective services. The priorities are based on the severity and immediacy of the alleged threat to the life or physical safety of the client.
APS conducts the initial face-to-face contact with the client according to the priorities in the table below.
| Priority |
Description |
Examples |
Time Frame for Initial Face-to-Face Contact |
|---|---|---|---|
Priority I |
Allegation that the victim is either of the following:
|
|
Within 24 hours of SWI’s receipt of the allegation. |
Priority II |
Allegation that the victim is both of the following:
|
|
Within three calendar days of SWI’s receipt of the allegation. |
Priority III |
Any other allegation that the victim is abused or neglected. |
|
Within seven calendar days of SWI’s receipt of the allegation. |
Priority IV |
Only used for allegations of financial exploitation, when the victim is not in danger of becoming impoverished very soon or of having basic needs unmet. This priority is not used when there is also an allegation of abuse or neglect. |
|
Within 14 calendar days of SWI’s receipt of the allegation. |
Title 40, Texas Administrative Code §705.501
See also 8120 Changes in Allegation Priorities.
2200 Information and Referrals (I&Rs)
APS September 2022
Statewide Intake (SWI) generates an Information and Referral (I&R) report when new information is received that relates to an open case. The I&R report may contain additional information such as the following:
- Collaterals
- An allegation
- Locating information
SWI sends the I&R to the routing coordinator or on-call staff, as appropriate.
2210 How to Handle I&Rs
APS September 2022
After receiving an I&R, the APS specialist reviews the I&R to determine whether the information is relevant to the open case.
Relevant to Open Case
If the I&R contains relevant information, the APS specialist documents the I&R using the Contact Detail page. To do this, the APS specialist does as follows:
- Chooses Contact as the Contact/Summary Type.
- Fills in all required fields on the Contact Detail page and uses the time and date of the I&R for the Contact Date and Time.
- Clicks the Save button.
- Clicks the Narrative button on the Contact Detail page.
- Enters a summary of the relevant I&R information, including the Call ID number.
- Closes the I&R.
Not Relevant to Open Case
If the I&R does not contain relevant information, the APS specialist closes the I&R without documenting it in a case narrative.
2300 Case-Related Special Requests
APS January 2022
A case-related special request (CRSR) is a request or mandate to provide assistance. It does not include allegations of abuse, neglect, or exploitation. It requires DFPS to do casework without conducting an investigation.
A CRSR progresses a request or mandate from the IMPACT Intake stage directly to one of the following service stages:
- C-OS (for out-of-state CRSRs).
- C-Reg (for all other types of APS CRSRs).
Only APS state office can request that SWI create a CRSR. SWI creates the CRSR in IMPACT and sends it to an APS regional office or to the APS state office in Austin, as appropriate.
In the Statewide Intake Policy and Procedures Handbook, see 5800 APS Case-Related Special Requests (CRSR).
Types of APS CRSRs
There are three types of CRSRs that APS uses.
Law Enforcement
SWI makes a Law Enforcement CRSR when the following criteria apply:
- Law enforcement requests help from APS with a high-profile situation that involves a person age 65 or older or an adult with a disability.
- The situation does not involve allegations of abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation.
Texas Government Code §531.165
APS Court
SWI makes an APS Court CRSR in either of the following situations:
- When both of the following apply:
- A court or legislator has requested help from APS with a high-profile situation that involves a person age 65 or older or an adult with disabilities.
- The situation does not involve allegations of abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation.
- HHSC contacts DFPS when a parent or legal guardian of an adult resident of an intermediate care facility for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities or nursing home cannot be located after one year. APS notifies guardianship courts when an adult has a guardian who cannot be located.
Out-of-State
SWI makes an Out-of-State CRSR when both of the following criteria apply:
- A probate court or an adult protective services program in another state requests help from APS with a situation that involves a person age 65 or older or an adult with a disability.
- The situation does not involve allegations of abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation.
2310 How to Handle CRSRs
APS January 2022
SWI assigns a CRSR as described in the Statewide Intake Policy and Procedures Handbook, 5800 APS Case-Related Special Requests (CRSR).
A routing coordinator in an APS office receives the CRSR and assigns it to an APS specialist. However, the routing coordinator assigns it to an APS supervisor if it involves a high-profile situation.
