Office of Child Safety (OCS) Manager III

WHY WORK FOR DFPS?

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) is responsible for protecting the unprotected — children, elderly, and people with disabilities — from abuse, neglect, and exploitation. DFPS accomplishes this responsibility by employing over 12,000 workers who live up to the agency's Mission, Vision, & Values in service to the citizens of Texas. DFPS is not only a qualifying organization for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program but also offers excellent health benefits, special discounts on many products and services through the Discount Purchase Program, longevity pay, generous paid leave, access to the Wellness program, lifetime retirement annuity, Texa$aver 401(k) and 457 Programs under the Employees Retirement System of Texas.

Functional Title: Office of Child Safety (OCS) Manager III 
Job Title: OCS Manager III 
Agency: Dept of Family & Protectve Svc 
Department: Office of Child Safety-CSS 
Posting Number: 9994 
Closing Date: 10/22/2025 
Posting Audience: Internal and External 
Occupational Category: Protective Services 
Salary Group: TEXAS-B-24 
Salary Range: $5,425.33 - $8,886.16 
Pay Frequency: Monthly
Shift: Day 
Additional Shift:  
Telework: Not Eligible for Telework 
Travel: Up to 25% 
Regular/Temporary: Regular 
Full Time/Part Time: Full time 
FLSA Exempt/Non-Exempt: Exempt 
Facility Location:  
Job Location City: AMARILLO 
Job Location Address: 3521 SW 15TH AVE 
Other Locations: Abilene; Alamo; Alice; Alpine; Alvin; Amarillo; Anahuac; Andrews; Angleton; Anson; Aransas Pass; Archer City; Arlington; Athens; Atlanta; Austin; Bacliff; Ballinger; Bandera; Bastrop; Bay City; Baytown; Beaumont; Bedford; Beeville; Bellville; Big Spring; Boerne; Bonham; Borger; Bowie; Brady; Breckenridge; Brenham; Brownfield; Brownsville; Brownwood; Bryan; Burnet; Caldwell; Cameron; Canton; Canutillo; Carlsbad; Carrizo Springs; Carrollton; Carthage; Center; Centerville; Childress; Clarksville; Cleburne; Cleveland; Coldspring; Columbus; Conroe; Copperas Cove; Corpus Christi; Corsicana; Crockett; Crosby; Crystal City; Cuero; Cypress; Daingerfield; Dallas; Decatur; Del Rio; Denton; Dickinson; Dumas; Duncanville; Eagle Pass; Eastland; Edinburg; El Paso; Elgin; Elsa; Ennis; Fabens; Falfurrias; Floresville; Fort Stockton; Fort Worth; Fredericksburg; Gainesville; Galveston; Garland; Gatesville; Georgetown; Giddings; Gilmer; Goliad; Gonzales; Graham; Granbury; Grand Prairie; Grapevine; Greenville; Hallettsville; Hamilton; Harlingen; Haskell; Hearne; Hemphill; Hempstead; Henderson; Hereford; Hillsboro; Hondo; Houston; Humble; Huntsville; Hurst; Irving; Jacksonville; Jasper; Johnson City; Jourdanton; Karnes City; Katy; Kaufman; Kerrville; Killeen; Kingsville; Kingwood; Kirbyville; La Grange; Lake Jackson; Lake Worth; Lamesa; Lampasas; Lancaster; Laredo; Levelland; Lewisville; Liberty; Linden; Littlefield; Livingston; Llano; Lockhart; Longview; Lubbock; Lufkin; Lumberton; Madisonville; Marble Falls; Marfa; Marlin; Marshall; Mcallen; Mckinney; Mercedes; Meridian; Mesquite; Mexia; Midland; Mineola; Mineral Wells; Mission; Monahans; Mount Pleasant; Mount Vernon; Nacogdoches; Navasota; New Boston; New Braunfels; Odessa; Orange; Palestine; Pampa; Paris; Pasadena; Pearland; Pearsall; Pecos; Perryton; Pharr; Pittsburg; Plainview; Plano; Pollok; Port Arthur; Port Lavaca; Presidio; Quitman; Raymondville; Refugio; Richardson; Richmond; Rio Grande City; Robstown; Rockwall; Rosenberg; Round Rock; Rowlett; Rusk; San Angelo; San Antonio; San Benito; San Juan; San Marcos; San Saba; Schertz; Seguin; Seminole; Seymour; Sherman; Silsbee; Sinton; Snyder; Socorro; Sonora; South Houston; Stephenville; Sugar Land; Sulphur Springs; Sweetwater; Taylor; Temple; Terrell; Texarkana; Texas City; The Woodlands; Tomball; Trinity; Tyler; Uvalde; Van Horn; Vernon; Victoria; Waco; Washington; Watauga; Waxahachie; Weatherford; Webster; Weslaco; Wharton; Wichita Falls; Woodville; Zapata 
MOS Codes: 0203,0207,0302,0520,0602,0802,1802,5502,6302,6502,7202,7208,7210,7220,111X,112X,113X,114X,16GX,41AX 
611X,612X,631X,632X,641X,648X,86M0,86P0,8U000,9G100,SEI15 
 
