From a report at :
http://www.tfn.org/files/fck/TFN CC REPORT-FINAL.pdf
Alternative Accreditation for Faith-Based Childrens Services
In 1997, the Texas Legislature established an Alternative Accreditation program that allowed faithbased child-care centers and residential childrens homes to attain exemption from state licensing by instead submitting to alternative accreditation where they were monitored by a non-governmental
entity, such as a group of pastors. The only such non-governmental entity approved by the state was the Texas Association of Christian Child-Care Agencies (TACCCA). Approved by the state in December 1998, TACCCA was charged with reviewing and approving applications for accreditation,
and conducting inspections of accredited facilities.
TACCCA began accrediting faith-based childrens facilities in 1999, starting with the Roloff Homes, which prior to the Alternative Accreditation program were barred by the U.S. Supreme Court from operating in Texas without a state license. TACCCA accredited a total of only eight facilities in the
four years the Alternative Accreditation program was in place. Over the same period, more than 2,000 faith-based child-care facilities chose to continue operating under a state license.20
In theory, TACCCA was required to enforce the same standards, and conduct the same inspections, at facilities it regulated as were enforced at state-licensed facilities. In reality, however:
• Three of the eight facilities accredited by TACCCA the Roloff Childrens Home,
Channelview Christian Daycare and Miller Road Baptist Daycare21 were run by pastors who
served on the TACCCA board. Thus, these pastors were in charge of approving, inspecting
and policing their own facilities.22
• TACCCA was cited by the state for failing to conduct any unannounced inspections of its
facilities, as were required by state law and TACCCAs state contract to be conducted annually
at each facility.23
• The rate of confirmed abuse and neglect at alternatively-accredited facilities was 25 times
higher than that of state-licensed facilities. Alternatively-accredited facilities had a 25% rate of
confirmed abuse and neglect,24 compared to a rate of less than 1% at state-licensed facilities.25
• The complaint rate at alternatively-accredited facilities was 75%,26 compared to a 5.4%
complaint rate at state-licensed facilities.27
• The state could not conduct site visits or address complaints at alternatively-accredited
facilities unless TACCCA filed formal allegations of abuse against a facility it accredits.
• Alternative Accreditation buffered faith-based organizations from state oversight, but left the
children in their care vulnerable.
In Spring 2001, the Texas Legislature chose not to renew the states Alternative Accreditation program
for faith-based child-care providers, dismantling one of the pillars of the states faith-based initiative.
*** For more on Teen Challenge, see case study in Appendix H.
††† For more on the Roloff Homes, see case study in Appendix G.
And here is Appendix G
Appendix G.
CASE STUDY
Roloff Homes: Jeopardizing People in Need
We have already caught a glimpse of the harm that can come of relaxing government regulation
through the dramatic example of the Roloff Homesa faith-based home for troubled teens notorious
for a history of abuse allegations and a refusal to succumb to state licensing.
The Roloff Homes were founded by Lester Roloff, a fundamentalist preacher and head of the Peoples
Baptist Church in Corpus Christi. Responding to a string of abuse allegations in the early 1970s, the
state ordered the Roloff Homes to allow state inspections of the facilities. Roloff refused to submit to
state oversight or obtain a state license, arguing that the homes administered tough Christian love,
not physical abuse and that the state had no right to license his religious childrens homes. The states
case against the Roloff Homes went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that the Homes must
either be licensed by the state or shut down.
In 1985, rather than accept state oversight, the Roloff Homes closed down and moved to Missouri
where they stayed until invited by then-Governor George Bush to return to Texas and take advantage
of changes in state law that now exempted faith-based childrens facilities from state oversight and
regulation.
In 1997, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 2482, which allowed childrens homes and child-care
facilities to be accredited by private sector entities in lieu of being licensed and regulated by the state.
Texas Association of Christian Child-Care Agencies (TACCCA) was the first and only means of
alternative accreditation created for faith-based childrens facilities. In 1999, the Roloff Homes were
the first of eight faith-based child-care facilities accredited by TACCCA.
Since the Roloff Homes received accreditation from TACCCA to again operate in Texas, there has
been a string of abuse and neglect allegations against the homes. In June 1999, the state issued a
finding of physical abuse, neglectful supervision and medical neglect at the Roloff Homes Rebekah
Home for Girls. Faye Cameron, supervisor of the Rebekah Home and Wiley Camerons wife, was
banned for life from ever working or being present at any juvenile home in Texas.
In early 2000, the state began an investigation into new allegations of abuse at the homes and filed
criminal charges against the facilities administrators. Within two weeks of the resulting arrests,
however, TACCCA re-accredited the Roloff Homes.
Until the criminal charges were filed, Wiley Cameron (who took over the Roloff Homes when Roloff
passed away) served on the TACCCA accreditation committee. Cameron voluntarily resigned his
committee seat during the investigation due to the conflict of interest. Administrators at the Roloff
Homes Lighthouse Home for Adults were found guilty of abuse in a criminal trial in June 2001.
In the Spring of 2001, the Texas Legislature chose not to renew the states Alternative Accreditation
program for faith-based child-care facilities, signifying a major rollback of the states faith-based
initiative. The Roloff Homes and other alternatively-accredited facilities were forced to either pursue
state licensing or close their doors in Texas. The Roloff Homes chose to move their operations to
another state.44
