Louisiana understands infrastructure. Our land is traversed by pipelines, roads, train tracks, levees, and power lines. We see refineries, chemical plants, bridges, power stations, ports, tank farms, airports … you get the idea. Our infrastructure is everywhere. Sitting on our eroding soil, even our dirt is considered infrastructure.
We understand that our state’s commercial infrastructure is a valuable asset. We are willing to invest in assets.
An infrastructure investment that often makes headlines is Louisiana’s 50-year, $50 billion plan to combat and prevent coastal erosion. Louisiana invests in countering erosion because leaders believe that the future returns on these investments will make the present pain worthwhile for our economy.
Child Well-being Infrastructure
There is another type of infrastructure that is just as important, if not more so. It, too, requires significant investment if we want a great return.
Child Well-being Infrastructure is the real key to Louisiana’s better future. Louisiana has not yet given this particular infrastructure the attention it deserves.
The Louisiana Legislative Auditor recently released the results of a performance audit of the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). Child Welfare Staffing and Caseload: Department of Children and Family Services is available for the public to read.
Performance audits are standard tools. Since 2000, the Legislative Auditor has conducted 23 performance audits of DCFS. They are routine, and all are available from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s website. Nothing is hidden.
In this recent performance audit, the LLA found no smoking guns. The report contains measures of progress, and everyone who cares about the well-being of Louisiana’s children served by DCFS is pleased to see progress.
As in previous snapshots, one cannot help but notice that DCFS continues to struggle to meet the needs of Louisiana’s children while maintaining the fragile balance between the operational needs of a vital state agency and the funding allocated to it by the Governor and Legislature.
While there are signs of progress (e.g., staff turnover and CPS cases are both down slightly), the report also points out counterbalancing measures to this progress (e.g., the case load per CPS worker has increased). However, I view this report as a snapshot, a single point on a long timeline that extends backward for decades.
Like most snapshots, this LLA report examines the details at the center of its focus (staffing and caseloads), but not the larger environment that encompasses everything outside its field of view. From my perspective, I believe DCFS has made more unreported progress, including qualitative progress, with accumulating energy and direction, which the report cannot capture because these advances are not yet evident in the measured outcomes.
If one steps back and considers the long timeline that contains this current snapshot, it becomes clear that all of us in Louisiana still have a lot of work to do to help DCFS become the robust organization that Louisiana requires. DCFS cannot forever be our overlooked underdog. Personally, I find it easiest to believe that DCFS is the most crucial agency for this reason: if we fail our children who need us most, we fail our future.
There have been very passionate leaders in Louisiana’s history who have wanted DCFS to succeed. I say “passionate” because I know some who are no longer in office but continue to advocate for the well-being of our children beyond their terms in office.
Despite this general desire for a robust child welfare agency, I cannot recall a time in Louisiana’s history when our state government has properly funded DCFS and the work it does to save the lives and lifetimes of Louisiana’s children.
(Like me, you may recall that brief period when Louisiana DCFS was one of the only internationally accredited state child welfare departments in the nation? However, soon after achieving this remarkable distinction, DCFS was so dramatically underfunded that it was unable to maintain accreditation. Still, I believe the DNA for delivering high-quality services and maintaining high standards is in DCFS’s veins.)
The Health of DCFS is a Powerful Symbol
Do not miss this: DCFS’s decades-long underfunding is symbolic.
It speaks to Louisiana’s priorities. The health of DCFS ripples throughout Louisiana’s Child Well-being Infrastructure, like the movement of heavy ball on the rubber sheet of the child welfare universe. Others are held in its sway.
Take Louisiana’s foster caregivers for example. A helpful source of information about the status of foster care among the states is Foster Care Capacity. It’s a project of The Imprint, one of the nation’s best news sources for child welfare.
According to Foster Care Capacity’s report on Louisiana, the total licensed foster homes declined from 2,222 in 2019 to 1,659 in 2023. That is a reduction of 563 foster homes in four years. In a tight system like Louisiana’s, reductions like that hurt.
What do I mean by “tight system”? Essentially, Louisiana has too few foster homes for children to ensure they can be placed in their communities. Consequently, children enter foster care and find themselves placed in strange (to them) communities, often at a distance.
What makes it tight? Examine the chart below, which displays the number of children in foster care each month from March 2014 to May 2025.
(Note: One of the most fascinating pieces of foster care history is the dramatic decline in the number of children in foster care that took place between September of 2018 and July of 2021. If you think it is due to the pandemic, look again. The decline began the year before COVID-19 arrived. Inquiring minds want to know … why?)
So, you can see that the loss of foster homes began in 2019 and continued through 2023, while the number of children in foster care returned to the levels that were common before the huge dip. We have too few homes.
There are a number of reasons. Some reasons are beyond control, but others may be corrected. Take the underfunding of foster care board rates. (When DCFS is underfunded, foster caregivers are underfunded. That’s what I mean by DCFS being the proverbial large planet on the rubber sheet of time and space. Its gravity holds sway over every element of child well-being that circles in orbit around it.)
Louisiana Foster Care Board Rates
The most visible service of DCFS is the state’s foster care system. Louisiana must adequately fund foster care.