 

Brief Job Description:

The Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) Manager III/Lead Child Safety Specialist is selected by and reports to the Director II of the Office of Child Safety (OCS). This position has a variety of responsibilities which are included in the Essential Job Functions. The position works under general supervision, with moderate latitude for the use of initiative and independent judgment.

Essential Job Functions:

Manages day-to-day activities of staff within a business function, division, or department.

• Directly supervises Office of Child Risk and Safety (OCS) Child Safety Specialists and communicates with employees. 
• Manage the day-to-day operations for employees assigned to them, such as ensuring staff are managing their own time and leave, managing travel, and other administrative duties.
• Ensures employees assigned to them complete required job duties to include, conducting reviews and evaluations of cases determined to involve a high risk to the health or safety of a child; review and evaluation of cases in which there have been multiple referrals to the department of child abuse or neglect involving the same family, child, or person alleged to have committed the abuse or neglect;  approving decisions and assessments related to investigations of cases of child abuse or neglect that involve a high risk to the health or safety of a child; the review, assessment, and approval of cases involving a child fatality; case review and assessment as requested by regional and state office staff and leadership; facilitation of multi-stage meetings for case review and recommendations; competition of child fatality and near fatality release of information to the public; and participation and facilitation of review meetings with external stakeholders.  

Establishes goals and objectives; develops and approves schedules, priorities, and standards for achieving goals, and manages evaluation activities.

• Uses feedback during monthly meetings with OCS staff and peers to establish goals and objectives for the program.  
• Utilizes feedback from monthly to quarterly meetings with Regional DFPS employees to establish goals and objectives for the program.  
• Develops and implements schedules and priorities for OCS employees when working towards improvement and changes within the OCS program.
• Determines and manages the practice of evaluation for program improvements by developing the criteria for specific job duties, and teaching the information to employees. 
• Plans, leads, and organizes initiatives to achieve tasks, complete projects, and meet program deadlines.
• Develops monitoring plans for achieving established goals by assigning, setting priorities for tasks and activities, and monitoring and reporting on the progress.
• Defines project scope and scheduling while focusing on regular and timely deliverables.
• Organizes and leads project status and working meetings; prepares progress reports; manages project risks and issues; corrects deviations from plans; and performs delivery planning for assigned tasks.
• Attends project meetings, prepares status reports (including action plans) for OCS management and leadership detailing deliverables and results.
  
  

Develops and implements techniques for evaluating business function, division, or department activities.

• Develops and implements techniques for working with employees, which includes review of completed work, conferences, and unit meetings.
• Completes peer reviews for evaluation of OCS procedures and practices. 
• Develops and implements guides, assessments, and tools to evaluate OCS related job duties, as well as regional and state office policies and procedures. 
• Reviews assessments and evaluations completed by employees to ensure compliance and standards.  
• Facilitates collaborative working relationships between Child Safety Specialist staff with  regional Child Protective Investigations (CPI) and Child Protective Services (CPS) field staff as well as Community Based Care (CBC) staff through regional management meetings, workgroups, and analysis of regional data to identify trends and patterns and develop recommendations and solutions.

Develops and evaluates budget requests, monitors budget expenditures, and makes

adjustments as necessary.

• Develops requests for items necessary for maintenance of OCS job duties. 
• Evaluates the need for items requested for the development and maintenance of OCS job duties. 
• Monitors travel and overtime budgets to ensure compliance with program, division, and agency guidelines.

Plans, develops, implements, and evaluates policies and procedures, and monitors compliance with policies and procedures.

• Provides guidance and technical expertise regarding child safety & risk policies, procedures, regulations, rules, and guidelines and oversees regional and statewide initiatives relating to child safety.
• Assists in the analysis, development and modification of child safety & risk policies and procedures.
• Provides guidance and consultation on complex, sensitive, high profile and high risk CPI, CPS, and CBC cases from a child safety & risk perspective, including child fatality cases.
• Coordinates, develops, and reviews regional OCS Child Safety Specialist staff secondary investigation approvals and Multiple Referral Investigation documentation.  
• Coordinates, develops, and reviews documentation of OCS Child Safety Specialists case reviews and Multi-Stage Staffings documentation. 
• Manages projects and special initiatives assigned by OCS leadership as necessary to further the development and maintenance of child safety & risk policies, procedures, goals, initiatives, and objectives.
• Collaborates with external stakeholders to review and assess policies, best practice, procedures, and issues relating to risk and safety of children through monthly meetings designed specifically to discuss specific CPI, CPS, and CBC cases.    

