Louisianans can enthusiastically applaud Governor Landry’s recent initiatives to help ensure the well-being of Louisiana’s children in foster care by supporting DCFS’s work to recruit sufficient foster families and ordering DCFS to quit taking the Social Security Survivor Benefits of children in foster care. On February 24, 2026, Governor Landry signed the Proclamation, A Home for Every Child, and issued…
Posts published in “Foster Care”
Louisiana’s Foster Care Board Rate Too Low for Decades April 19, 2021 – Louisiana – Fourteen years ago in 2007, a joint report by Children’s Rights, The National Foster Parent Association, and the University of Maryland School of Social Work stated, “Louisiana’s current foster care rates must be increased by up to 45% in order to cover the real costs…
This morning I have considered the unfairly low board rate paid to Louisiana’s foster parents. Lousiana’s foster parents deserve a board rate that covers the full cost of caring for children. According to Louisiana Form 427, for a child up to 2 years of age, Louisiana will pay a foster parent a regular board rate of $15.58 per day. That…
Child welfare professionals were delighted in 2013 when the Congressional Budget Office reported the number of children in foster care had been on a 10-year decline. The CBO published a report about foster care, adoption and kinship care which looked at the past and predicted the future. Based on the past and hopeful about the next decade, the CBO report…
Dec 19, 2017 – Ruston – I woke up curious. This morning I called the two kennels in my town and I asked what they are paid to board dogs. One kennel charges $24 per night and the other charges $28 per night. The average kennel in my town is paid $26.00 per night. On average, Louisiana’s foster parents are…
Bad enough for parents, parental opioid abuse is especially harmful to children and has lifelong consequences for them including removal from the neglectful care of their parents. Across the country and in Louisiana, the opioid epidemic is swelling the number of foster children. Recent headlines tell the tragic story. “Why America’s Babies Are Suffering: Opioid Addictions Placing More Babies In…
On a 7-Year-Old Waiting 5 Days in an Emergency Room Louisiana’s children have been neglected far too long. In fact, Louisiana holds the ignoble distinction of sitting next to last in our nation for child well-being. We have been here for 27 years. Perhaps some sort of immoral gravity holds Louisiana at the bottom of child well-being? I don’t know.…
Open Letter to Louisiana Legislature Regarding DCFS Funding Thank You Letter to Louisiana Legislature Regarding DCFS Funding Dear Honorable Senators and Representatives of Louisiana, This morning you will begin your fourth day of the 2017 First Extraordinary Session called by Governor John Bel Edwards. You are working diligently to address the necessary adjustments to appropriations. If I follow correctly, the…
Until the proper care of Louisiana’s children in foster care becomes a priority in Baton Rouge, children in our state’s foster care system will continue to be among the most under-supported in the nation. If you consider how children in foster care are indirectly used by politicians in state budget arguments, you will see they do indeed have political value.…
Longer foster care stays increase the risk of continued placement. According to a recently released national survey from the Administration for Children and Families, after children spend 12 to 18 continuous months in foster care, their chances of leaving foster care decrease rapidly. Once children spend 36 to 42 continuous months in foster care, their chances of leaving foster care…