Head of child welfare agency is fired
Tenure was largely defined by turmoil, lawsuit, staff exodus
Gov. Greg Abbott fired the head of Texas’ child welfare agency late Monday, ending Jaime Masters’ three-year tenure that was marked by scandal and a troubled overhaul of the state’s foster care system.
Abbott appointed Stephanie Muth, a health care consultant and former Medicaid director at the Health and Human Services
Commission, to oversee the Department of Family and Protective Services starting in January. Kezeli “Kez” Wold, the DFPS associate commissioner for Adult Protective Services, will lead the agency in the meantime.
The governor’s late-night announcement did not mention Masters or the reason she was let go, and a spokesperson for Abbott did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Abbott appointed Masters in 2019, asking the then-missouri health services official to spearhead the agency responsible for the well-being of the thousands of children in the state’s care.
Reached for comment Monday
night, Masters said sharing her side of the story would “take attention away from children, families and caseworkers.”
“I don’t want to be a distraction,” Masters said. “I only want to be part of the solution. I am proud to have led DFPS through the toughest time the department has ever seen. This work is hard without a pandemic, social unrest, great resignation, record gas prices and inflation. Just one of those would be overwhelming with our mission, but I had all of them, and we are still doing our job.”
Masters’ term was largely defined by turmoil. She took over the agency in the midst of a years-long class action lawsuit over the state’s foster care conditions, telling a federal judge last year that “I do feel like I am failing the children.” And she has overseen a slow and troubled rollout of community-based care, the state’s new plan to privatize foster care and localize most family services.
“There are some things DFPS is not doing that they should be doing — whether it’s the rollout of CBC, whether it is having a plan to improve the agency and executing it,” said state Rep. James Frank, a Wichita Falls Republican who heads the House Human Services Committee. “Any agency head is supposed to have a plan and be executing it. ... In my estimation, that is not happening at this agency.”
The litigation led to the closure of dozens of Texas foster care facilities over the past three years, many of them forced to shut down for safety reasons. The state wasn’t able to keep up with the beds lost, leading officials to place hundreds of highrisk, high-needs children in temporary, unlicensed facilities — often offices, hotels or
churches — for indefinite periods of time.
In those lodgings, the children are supervised by caseworkers who are not trained to care for them and have no authority to enforce rules or discipline them. The issue hit a high point in the summer of 2021, when upward of 400 children didn't have a placement, though the number has fallen to about 70 today.
Staffers said they have been assaulted and overworked, unable to intervene as they watched children destroy property or put themselves in dangerous situations. Hundreds of workers have quit in protest.
The staff exodus was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and DFPS staffers have also decried dangerous working conditions, bad bosses and political drama. Roughly 2,300 workers left the agency in the first seven months of this year.
About 83 percent of those employees had quit, the highest voluntary exit rate the department has seen since it became an independent agency in fall 2017.
The department also came under fire this spring after Abbott directed officials in February to investigate families for child abuse if they provide their transgender children with gender-affirming care, such as puberty blockers or hormone therapies. Weeks later, the federal judge overseeing the foster care lawsuit lambasted Masters amid allegations that officials did not move quickly enough to remove kids from a state-contracted shelter where a former employee had been accused of selling nude photos of children.
“We aren't perfect, and there is still much work to be done,” Masters said, adding that the agency has still made improvements over the past three years. “Our workers give everything they have, but all they get is criticism.”
Even with new leaders at DFPS, child advocates and government watchdogs say it'll be an uphill battle to address the myriad of issues that the agency has faced over the past several years. The federal lawsuit is ongoing, more staffers are leaving every day and the statewide implementation of communitybased care is still on the horizon.
“The serious problems DFPS is facing now didn't just fall from the sky,” said Myko Gedutis, the vice president of the Texas State Employees Union. “Elected leaders have not acted urgently to end the CWOP crisis, they weaponized DFPS against transgender children and families, defended an unsafe foster care system in court for years and are pushing forward a privatization plan that has failed. It will take more than ‘a shakeup at the top' or another agency name change to address the systemic issues in the agency.”
Muth worked in Texas government for two decades before establishing a consulting firm in 2020. She will start Jan. 2.
“Children and families across Texas will benefit greatly from the expertise and deep understanding of child welfare that this new leadership team brings to DFPS,” Abbott said in a release. “As a recognized administrator and organizational leader, Stephanie will contribute her deep understanding of agency operations and increased accountability to strengthen the efforts of this critical agency.”
Abbott is also bringing Anne Heiligenstein back to the agency, giving the former DFPS commissioner the role of senior adviser under the new administration.
Heiligenstein, who led DFPS from 2008 to 2011, is the Texas strategic consultant for Casey Family Programs, a nonprofit that aims to improve child welfare systems nationwide.
Abbott had Heiligenstein return to the department in a deputy role in June amid concerns from lawmakers about Masters' leadership, the Dallas Morning News reported. But Masters abruptly canceled the contract with Casey Family Programs last month, and Heiligenstein left the agency last week.