When APS receives a CRSR, the assigned APS specialist (or assigned supervisor) does as follows:
- Reads the CRSR.
- Does as follows to complete the CRSR:
- Contacts the requester (such as law enforcement or an out-of-state agency) to coordinate the request.
- Provides the requested or mandated assistance.
- Asks SWI to reenter the CRSR as an intake report, if the APS specialist determines that abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation may be involved.
- Saves the CRSR and submits it to the supervisor in IMPACT. The supervisor’s approval is required before closure.
Documenting the CRSR
SWI sends a CRSR to APS in the C-Reg service stage.
The APS specialist creates a new Contact Detail page in IMPACT for each contact completed while working on a CRSR. To document contacts in IMPACT, the APS specialist does as follows:
- Chooses Contact as the Contact/Summary Type.
- Fills in all fields on the Contact Detail page.
- Clicks the Save button.
- Clicks the Narrative button on the Contact Detail page.
- Enters the contact information in the Narrative.
CRSRs do not contain any assessments or service plans.
Closing the CRSR
When the CRSR is complete, the APS specialist saves it in IMPACT and submits it to the supervisor for review and closure.
The APS specialist uses one of the following closure codes:
- Client Died: The client died before the completion of the request.
- Services Completed: APS has completed the request.
- Unable to Comply With Request: APS cannot locate the client, or the request is not the responsibility of APS.
- Request Withdrawn: The requester cancels the request.
- Duplicate Closure: A duplicate CRSR was created, in error. (There is no Case Merge option for CRSRs.)
- Admin Closure: The request is ready to be closed but does not meet the criteria for the other closure codes.
2400 Case Assignment
APS March 2024
Role of SWI in Assignment of APS Cases
When SWI receives a report of abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation of a person age 65 or older or an adult with a disability, the intake specialist (SWI staff member) does as follows:
- Documents, at a minimum, the following:
- Identifying information for the client and the alleged perpetrator, even if the names are unknown.
- Locating information for the client and the alleged perpetrator, and directions, if necessary.
- Age and date of birth of the client and the alleged perpetrator, or an approximate age, if date of birth is unknown.
- Details about the client’s current situation, including how extensive or severe it is.
- Limited English proficiency or communication impairments (if applicable) of the client and the alleged perpetrator. See 1220 Interpreter Services for Principals.
- Any known issues that may be a danger to APS staff members working on the case.
- Sensitive or high-profile issues. See 2422 High-Profile Cases.
- Assigns an initial priority for each APS case based on the information from the intake call (or the electronic report). See 2100 Allegation Priorities.
- Sends the investigation to an APS employee designated in IMPACT to receive cases. The intake specialist identifies this employee based on the county where the client is located at the time SWI receives the report. (See Case Assignment to the Field below.)
Case Assignment to the Field
The intake specialist assigns the APS investigation to the county where the client is located at the time of intake, regardless of any of the following:
- Reason the client is not in his or her county of residence.
- Length of time the client will be away from his or her county of residence.
- Client’s current placement (such as a hospital, jail, and so on).
- The allegation priority.
Priority I (P1) Intakes After Hours
When SWI receives a report of abuse or neglect after regular business hours that requires immediate attention, the SWI staff does both of the following:
- Places the P1 intake on the on-call APS specialist’s workload in IMPACT.
- Calls the on-call APS specialist to tell him or her of the P1 intake.
P1 intakes that SWI receives on an official DFPS holiday follow on-call procedures for weekends. However, skeleton crew days and optional holidays use on-call procedures for business days (not holidays).
On-Call APS Specialists
Each on-call APS specialist is responsible for checking his or her workload by 8 a.m. every morning for any P1 intakes that SWI may have assigned overnight. The on-call APS specialist is responsible for any cases on his or her workload, even if the specialist did not receive notification from SWI.
The on-call APS specialist works with the local routing coordinator to assign intakes (other than P1), which SWI receives after business hours, to a primary APS specialist.
Contact Information in IMPACT
It is each APS district’s responsibility to make sure the on-call schedule and APS specialists’ contact information are up-to-date and accurate in IMPACT.
2410 On-Call Information in IMPACT for Case Assignment
APS January 2022
APS maintains on-call information in the IMPACT system to help SWI send investigations and information and referrals (I&Rs) to the correct staff member in a timely manner.