Prepares management and productivity reports; and reviews and approves documents and

reports developed by employees to ensure professional quality and appearance, appropriate content, consistency, and responsiveness.

• Prepares monthly reports and inputs information using data technology developed for the OCS program.
• Provides oversight and review of cases and documentation completed by employees to ensure quality, consistency, and appropriate content. 
• Provides review and support for others within OCS to determine consistency across the program. 
• Provides oversight to OCS employees completing job tasks to ensure responsiveness.
• Manages the compilation of data and analyses, and provides feedback and consultation to regional staff to enhance the agency's ability to conduct accurate assessments.

Identifies areas of needed change and makes recommendations to improve operations.

• Leads the development, documentation, implementation, monitoring and periodic updating of new and ongoing OCS child safety and risk projects to promote effective OCS child safety and risk initiatives and strategies.

• Coordinates with all levels of regional and state-level staff to ensure that appropriate child safety and risk strategies and best practices are incorporated in the development of policy, training, outcome measures, and service delivery paradigms.

• Provides direction and subject matter expertise to regional management. 

Provides technical expertise and guidance regarding questions related to the business function, division, or department.

• Oversees and coordinates efforts relating to assessing safety and risk for children on a regional and statewide level through one on one and group meetings, and through other forms of communication such as electronic mail (email).
• Directs, plans, implements, and monitors initiatives relating to risk assessments and child safety by coordinating with regional management on initiatives to enhance and improve casework practice related to child safety and risk.
• Provides regional leadership and technical expertise in evaluating regional performance regarding child safety assessments and in coordination of regional strategies to enhance staff skills in identifying and resolving child safety issues through meetings and planning committees.

• Serves as the regional and statewide subject matter expert regarding data released to the public on child fatality and near-fatality cases through review, competition, and approval of the Report of Child’s Fatality – Release of Information to the Public, and the Report of Child’s Near Fatality – Release of Information to the Public.  
• Manages the development of informational and training materials regarding child safety and risk using a variety of presentation and word processing software programs.  These materials can be found on the program’s website as well as the program’s SharePoint site, and are provided to regional staff as requested, whether ensuring OCS employees complete the training or that the training materials are provided. 

May plan and develop a budget for a business function, division, or department.

• Oversees and coordinates with peers when necessary to develop and implement meetings, conferences, and other business functions. 
• Coordinates with outside entities to determine processes and cost for business functions created by OCS. 

May confer with executive management to develop strategic plans and long- and short-term goals for the department.

• Assists in establishing child safety & risk program goals and objectives and in developing program and administrative guidelines, procedures, and policies.
• Provides OCS child safety & risk program consultation and subject matter expertise to agency leadership by planning, coordinating, and implementing initiatives, projects and policies related to child safety.
• Represents OCS at meetings, briefings, conferences, hearings, trainings, and workgroups to provide subject matter expertise.
  

May manage the preparation, development, review, and revision of legislation.

• Assists in the analysis, development and modification of child safety & risk policies and procedures.
• Provides subject matter expertise regarding agency policy and procedures relating to child safety and risk, upon review of new legislation, through one on one meetings, group meetings, or through other means of communication such as email.  

May oversee special investigations, program analyses, research studies, and internal audits.

• Reviews and implements results of special investigations, program analyses and internal audits.
• Provides guidance, subject matter expertise, and recommendations for strategies for effective program management and improvement through one on one or group meetings. 
• Provides guidance and direction to employees to encourage compliance with implementation of solutions during conferences and unit meetings.  

Supervises the work of others.

• Hires, manages, and provides guidance and professional development for OCS Child Safety Specialists.
• Provides direct reports with work assignments, clear direction and information on responsibilities and work performance expectations.
• Develops work performance plans and conducts performance evaluations at least annually.
• Oversees the development and advancement of OCS Child Safety Specialists through training and effective use of employee development plans.
• Manages employee time and leave responsibilities, and carries out other related human resources activities with program staff.
• Provides leadership to employees using a performance management strategy and development process to provide an overall context and framework to encourage employee contribution and includes goal setting, feedback, and performance development planning.

• Leads employees to meet the organization's expectations for productivity, quality, and goal accomplishment by example, in conferences, and in meetings. 

