Yesterday evening, on Tuesday, March 17, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee of the Louisiana Legislature considered Senator Regina Barrow’s Senate Bill 265, which proposes abolishing the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). The two primary functions of DCFS, Child Welfare and Child Support, would be placed within other state departments.
If you watch the recorded video available in the Legislature’s Video Archives, you will quickly note that the Members of the Health and Welfare Committee are frustrated and desperate to see DCFS preventing child deaths, responding quickly to children’s needs, and becoming a stable, effective, efficient state agency.
Abolishing DCFS is an extreme option, but it is an option and several of the Senators seemed ready to pass SB 265 as written. However, leaning into wisdom, I think, the Committee chose to allow DCFS until March 31, 2026, the last day Legislators can file or amend bills, to develop a corrective plan.
I believe a fair summary of the meeting is that, while it is clearly not the Committee’s desire, if DCFS does not in the next two weeks convince the Members for the Senate Health and Welfare Committee that the progress the Committee desires is likely, then the Committee will pass SB 265 to abolish DCFS.
It is always difficult to predict the long-term consequences of today’s decisions about complex matters. All agree, child welfare services are a complex matter. While we cannot see far enough into the future, we can learn from the past. I believe Louisiana’s child welfare history contains important lessons to inform today’s thinking about tomorrow’s child welfare services.
If SB 265 passes as written, child welfare services will disappear into the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), and child support will transfer to the “newly reorganized” Louisiana Works. “Newly reorganized” because Louisiana Works is the renamed Louisiana Workforce Commission with former DCFS functions recently added to create a one stop shop to assist citizens.
Less than a year ago, the Louisiana Legislature passed House Bill 617, authored by Representative Carver, which trimmed DCFS so that it might focus exclusively on child welfare work. Following HB 617’s transfer of TANF from DCFS to Louisiana Works, and SNAP to LDH, today, DCFS focuses exclusively on children and child welfare services.
Given the many non-child welfare matters that DCFS previously handled, HB 617 transformed DCFS from a broadly focused social services agency into a focused agency dedicated to child welfare and protection. It is important to note that some changes imposed by HB 617 are not yet complete. So, even before DCFS has had an opportunity to demonstrate its ability to succeed as a child-focused agency following HB 617’s reorganization, abolishment looms in SB 265.
Louisiana Must Avoid the Dangers that Created Gary W. v. Louisiana (1974)
That the Legislature is considering SB 265 before DCFS has fully reorganized following HB 615 seems the product of Louisiana’s long and understandable frustration with its child welfare system.
However, seeking to improve Louisiana’s child welfare services by distributing them to other agencies carries the real risk of returning Louisiana’s child welfare system further into the past than anyone would wish, back to the 1960s and early 1970s when child welfare functions were distributed and lost within other state agencies. It was during this era that the absence of an independent child welfare agency and the absence of coordination and accountability for the state’s child welfare functions resulted in Louisiana sending at least 653 children to Texas and forgetting about them. The consequences were devastating to the children and costly to the State of Louisiana.
Gary W. vs. Louisiana was a class action lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana on September 3, 1974, against Louisiana on behalf of “all mentally retarded, emotionally disturbed, and other children from Louisiana who have been placed in Texas institutions either by direct action of the State of Louisiana or with financial support from the state.”
Without accountability and transparency, the child welfare functions hidden within the Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) placed children with disabilities in Texas institutions and failed to monitor their care. The children were out of sight and out of mind because Louisiana’s child welfare services were out of sight and out of mind.
The resulting abuse, neglect, and inadequate treatment of Louisiana’s children lost in Texas drew national attention through the federal courts that ruled on Louisiana’s violation of the children’s civil rights.
No single state agency was particularly responsible for child welfare before Gary W. Without an independent child welfare agency like DCFS, Louisiana failed to provide adequate therapeutic or educational services at home and neglected to monitor the conditions of the children in Texas institutions, failing to meet constitutional standards for care. The court found that Louisiana had violated the constitutional and statutory rights of the children.
In 1976, Judge Alvin B. Rubin mandated that Louisiana provide “adequate treatment” in the “least restrictive environment.” Judge Rubin effectively outlawed Louisiana’s unmonitored “dumping” of children in Texas.
Louisiana did not comply initially, and the court appointment a Special Master to ensure compliance. Eventually, Gary W. v. Louisiana motivated Louisiana to reorganize its child welfare services into an observable, independent state agency, which continued under different names and responsibilities as Louisiana’s current model for child welfare.
The chief effect of SB 265 would be to return Louisiana’s child welfare system to the 1960s and 1970s before the reforms imposed by Gary W. The attending risk is that the absence of independent accountability for child welfare would lead to similar bureaucratic neglect and harm to children.
