Lawmakers urge DCFS secretary to ask for more child welfare employees
State lawmakers continue to call for improvement and accountability in Louisiana’s child welfare agency over how it responds to reports of abuse and neglect — particularly in cases of child deaths when authorities were informed of prior problems but failed to take action.
One lawmaker, Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, submitted a Invoice abolish the Department of Children and Family Services and transfer its functions to state health and labor agencies. Although her proposal has a good chance of being approved, the senator is using it as a platform to keep the long-struggling agency in the spotlight.
Barrow has pushed for change in the department since the June 2022 death of 2-year-old Mitchell Robinson from a fentanyl overdose. Child and Family Services had been notified at least three times previously about the child, including on two occasions he was taken to the hospital with no response, treated with Narcan and returned to his mother.
“I’m very frustrated with the results I’m seeing…” Barrow said. “We cannot allow another child to die.”
DCFS Secretary Rebecca Harris appeared Tuesday before Barrow and other members of the state Senate Select Committee on Women and Children, who had requested an update on how the agency is responding to calls and online reports to its abuse hotline and its ongoing reorganization efforts.
To reduce cases of child abuse ending in serious injury or death, Harris said the department now uses what it calls a 3 by 3 by 3 rule. An investigation is automatically triggered if the agency receives three calls or reports of abuse within a three-month period that meet one of three criteria: The call involves either the same victim, the same perpetrator or the same household.
So far in 2026, the department has received reports of 10 child deaths statewide, including at least three confirmed deaths due to abuse or neglect. DCFS Medical Director Dr. Rebecca Hook said investigations are still ongoing for the majority of the remaining seven deaths.
Last year, 53 child deaths were reported to the state. Investigations were conducted into all of these cases, and 28 were confirmed to be related to abuse or neglect, according to Hook.
Since taking office in August, Harris has sought to strengthen Child and Family Services’ front-line response to child abuse and neglect. She reassigned about 100 child welfare supervisors from their office positions to field positions where they can directly handle cases. Although they were technically demoted, employees’ salaries were not reduced.
Harris too removed the agency’s dedicated remote abuse hotline create a centralized call center for children at the department’s headquarters in Baton Rouge. Most of the 50 employees who answered calls from home around the clock were not given the opportunity to move or keep their jobs, and were sent to regional offices for various child protection or foster care assignments.
Sen. Katrina Jackson-Andrews, chairwoman of the select committee, said she continues to field calls from affected state employees complaining about working under less experienced supervisors and not needing equipment.
There have been 50 departures from child protection posts since December 15, the original deadline for remote helpline workers to decide whether to join regional offices. Harris has since pushed back the full transition to an in-house call center until mid-year.
The largest number of exits, 17, involved employees who held the Child Protection Specialist 3 position, a senior-level position that requires at least three years of experience.
Most departures took the form of resignations, with 31.
In an interview, Harris said the departures did not impact the call center. She attributed some employees’ decisions to leave to uncertainty created by Barrow’s legislation to eliminate the department, although civil service records show only five employees left after the senator’s bill was made public in late February.
“If DCFS is this important, it deserves a seat at the table and should not be placed under the control of a larger organization,” Harris said.
Among staff complaints, Jackson-Andrews said she also received a need for more supervisors for “second shift” employees, made up of caseworkers who handle after-hours and weekend duties. The senator urged Harris to ask state lawmakers for more money to meet her staffing needs, although Gov. Jeff Landry has proposed a “status quo budget” for the next fiscal year.
“We can’t be so busy with what we call saving that we can’t give you what you need to take care of your children,” Jackson-Andrews said.
Harris has previously said she will not increase the department’s staffing levels and will instead rely on technology and training to improve services. After Tuesday’s hearing, the secretary said she would submit a request for additional staff and new vehicles for the agency’s field workers.
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