Performs related work as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

Knowledge of local, state, and federal laws and regulations relevant to a business function, division, or department; and the principles and practices of public administration and management.

Knowledge of Child Protective Investigations, and Child Protective Services.
program theory and practice methods.
Knowledge of policies, functions, and operations of governmental or other large organizational entities.
Knowledge of office management principles and practices.
Knowledge of modern office practices and procedures.
Knowledge of program planning and implementation.

Skill in using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems; and the use of a computer and applicable software.

Skill in using a computer and related office equipment.
Skill in written and verbal communication.
Skill in building and maintaining effective working relationships.
Skill in planning and organizing activities.
Skill in effectively organizing, tracking, and developing written and electronic documents.
Skill in using Microsoft Office Suite or equivalent to include word processing, spreadsheet, database, and presentation software programs such as PowerPoint.
Skill in scheduling and coordinating meetings.
Skill in interviewing and in conducting individual needs assessments.
Skill in establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with various levels of personnel in governmental entities.

Ability to manage business function, division, or department activities; to establish goals and objectives; to devise solutions to administrative problems; to develop and evaluate administrative policies and procedures; to prepare reports; to communicate effectively; and to

supervise the work of others.

Ability to analyze, interpret and compile data.
Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines.
Ability to make travel arrangements and process travel reimbursements and advances.
Ability to work cooperatively in a team environment.
Ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing.
Ability to work independently and operate effectively within established guidelines.
Ability to gather, assemble, correlate, and analyze facts.
Ability to plan and coordinate program activities.
Ability to identify problems and develop solutions.
Ability to record, transcribe and disseminate meeting minutes.
Ability to understand and carry out complex instructions.
Ability to organize and prioritize workload to meet deadlines.
Ability to maintain effective working relationships with external and internal customers.
Ability to communicate in an effective, professional manner.
Ability to work with complex ideas and competing priorities.
Ability to perform work with a high degree of attention to detail.
Ability to maintain confidentiality and appropriately handle sensitive information.

Registrations, Licensure Requirements or Certifications:

N/A

Initial Screening Criteria:

Experience as a Child Protective Investigation or Child Protective Services Supervisor or above. Graduation from an accredited four-year college or university with major course work in a field relevant to the assignment is generally preferred. Experience and education may be substituted for one another.

Prior experience as a Child Safety Specialist is preferred.

Additional Information:

There are currently two open positions.

One position will supervise Child Safety Specialists in Region 1 and Region 2 and may have an office in either Region.

One position will supervise Child Safety Specialists in Regions 4, 5, 9, and 10. The Child Safety Specialists in this unit manage regular job duties as well as manage fatality-related job duties in Regions 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, and 10. This position will also manage data-related duties to assist the Director. This position may be officed at any office in the state.

Review our Tips for Success when applying for jobs at DFPS, DSHS and HHSC.

Military occupation(s) that relate to the initial selection criteria and registration or licensure requirements for this position may include, but not limited to those listed in this posting. All active-duty military, reservists, guardsmen, and veterans are encouraged to apply if qualified to fill this position. For more information please see the Texas State Auditor’s Job Descriptions, Military Crosswalk and Military Crosswalk Guide at Texas State Auditor's Office - Job Descriptions. You may also contact the DFPS Military Liaison at dfpsmilvets@dfps.texas.gov with additional questions.

Applicants selected for hire must pass a background check and if applicable a driver’s record check.

State of Texas employees are required to maintain the security and integrity of critical infrastructure as defined in Section 117.001(2), State of Texas Business and Commerce Code. Applicants selected for hire comply with this code by completing related training and abiding by agency cybersecurity and communications system usage policies.

As a state agency, DFPS is required by Texas Administrative Code (TAC 206 and 213) to ensure all Electronic Information Resources (EIR) follow accessibility standards. The staff must be familiar with the WCAG 2.1 AA and Section 508 to create accessible content including but not limited to; Microsoft Office documents, Adobe PDFs, webpages, software, training guides, video, and audio files. 

DFPS uses E-Verify. You must bring your I-9 documentation with you on your first day of work. Employees must provide documentation to DFPS to show their identity and authorization to work in the US. Please review the following link for authorized documents: https://www.uscis.gov/i-9-central/form-i-9-acceptable-documents .

In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), HHS/DFPS agencies will provide reasonable accommodation during the hiring and selection process for qualified individuals with a disability. If you need assistance completing the on-line application, contact the HHS/DFPS Employee Service Center at 1-888-894-4747. If you are contacted for an interview and need accommodation to participate in the interview process, please notify the person scheduling the interview.