Panhandle Assessment Center’s Emergency Shelter operates twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and became the first licensed facility of its type in Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle.

As the child lives at Panhandle Assessment Center on a 24 hours a day basis, each staff member notes progress. This information is coupled with whatever collateral data is deemed appropriate for the child including but not limited to a psychological evaluation, a psychiatric evaluation, educational testing, eye and dental screening, and any testing needed to address special needs of the child. Panhandle Assessment Center strives to make observations about the child in as many settings as possible, including home, school, social and physical activities, and provide opportunities for public behavior as well.

Operations and Services of PAC

Panhandle Assessment Center provides emergency shelter and foster care for children who have been removed from their homes because of physical and/or sexual abuse or neglect, which was not always possible in previous emergency placements. PAC’s staff takes care of each child’s immediate mental and physical health needs. They then work to complete behavioral assessments of the children during the 30 to 90 days in the shelter. The assessments facilitate the proper future placement of the child, which might include:

• Returning the child home when possible and helping the family obtain resources and services necessary to maintain a safe and nurturing atmosphere for the child;
• Placing the child in basic or therapeutic foster care;
• Placing the child in a residential treatment center; or
• Referring the child for psychiatric evaluation and/or hospitalization

Panhandle Assessment Center also provides an on-campus school with an accredited teacher for those students having special education needs

Why is such a facility needed?

Before the Panhandle Assessment Center opened, no such facility existed to provide temporary emergency shelter and care for children under the age of 12. PAC allows the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services to take abused or neglected children to a safe haven any time of the day or night, any day of the week. PAC offers children of trauma a safe, home-like atmosphere in which to live until CPS can provide proper placement of the child. The facility makes it possible to keep sibling groups together, which is not always possible with basic foster care placement. PAC also sees to the continuation of the child’s public school education.