DCFS is a vital and critical component of Louisiana’s Child Well-being Infrastructure. Because DCFS is responsible for a significant portion of the Protection, Justice, and Safety Domain of Child Well-being, it must be highly functional and stable. Louisiana needs a plan for child well-being.
In recent decades, Louisiana has witnessed DCFS perpetually “fixing” itself. In fact, fixing DCFS is a recurring effort that occurs roughly every three or four years. As each new leader is tasked with improving DCFS’s services, initiatives developed by the previous leaders are either ended, replaced, or renamed to reflect the new gubernatorial administration’s interests or philosophy.
The Select Committee on Women and Children highlighted a key aspect of this dynamic during its meeting on September 29, 2025, when Committee Chair Senator Jackson-Andrews inquired about DCFS’s redesign and apparent renaming of Louisiana’s One Church, One Child program.
DCFS Assistant Secretary of Child Welfare Mr. Bret Hanemann presented DCFS’s latest data on child abuse. Following his explanation of the Child Welfare Continuum of Care, Senator Jackson-Andrews asked if anyone is working on the One Church One Child program that former First Lady Donna Edwards started. The idea behind One Church One Child is that with more local Louisiana churches than foster children, if each church found and supported a foster family, Louisiana would have more than enough foster homes.
Hanemann answered, “Yes. It’s not the same program. It’s going to be similar to it, and we are setting up something soon on one of the Sundays to have an overall foster care/adoption day.”
Jackson-Andrews asked, “Why are we recreating the wheel?”
Those who have worked in the field of child welfare for decades are well aware of the reason. The leadership of DCFS changes more frequently than Louisiana elects new governors.
Earlier this year, I tallied the tenure of DCFS Secretaries over the last 45 years. On average, a DCFS Secretary leads the agency for only three years. Since 1980, eight individuals have served as Governor, and 15 individuals have served as Secretary of DCFS.
The pattern is clear. Among each new Secretary’s first tasks is to “fix” DCFS. To achieve this, they appoint new members of DCFS’s leadership team and rework the org chart. The Secretary and the new leadership team dig into the details. They conduct time studies, reorganize the staff structure, identify opportunities for service improvements, and begin making changes.
Generally, after a year of determining the needs and designing the “fix,” the new administration tasks DCFS staff with implementing new policies, programs, and procedures. On average, because DCFS staff members are spread across Louisiana and each regional office has its own local culture and inertia, rolling out the fix takes at least the second year of the new Secretary’s brief tenure. In the third year, external stakeholders begin searching for signs of improvement and better outcomes. Reporters and politicians ask questions. Tension builds and frustration grows.
Change is difficult, and results do not improve immediately. This may lead a Governor to appoint a new Secretary of DCFS even before their gubernatorial term ends. Even more certain is that when a new Governor’s administration begins, they appoint a new DCFS Secretary, simply because that’s what new Governors do.
Do not misunderstand what I am sharing. I am not writing about people, but about a political process that interrupts Louisiana’s child welfare operations.
This is not a statement about the qualifications of DCFS Secretaries and their leadership teams. Throughout the decades, Louisiana’s DCFS has had exceptional leaders, individuals who were experts in child welfare and management. Unfortunately, few survive the frequent cycling imposed by Louisiana’s political environment.
Until Louisiana develops a Comprehensive Plan for Child Well-being that looks further into the future than the current gubernatorial administration, Louisiana’s child welfare system will remain caught in these three-year cycles.
Think of it this way. Louisiana has a 50-year plan to protect against coastal erosion. We have nothing like that for our children and the child welfare system.
Rick Wheat
Director
Center for Child Well-being