Louisiana Children and DCFS

On the heels of another shocking case involving child sex abuse that appears to have fallen through the cracks, watchdogs are demanding that a higher authority intervene.

The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services is struggling to find homes for foster teens.

“We need them to be in a stable environment with people who are able to guide them through this part of their life where they are learning to launch into adulthood,” said State Child Welfare Manager of Louisiana Department of Children & Family Services, Athena Long.

The cases described here are not unique. According to the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office, which maintains arrest records, a dozen people remained booked in the jail this week on two of the most common charges brought against people accused of abusing children: child endangerment and second-degree cruelty to juveniles.

In addition to the 78 cases reported since Jan. 1, Ricks said DCFS has also received additional information on nine previous child trafficking cases through its hotline.

Secretary Terri Ricks told state lawmakers Wednesday that the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) has hired 326 full-time workers since July, increasing its total staff from 3,263 to 3,589. The agency’s hiring rate has outpaced its turnover by about 72%, she said.

Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services Secretary Terri Ricks told the state’s Senate Health and Welfare Committee Wednesday that most reports of child neglect or abuse received last month were of urgent enough concern that they demanded responses within 24 or 48 hours.

Louisiana has a new secretary of the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), as of Wednesday, Dec. 21. Gov. John Bel Edwards issued a news release Wednesday evening, stating that Terri Ricks is now officially serving in the role. Edwards also announced that Amanda Brunson has been named Assistant Secretary.

Gov. John Bel Edwards has elevated acting Department of Children and Family Service Secretary Terri Ricks to a permanent role, his office announced Wednesday. Ricks has been holding the position since Marketa Walters stepped down last month.

A representative of the legislative auditor told lawmakers Wednesday that the survey showed workers are operating in a “state of crisis” at DCFS. Hundreds of jobs at the agency are unfilled, and the agency’s budget is just over half what it was a decade and a half ago, when Gov. Bobby Jindal took office. The survey found that only 54% of caseworkers are satisfied with their job, though that’s actually an improvement from the 34% satisfied in 2014.

Rhenda Hodnett, a top leader with the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) has announced she plans to retire at the end of the year. This comes one week after the head of the agency, Secretary Marketa Walters, also announced a similar move.

But we already know much of what an inquiry will find: Overworked and stressed-out child welfare officers with stacks of folders on their desks. That will require more state money and political cooperation in the last year of Edwards’ administration, and beyond.

The head of Louisiana’s Department of Children and Family Services (2022) calls 2022 one of the deadliest years she’s seen for children across the state.

DCFS caseloads are soaring: The agency investigated 32% more cases over the last six months in Baton Rouge than in the same time period last year, and the number of children entering foster care in Baton Rouge is 66% higher than 2020.

Over 400 cases where infants were exposed to substances were investigated in the last year in Baton Rouge, officials said. The agency continues to cite staffing shortages as an issue.

“The cases are mounting, and our staff is low so it’s a crisis in the number of cases and the number of people we have to respond,” said DCFS Secretary Marketa Walters. “I have been doing this for a very long time — I have never seen this number of fatalities in a single year in my career.”

She said there are 61 reported fatalities for the year as of October.

In response to criticism from lawmakers, the agency’s leaders say they are struggling to keep up with a mounting number of cases amid chronic underfunding and a high turnover rate. But some lawmakers have called for the department’s leadership to resign or be fired.

The worker who spoke with WAFB calls these repeat failures frustrating and tells adds that morale is at an all-time low for those workers who stay and try to do the right thing.

”It’s the mindset. It’s what people think of us and for those that go out and do a very good job, of course it’s disheartening,” the worker said.

A worker with the Department of Children and Family Services tells the WAFB I-Team that the child has been the subject of an open investigation with the agency but that his case fell through the cracks.

Lawmakers and a civil rights lawyer said Friday that they are furious — and need more answers — about a 20-month-old’s fentanyl death in Baton Rouge one week after child welfare authorities were warned about his family and four months after another toddler died in similar circumstances.

The Louisiana Legislative Auditor compared the state’s processes for the Department of Children and Family Services’ central registry to 17 other states for a recent report requested by lawmakers.

Louisiana’s bar for validating child abuse allegations is lower than those in more than a dozen other states, according to a Monday report from the legislative auditor’s office.

Senator Mills reports that DCFS came up with 15 bullet points on ways the agency can improve its functioning. The Senators want a detailed plan and a timeline as to what DCFS hopes to accomplish. The question Senator Mills raised was, “Do you have the skill set to make the proposed changes and why did it take these two catastrophes to bring about these changes?”

The Department of Children and Family Services plans to hire 50 nurses to make home visits to infants who were exposed to substance abuse by their mothers while pregnant. DCFS Secretary Marketa Garner Walters said five years ago the department was ordered to come into compliance with follow-up visits for those infants.

Sen. J. Rogers Pope, R-Denham Springs, said the problems at DCFS problem has to do with staffing — not money.

“If money is going to solve this problem, I think that we can find the money,” Pope said. “But money’s not going to solve that problem… We could give you all the money that you wanted, you still couldn’t fill those spots.”

The Senate committee wanted to set the record straight. Contrary to popular belief that the agency is extremely underfunded, the department’s secretary and lawmakers say otherwise.

“You’ve been funded for everything you’re doing, we funded you for,” stated State Sen. Beth Mizell (R).

“All of those things have been funded and we appreciate that and we acknowledge that,” added Walters.

A Louisiana lawmaker says it might be time to break up the state’s Department of Children and Family Services after several child death cases which appear to have slipped through the cracks. The agency says it is making progress under a new strategic plan, but many still worry.

Over the last five years, it’s taken Louisiana an average of 127 hours to open a child welfare investigation after receiving a report of abuse or neglect, according to federal data. The response time is far lower in other Gulf Coast states, including Mississippi and Alabama, which have mean response times of 39 hours and 55 hours, respectively. Nationally, Louisiana ranked among the slowest in the nation for its response times in 2020 — the most recent year of data.

The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services is hosting hiring fairs this fall for open positions throughout the state in its Child Welfare and Family Support divisions.

Those interested in attending are encouraged to register on the DCFS website ahead of the events.

Opportunities available include:
Administrative Coordinator
Child Welfare Specialist Trainee
Child Welfare Specialist 1-3
Social Services Analyst 1-3 for Economic Stability
Social Services Analyst 1-3 for Child Support Enforcement
Workforce Development Specialist 1-3

Registration link, along with full descriptions of open positions, will be available at www.dcfs.la.gov/hiring-fair. Positions vary by location.

DCFS Secretary Marketa Walters told News 10 that the biggest need the foster system is looking to improve is more foster parents.

“Covid did a number on our foster parents,” Walters said. “We lost a lot of them. People were afraid. When foster parents take children into their homes, they really do not know much about them. They do not know where they came from. There was disease. There was so much fear.”

The Senate Select Committee on Women and Children grilled the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) after several children fell between the cracks of the system.

Days after a Baton Rouge mother was arrested in a case involving her toddler overdosing on fentanyl and dying, the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services announced Monday that its caseworkers will immediately visit young children who are hospitalized under suspicion of abuse or neglect.

Faced with skyrocketing caseloads and meager salaries, almost half of the frontline, entry-level social service workers at DCFS quit last year, hampering Louisiana’s ability to care for its most vulnerable residents at a time of unprecedented need.

The state Department of Children and Family Services has posted an online mapping tool called Safe Haven Facility Locator in an effort to prevent newborn abandonment. Child Protective Services Program Manager Mona Michelli says a mother can visit http://dcfs.la.gov/safehaven/directory/ to find a place where they can give up a child less than 60 days old.