The assigned APS employee with Maintainer status in IMPACT makes sure of the following:
- All information on the On-Call Detail page in IMPACT is accurate, including the following:
- Employee contact phone numbers on the Staff Detail page are current.
- Schedules on the On-Call Detail page show correct on-call information.
- All hours are covered (that is, they have on-call staff members) on the On-Call Detail page.
- A routing coordinator is assigned on the On-Call Detail page for all times, including the following:
- During normal business hours, for case assignment.
- After normal business hours, when the next day is a workday, for assignment of all items not requiring call out, such as I&Rs and APS cases that are not Priority I.
- For every shift or block of time outside normal business hours, each duty designation has an employee’s name assigned to it (six employees in total). The designations are as follows:
- Primary Worker (PW).
- Supervisor (SP).
- Backup Worker (BW).
- Routing Coordinator (RC).
- Program Director (PD).
- Program Director (PD) for Sensitive Case Contact.
2420 Intakes with Special Considerations
APS January 2022
Certain factors require special consideration when assigning cases. APS evaluates each intake to make sure to assign it to the most appropriate APS specialist. APS routing coordinators review intakes upon receipt from SWI to identify special considerations and make sure to assign cases appropriately.
Special considerations include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Cases that may require the involvement of a subject matter expert (SME), such as severe neglect or financial exploitation.
- Cases that require special cultural knowledge or interpreter services.
- Cases that will be likely to involve the court system or law enforcement.
- Sensitive or high-profile cases, such as those involving elected officials, specialists in the HHSC Office of Guardianship Services, DFPS staff members or their family members, or the media. See 2422 High-Profile Cases.
- Cases that require joint investigations with other agencies, such as the Provider Investigations program in the HHSC Regulatory Services Division.
- Recidivistic cases (in which the client has been an alleged or designated victim in two or more APS investigations in the last five years). See 2421 Recidivistic Cases.
Routing Coordinator Review
The routing coordinator does the following upon receiving an APS intake from SWI:
- Reviews the intake narrative.
- Notes the priority that SWI assigned.
- Identifies any special considerations.
If the case has special considerations, the routing coordinator assigns it to an APS specialist, in compliance with regular case assignment procedure.
The routing coordinator or the assigned APS specialist notifies the supervisor that the case has special considerations and tells the supervisor which APS specialist was assigned to it.
Supervisor Actions after Notification
The supervisor does the following upon receiving notification of a case with special considerations:
- Determines whether to assign the case to a different APS specialist. The supervisor assigns the most appropriate APS specialist, based on experience and skills.
- Refers the assigned APS specialist to a subject matter expert (SME), if necessary.
- Notifies the district director of any high-profile or sensitive cases. See 2422 High-Profile Cases.
- Reviews any cases identified as recidivistic. See 2421 Recidivistic Cases.
- Documents the supervisor’s review and case-related decisions in IMPACT.
2421 Recidivistic Cases
APS January 2022
Recidivistic cases are those in which the client has been an alleged or designated victim in two or more previous APS cases in the last five years. APS supervisors review recidivist cases to give APS specialists more guidance about difficult or complicated situations that result in recurrent abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation.
Supervisor Review
An APS supervisor becomes aware of a recidivistic case in either of two ways:
- The routing coordinator alerts the APS supervisor about any new case in which the client has been an alleged or designated victim in two or more APS cases in the last 12 months. IMPACT flags these new cases with an M on the Case Summary page.
- The assigned APS specialist reviews the client’s case history and refers the new case to the supervisor if the client has been a victim in two or more previous APS cases in the last five years.
The APS supervisor does the following after learning of a recidivistic case:
- Reviews all of the client’s APS history. Cases investigated in the last 12 months contain the most pertinent information about the client’s current situation.
- Refers the case to the subject matter experts, if necessary.
- Helps the assigned APS specialist develop a long-term plan to try to resolve the issues that lead to recidivism (recurring maltreatment). This includes giving guidance about the need for more investigative actions than usual, or more or different protective services.
- Assigns the case to a different APS specialist with different skills or experience, if necessary.
- Refers the case to the Internal Regional Case Management Quality Assurance Team (CMQAT), if needed.
- Determines whether the root cause may be the client’s refusal or inability to change circumstances or behavior.
