Licensed Child-Care Administrator (LCCA)

Endeavors seeks a Licensed Child-Care Administrator (LCCA) to provide on-site administrative leadership and regulatory oversight of a General Residential Operation (GRO). The LCCA ensures full compliance with HHSC Child Care Regulation Minimum Standards, the Administrator's Licensing rules, and all other applicable laws, and delivers trauma-informed residential care that centers the voice and participation of each child in decisions affecting them.

ESSENTIAL JOB RESPONSIBILITIES: 

• Serve as the operation's designated full-time Child-Care Administrator, maintaining daily supervision and on-site administrative responsibility for the overall operation. 

• Hold and continuously maintain an active Texas Licensed Child-Care Administrator (LCCA) license throughout employment, as required for the operation to lawfully operate. 

• Ensure the operation's ongoing compliance with the HHSC Minimum Standards for General Residential Operations of the Texas Human Resources Code and all other applicable laws. 

• Serve as the primary point of contact and liaison with HHSC Child Care Regulation (CCR), DFPS, and placing and referral agencies. 

• Lead the operation's trauma-informed model of care, ensuring each child's known trauma history informs supervision, discipline, programming, and daily interactions, and that interventions do not re-traumatize children. 

• Safeguard the rights of children in care, including each child's right to actively participate in developing their own service plan and, for youth age 14 and older, the right to review and sign it. 

• Build and protect operational structures for child and youth voice, ensuring children are meaningfully involved in decisions affecting their care, service planning, and daily life, and that declinations to participate are honored and documented without penalty. 

• Oversee service planning, service plan reviews, and permanency planning consistent with DFPS contract requirements and the applicable Minimum Standards. 

• Oversee staffing patterns to ensure supervision and child-care services that meet the needs of children in care and maintain current, accurate professional staffing plans. 

• Ensure the operation complies with any heightened monitoring plan, corrective action, or voluntary plan of action, if applicable. 

• Maintain a system to ensure a qualified employee is available to handle emergencies at all times.  

• Ensure a child in care is never assigned, used, or allowed to act as a caregiver, and that persons known to present a danger to children are not allowed at the operation. 

• Ensure background checks (including FBI fingerprint checks), tuberculosis screening, pre-service and annual training, and personnel records meet Subchapter E requirements. 

• Help maintain current, true, accurate, and complete records; oversee serious-incident reporting and required Licensing notifications, including notifying the Licensing representative within two days of any change in, or vacancy of, the administrator position. 

• Promote a culture of safety, accountability, professionalism, and trauma-informed, child-centered care among all staff. 

• Participate in supervision, staff meetings, quality management, and continuous quality improvement processes. 

• Maintain child and family confidentiality and ensure that all record-security procedures are followed. 

• Other duties as assigned. 

• Demonstrate Exceptional customer service, in Everything you do, by placing the child, family, or client first to support our mission to  “Empower people to build better lives for themselves, their families, and their communities.” 

ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS: Active Texas Licensed Child-Care Administrator (LCCA) license issued by Texas HHSC is required and must be maintained for the entire duration of employment.  Working knowledge of 26 TAC Chapter 748 Minimum Standards and residential child-care licensing. Familiarity with DFPS residential child-care contracting and placement processes. Demonstrated ability to lead a multidisciplinary team and to build productive relationships with regulators, referral sources, and community partners. 

EDUCATION: Master's degree in social work, human services, psychology, counseling, education, public administration, or a related field is preferred; or Bachelor's degree consistent with LCCA licensure prerequisites.  

EXPERIENCE: Minimum of two years of leadership or management experience in a General Residential Operation (GRO), Residential Treatment Center (RTC), Child-Placing Agency (CPA), or comparable child-welfare program. Direct experience with HHSC inspections, corrective or heightened-monitoring processes, and trauma-informed program models is strongly preferred. 

ATTENDANCE: Must maintain regular and acceptable attendance at such level as is determined in the employer's sole discretion. Must be available to respond to emergencies outside of standard business hours to support 24-hour residential operations. 

LOCATION: This is an on-site position requiring daily physical presence at the operation, consistent with the administrator's duty of daily supervision and on-site administrative responsibility (§748.535(1)). The administrator must reside within daily commuting distance of, or be willing to relocate near, Eagle Lake, Texas, and be able to travel to the operation on a daily basis. 

LICENSES: Active Texas Licensed Child-Care Administrator (LCCA) license (required). Valid Texas driver's license with a clear record. 

VEHICLE: Valid driver's license with access to reliable transportation. 

OTHER: Must clear all required background checks, including a fingerprint-based FBI criminal history check, and complete tuberculosis screening prior to contact with children. Must be willing to travel between program sites and to required HHSC, DFPS, and training events as the business need dictates. 

EXCEPTIONS TO THESE CRITERIA MUST BE APPROVED BY THE DEPARTMENT HEAD.