Three CPS workers were fired after the 2014 death of 2-year-old Colton Turner in Austin.

The agency wants to hire 279 staffers for support, supervision, hiring and training.

Whitman pro mis e s to improve investigations, establish new regional directors insome areas, improve candidate screenings for supervisors and hire a state director to boost the number of faith-based communities that promote child abuse prevention and foster care.

Sleeping in offices

Whitman’s latest plan didn’t include a solution for the growing problem of foster children sleeping in state offices. He said he will devise a separate plan to address the issue.

This month, the Statesman reported that 330 Texas children have slept in hotels, offices or emergency shelters since January because the state had nowhere else to put them. Both children and caseworkers have been hurt in such arrangements when children became violent. In one case, two teenagers stole a caseworker’s car and crashed it after driving 100 mph on Interstate 35.

Recently, the state began using armed security guards to watch foster children staying in Travis County’s main CPS office.

For years, CPS has been saddled with enormous challenges, including rising child abuse deaths, high staff turnover, low salaries and a shortage of foster homes, with the agency’s troubles becoming worse over the last year.

Whitman, who formerly headed the Texas Rangers, submitted his 10-point overhaul of CPS shortly after becoming commissioner in June. He acknowledged in Thursday’s letter that despite reaching some benchmarks, his expectations aren’t being met.