- Determines whether available resources exist to resolve recidivistic issues.
- Determines whether indicators (signs) suggest that the client possibly lacks the capacity to consent to protective services and therefore needs a professional assessment.
- Determines whether administrative closure is appropriate because APS has already exhausted all reasonable efforts to resolve the problems and knows of no other alternative action.
- Completes a Supervisor Recidivism Review Contact Detail page.
- Documents the details of the review and consultation in the Narrative.
- Documents the consultations with other staff members (such as the APS specialist, subject matter experts, or CMQAT) in IMPACT.
2422 High-Profile Cases
APS January 2022
High-profile cases require more safeguards to protect confidentiality than other cases do. A high-profile case may involve any of the following:
- A DFPS employee or his or her spouse, significant other, relative, or household member.
- A ward of a guardianship agency or program, such as the HHSC Office of Guardianship Services.
- A non-DFPS employee who works in the same office location as DFPS, such as an HHSC employee.
- An elected official, such as a county judge, legislator, or district attorney.
- An investigation that has gained, or is expected to gain, media attention.
- A client who died under unusual circumstances or as a result of abuse or neglect during an open case.
District management may determine that a case is high-profile for similar reasons.
Completing and Reviewing the High-Profile Case Form
The APS specialist completes Form 2272 Notification of High Profile APS Case and emails it to the supervisor.
The supervisor reviews the form, then emails it to the program administrator and district director.
The district director reviews the form and emails it to the director of policy and performance and the director of field operations.
Designating a Case as Sensitive
APS designates some (but not all) high-profile cases as sensitive cases.
After the APS specialist completes a high-profile case form, the APS specialist and supervisor determine whether the case requires designation as sensitive.
All cases involving a DFPS employee are sensitive. In other high-profile cases, the APS specialist and supervisor use their discretion to determine whether to designate the case as sensitive.
Only APS staff members with the appropriate security in IMPACT can access a sensitive case. These staff members include the following:
- The primary and secondary specialists assigned to the case.
- The primary and secondary specialists’ chains of command.
To mark a case as sensitive in IMPACT, an intake specialist, APS routing coordinator, APS specialist, or APS supervisor does the following:
- Marks the Sensitive Case checkbox located in the Special Handling section of the Case Summary page.
- Enters the reason the case is sensitive in the Comments section.
An APS specialist cannot assign or reassign another APS specialist to a sensitive case. The APS specialist’s supervisor reassigns the case or assigns a secondary APS specialist as necessary.
See:
11100 Client Death During an APS Case
14300 Due Process for Non-EMR (Employee Misconduct Registry) Cases
15100 Disclosure and Release of Case Information
2430 Assignment of Secondary APS Specialists
APS January 2022
Secondary APS specialists help primary APS specialists conduct interviews, research records, and do all other case-related tasks except case reassignment or case closure.
If a case requires help from another APS specialist in the same APS unit, the primary APS specialist does the following:
- Requests help from his or her coworker.
- Gives the coworker specific directions about what help is needed with the case.
- Assigns the coworker as a secondary specialist in IMPACT.
If a case requires help from an APS specialist in a different APS unit, the APS supervisor does the following:
- Communicates with the APS supervisor or designee in the area where additional case actions are required to establish the following information:
- Name and contact information of the secondary APS specialist.
- Responsibilities of each APS specialist (for example, interviewing an alleged perpetrator).
- Timeline for completion of the tasks.
- Assigns the secondary APS specialist in IMPACT.
If a client moves to another area of Texas and the case requires further investigation or service delivery, see Within Texas under When an Client Moves in 8220 Client Moves or Cannot Be Located.
Documentation by Secondary APS Specialists
The secondary APS specialist enters all appropriate documentation in IMPACT.
2440 Misrouted Intakes
APS September 2022
SWI routes APS intakes based on where the client is currently located, not where the client lives. When SWI routes an intake to the incorrect county, the APS specialist does as follows:
- Completes the case initiation as outlined in 9210 Completing a Case Initiation, including verifying the client’s current location.
- Notifies his or her supervisor of the misrouted intake.
When Case Initiation Completed
Once notified of the misrouted intake, the APS supervisor does as follows:
- Contacts the APS supervisor in the county where the client is currently located and explains the need to transfer a misrouted intake to his or her unit.