If one assumes that Louisiana’s monthly foster care board rate of $330, set in 1991, was fair and understands that inflation is always at work in the economy, then one would expect that the foster care board rate would have been tied to some measure of inflation. (Louisiana recently went 14 years between increases in foster care board rates.) Using inflation measures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, one would expect the current foster care board rate to have increased from $330 to account for inflation, but it has not. Today’s board rate is about $570 per month.
Or, if we forgive some of the past and believe that the $501 board rate set in 2007 was a fair rate, then by the same reasoning regarding inflation, one would expect the current board rate to be approximately $643 to account for inflation. Instead, the current rate is about $140 per month less than break-even. It does not respect the families who open their homes to children in foster care.
Modifying foster care board rates to account for inflation is not a new idea. But it’s an idea that Louisiana has not yet implemented. Consequently, by ignoring inflation for extended periods, Louisiana effectively always underfunds foster caregivers, making it that much more difficult to attract families to become foster parents. The difficulty increases each year that inflation is ignored.
Louisiana’s foster caregivers receive board rates that significantly trail the rate of inflation. Until recently, Louisiana had not increased the foster care board rate in 14 years.
DCFS Must Always Be Adequately Funded
The health of a state’s child welfare system is a basic, essential measure of its abiding commitment to its children who need the most help. The support any state provides to its child welfare agency speaks loudly about its essential priorities.
For all of us in Louisiana, DCFS’s health is a symbolic measure of our state’s genuine commitment to the well-being of our children. That DCFS is not stronger and that the timeline of performance audits is flat are key indicators of Louisiana’s weak Child Well-being Infrastructure.
I will be the first to say that I believe the legislature and governor want DCFS to succeed. In fact, a few years ago, I examined the legislatures of all the southern states and found that Louisiana’s Legislature was among the most active on bills related to children.
All of us do want good things for children! Who would say otherwise? I suspect that most legislators would do even more if they believed they had the funding. While advocates would say the funding is available, it’s the priority that needs to be adjusted to support doing more for children. (Unfortunately, I anticipate that finding additional funds will become increasingly complex in the near future, so child advocates must prepare to advocate more strongly!)
I do know this. Throughout my career, I have witnessed a series of DCFS Secretaries requesting additional funding from the legislature. I have been surprised at how relatively small some of the requests have been, given that DCFS is responsible for our children. I recall that there was usually an effort to meet the request, but again, these were merely DCFS’s “get by” requests.
Dreaming Big for DCFS
I will do it. Let me dream big for DCFS. What would DCFS be like today if the experts who have developed Louisiana’s budgets had been inclined to say a few times, “DCFS, we are so committed to your success, even though you did not ask for it, here is another $10 million. And there’s more where that came from! We expect you to take great care of our kids. They are our most precious resource. They represent Louisiana’s future.”
Robust support like that clarifies expectations and provides the necessary resources to meet them. That’s the type of support that could help make DCFS successful.
I believe Secretary Matlock and the team he has assembled are competent, informed, intentional, and active. They are dedicated to DCFS’s mission and are professionals in their field. Across the state, the DCFS staff I know are remarkable individuals who want great things for kids. They push against the various frictions generated by the tight limitations of an organization that has been underfunded for too long.
We understand the business metaphor that cash flow is like the blood in an organization’s arteries. Restricting blood flow harms and weakens the body; oxygen to the brain is reduced, and every action requires extra effort. This is one reason proper funding is important.
Remember, DCFS is a key piece of Louisiana’s broader Child Well-being Infrastructure. For children who are abused, DCFS is foundational to their well-being, even saving their lives and lifetimes. When DCFS is not strong, the entire infrastructure is weakened.
When DCFS struggles for oxygen and energy, Louisiana’s children are at risk.
DCFS Must Prepare for Tomorrow
We cannot help but try to imagine what lies ahead, but ultimately, no one knows the future. We do know that current news reports are not leaning toward the sunny side of the street.
Ideally, DCFS would already be robust and be working to prepare for the future. Many expect that the structural changes the federal government is considering will put at risk the programs and supports that help keep children fed, in good mental health, healthy of body, and keep families afloat.
Louisiana already has a high poverty rate. When poverty increases, child poverty increases. When poverty levels increase, family stress also increases. Instances of family violence and child abuse increase during periods of increased family stress. Without proper funding, DCFS may struggle even more in the future. DCFS must prepare for tomorrow.
Today, DCFS employs great Louisianans to protect and care for our state’s children. In fact, they are us! DCFS staff members are our neighbors. Louisiana’s foster caregivers live in our neighborhoods. Their work is among the most challenging in the state, both in practical and emotional terms. I remain convinced that at any point in time, DCFS’s abilities and organizational health are primarily a function of the state’s ongoing support.
The latest performance audit is another clear statement that we in Louisiana must think more critically about the importance of DCFS, the reasons why a robust child welfare system will be needed in the future, and the consequences of underfunding such a key component of Louisiana’s Child Well-being Infrastructure.
We must have a robust Department of Children and Family Services for Louisiana’s children. A robust DCFS is as essential as the soil on which we stand.