The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services has been reluctant to effectively move toward a community-based care model, a recently released report reveals.

The study by Eugene W. Wang, an associate professor in the College of Human Sciences at Texas Tech University, points to deficiencies in the DFPS organization and processes. It also offers recommendations for improvement.

State Rep. James Frank (R-Wichita Falls) is disappointed, but not surprised, that the state agency has shown no enthusiasm for the change.

Department of Family and Protective Services Commissioner Jaime Masters | DFPS

“Effective implementation of the move to CBC is essential for the well-being of Texas children and families and its implementation to this point has been, in a word, poor,” Frank told Lone Star Standard. “The evaluation provides essential feedback to legislators, to the governor's office, and to those directly responsible for its success or failure on what has gone right and wrong in the move to CBC.

“Unfortunately, the report describes a department unable to think outside of its ‘Central-Office-centric’ box and, nearly four years after direction by the Legislature to start this process, vastly unprepared for the transition,” he said. “One clear example is a continued insistence on looking at implementation opportunities by numbered catchment areas — large geographic areas that stretch for hundreds of square miles — rather than by community.”

Frank, in his fourth term representing the 69th District, is chairman of the Human Services Committee and a member of the Public Health Committee. He is an advocate for government providing core services more efficiently and authored House Bill 5 and House Bill 6 in the 85th legislative session to reform Child Protective Services and its parent agency, the DFPS.

“He is passionate about limited government that serves constituents rather than bureaucracy, common sense local control, increased personal freedom and responsibility, and will continue to focus on streamlining the functions of government,” his legislative biography states.

Frank said the direction was clear, but the state agency has been unwilling to head that way. Wang’s report also criticized the DFPS for being unwilling to share information.

“In 2017, the Legislature gave clear direction to the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) that the state's foster care system needed a new path that was based on local decision-making, community participation and better accountability,” he said. “The Austin-based status quo system had become hindered by bureaucratic centralization that had lost its focus on its mission. Making the transfer to this new direction, called community-based care, was supposed to be a paradigm shift for the department. DFPS has so far shown itself either unwilling or unable to effectively make the cultural shift.”

On Feb. 26, Andrew Brown, a senior fellow of child and family policy for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, testified before the Texas Senate Finance Committee on the need for continued changes and reform.

“Over the last several years, a considerable amount of work has gone into addressing systemic deficiencies that have long plagued the Texas foster care system,” Brown said. “This work is bearing fruit, and the 87th Legislature has a unique opportunity to build on the successes already achieved by reform efforts. Seizing this opportunity will require the Legislature to carefully coordinate the continued expansion and improvement of the community-based care system created by the 85th Legislature with implementation of key reforms made by the federal Family First Prevention Services Act.

“If done well, Texas can create a more compassionate, responsive child welfare system and become a national model for successful child welfare reform,” Brown said.

Frank said the Legislature requested the evaluation to provide a research-driven analytical process for how CBC implementation was progressing and to provide feedback for ensuring its success, considered vital to the future of the Texas child welfare system.

The report was completed in November but released in March.

“I do not know why the report's release was so delayed after its completion, though I have my suspicions,” Frank said. “You will have to ask the department for answers on that question.”

Published on the DFPS website, the report includes a memo from Commissioner Jaime Masters refuting some positions in the report. The memo, dated late January, said the report lacked detail and made false assertions.

Frank said it’s clear the departmental culture is reluctant to change, and that is a bad thing for Texas children.

“I think most broadly it hints at a relationship that is unnecessarily adversarial. The evaluation, requested by the Legislature, is meant to help everyone – but primarily the department – to understand what is going right and wrong operationalizing CBC,” he said. “The goal of everyone here should be to see success so that Texas families are better served and have better outcomes. An outside perspective – again, requested by the Legislature – is necessary to those efforts. I have been personally impressed that Commissioner Masters wants to see CBC succeed and is taking the evaluation's recommendations seriously. All of us should be focused on the many clear areas that need to be improved in the rollout of CBC.”

He said if Texans want to grasp the central point at stake here, he has a few words to remember.

“First, I echo the evaluation's first sentence in its conclusions: ‘... front line staff and volunteers in all the communities are heavily invested in the success of the children and youth in care,’” Frank said. “By and large, those closest to the kids are doing essential work that is one of the hardest jobs out there. The move to CBC is, at its core, an acknowledgement that the most important work is done on the front lines by those dealing directly with children and families. That is why it is called community-based care.”

Texans support this concept, with a February poll showing 76% of registered voters support community-based foster care. It’s a sizable increase from a poll conducted in 2020, which showed 62% support.

Frank is a longtime Wichita Falls resident and the owner of Sharp Iron Group and Transland, manufacturing companies with more than 100 employees.

He and his wife of 28 years, Alisha, have six sons between the ages of 11-26. They are active members of First Baptist Church of Wichita Falls, where he serves as a deacon and Life Group leader.