- Establishes the name of the APS specialist who will receive the transferred intake.
- Assigns the case to the designated APS specialist in IMPACT.
If the client returns home or moves to another area of Texas, and the case requires further investigation or service delivery, see Within Texasunder When a Client Moves in 8220 Client Moves or Cannot Be Located.
When Case Initiation Cannot be Completed Within 24-Hours
If the APS specialist is unable to complete a successful case initiation within the 24- hour time frame, he or she immediately notifies the supervisor.
Once notified of the misrouted intake and unsuccessful case initiation, the APS supervisor does as follows:
- Contacts the APS supervisor in the county where the client is currently located and explains the following:
- The need to transfer a misrouted intake to his or her unit as outlined in Case Assignment to the Field in 2400 Case Assignment.
- The case initiation could not be completed by phone and a face-to-face contact with the client is necessary.
- Establishes the name of the APS specialist who will receive the transferred intake.
- Assigns the case to the designated APS specialist in IMPACT.
The APS specialist in the county where the client is located then completes the case initiation, as outlined in 9210 Completing a Case Initiation.
If the client returns home or moves to another area of Texas and the case requires further investigation or service delivery, see Within Texas under When a Client Moves in 8220 Client Moves or Cannot Be Located.
Misrouted Intakes During On-Call
When SWI routes a case to an incorrect county during on-call hours, the on-call APS specialist follows the procedures listed above, including notifying the on-call supervisor.
In these situations, the on-call supervisor follows the procedures listed above, including contacting the on-call supervisor in the county where the client is currently located.
See Looking Up On-Call Staff on the APS Resources page of the DFPS intranet.
2500 Chronic Callers
APS January 2022
Some clients establish a pattern of making allegations of abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation about themselves that are frivolous or clearly without a factual basis. These clients and their allegations take APS specialists’ time and attention away from other allegations.
Criteria for Chronic Callers
A client may be making frivolous or clearly false allegations about himself or herself if one or more of the following occur:
- The details of the specific allegations are almost exactly the same as previous reports the person has made.
- DFPS has found that there is no supporting evidence that abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation has occurred.
- The client makes repeated requests that DFPS send a particular APS specialist to interview him or her. (This may be a specific APS specialist or an APS specialist of a specific gender.)
- The program administrator determines that the allegations are a result of any of the following:
- The client’s documented attention-seeking behavior.
- The client’s documented diagnosis of mental illness or intellectual disability.
- A situation in which there is no supporting evidence that abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation has occurred.
- APS has other reasons to believe the allegations are frivolous or clearly false.
See also 13110 Rapid Closure Codes and Disposition of Other.
2510 Notifying SWI about Chronic Callers
APS September 2024
When an APS specialist identifies a client who meets the criteria for the chronic caller list that SWI maintains, the APS specialist does as follows:
- Notifies the program administrator that the client meets the criteria for the chronic caller list.
- Requests that the program administrator send a request to the program administrator send a request to the Statewide Intake DFPS QA UNIT mailbox to add the client to the chronic caller list.
Once the client is on the chronic caller list, SWI sends his or her calls to the district as information and referrals (I&Rs), if each call matches the criteria that APS used to add the person to the list.
2520 Tracking the Chronic Caller List
APS January 2022
Each district maintains a list to track clients added to the chronic caller list. The tracking list includes the following information:
- The client’s name.
- The date the client was added to the chronic caller list.
- Specific information about the criteria that APS used to establish a pattern of making frivolous or clearly false allegations.
2530 Removing a Person from the Chronic Caller List
APS March 2024
It is the program administrator’s responsibility to make sure that the chronic caller list is up-to-date. The program administrator checks the chronic caller list on a quarterly basis.
If the criteria that APS used to establish a pattern of false reporting for a particular caller are no longer relevant, the program administrator does as follows:
- Removes the caller from the district’s chronic caller tracking list.
- Emails the Statewide Intake DFPS QA UNIT mailbox to ask SWI to take the caller off the SWI chronic caller list.
Reasons that the criteria are no longer relevant may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- The client is no longer calling in false allegations.
- Specific details about the allegations that the caller is reporting no longer match the reasons that the caller was added to the chronic caller list, so there is no longer a specific pattern.