A Brief History of Louisiana’s Child Welfare Structure
The creation of the Department of Children and Family Services, Louisiana’s current independent child welfare system, followed a path of reform that was a direct response to a decade of systemic child welfare failures exposed by Gary W. v. Louisiana in 1974.
Act 786 of the 1978 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature reorganized the Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR), which, since its creation in 1972 had, as the Louisiana Department of Health is now, become Louisiana’s largest “umbrella agency.” Because child welfare services had been lost within the massive DHHR, the Legislature’s 1978 reorganization of DHHR isolated them and other services by creating the Office of Human Development (OHD).
OHD was designed as Louisiana’s primary social services agency and was tasked with the state’s child welfare and social service programs. In light of Gary W., OHD was made responsible for administering the interstate placement of children who were “dependent, neglected, emotionally disturbed, and abused.” Following Gary W., out-of-state placements dropped from hundreds per year to single digits.
Later, the Office of Human Development (OHD) was renamed the Office of Community Services (OCS) to better reflect its mission of community-based care for children. With Act 786’s creation of what became the Office of Community Services, Louisiana’s Legislature intentionally established a single line of accountability for every child in state custody for reasons of abuse and neglect.
DHHR became too cumbersome and in 1988 it was divided into Louisiana’s Department of Health and Hospitals (LDHH) and the Department of Social Services (DSS). The Department of Health and Hospitals later became the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), and in 2010, the Department of Social Services evolved into the current Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), which is Louisiana’s independent, stand alone, child welfare agency that holds the attention of stakeholders and Legislators.
Gary W. was the driver for isolating child welfare into an independent agency with independent accountability. Through the slow processes of bureaucracy, as time passed, new divergent duties and responsibilities were assigned to DCFS and it slowly lost its child-centric focus. House Bill 617 of Louisiana’s Regular Legislative Session of 2025 corrected this.
Is SB 265 of 2026 Coming Too Soon After HB 617 of 2025?
House Bill 617 of Louisiana’s 2025 Legislative Session reorganized DCFS to refocus the department on the needs of abused and neglected children. HB 617 narrowed DCFS’s mission to child-centric services, allowing DCFS to focus on the classic four of child welfare: Prevention, Preservation, Protection, and Permanency.
HB 617 adjusted the internal structure of DCFS, creating the Office of Child Welfare and Office of Child Support, each with its own Assistant Secretary. HB 617 of 2025 removed the distracting responsibilities of DCFS and updated statutes to reflect DCFS’s new organizational structure.
In short, HB 617 transformed DCFS from a too broad social services agency into a focused child welfare and child protection agency, by redistributing the programs that are not child-centric to other state departments.
Now, Louisiana’s Legislature will consider SB 265 which would abolish the Department of Children and Family Services and transfer its child welfare services to the Louisiana Department of Health and child support functions to the new Louisiana Works agency. Following 2025’s reorganization of DCFS to focus it on child welfare, the dissolution of DCFS as an independent state department seems sudden.
Stakeholders see that DCFS has not yet had time to fully reorganize and establish the new child-centric policies and procedures intended by HB 617 to create an effective, robust child welfare system for Louisiana. Given the risks associated with the dissolution proposed by SB 265, DCFS needs time to test and prove the reorganization imposed by HB 617. For those who remember Gary W., the proposed dissolution of SB 265 is a reminder of a dark chapter in the history of Louisiana’s child welfare system.
Other Potential Consequences and Risks of Abolishing DCFS
In addition to a sudden potential return to an undesired past, there are other consequences and risks that must be considered before one can take a clear position on SB 265.
Certainly, Louisiana is fortunate to have Senators and Representatives who are frustrated with the status quo of Louisiana’s child welfare system and who are willing to actively assert their oversight role over DCFS when the outcomes do not reflect what our children deserve. In recent years, the Legislature has properly taken a very hands-on approach to improving DCFS for children. The sense that progress has been too slow, too limited, and too difficult generates so much genuine frustration that SB 265 proposes a complete dissolution of DCFS.
It is wise to consider that there is no one-size-fits-all model for state child welfare agencies. Sincerely desiring progress, states frequently slice and dice their child welfare systems and they do so in repetitive ways. There is no evidence that any child welfare model is better than any other. Even now, Oklahoma is considering legislation to create a stand-alone child welfare agency (like Louisiana’s current DCFS), and after a three-way split of its social services a few years ago, West Virginia is now seeking to offload child welfare to private businesses (as Florida did and then endured years of foster care confusion).
That the design of a child welfare system does not predict effectiveness, and that DCFS is already in the middle of adjusting to HB 617, it may be more important at this moment to ask a clarifying question: What are the potential negative outcomes from the abolishment of DCFS?
Eliminating DCFS and distributing its two remaining primary functions, child welfare and child support, to other state agencies and department may have potential upside, but it also carries several particularly negative risks.
What are the potential negative outcomes from the abolishment of DCFS?
- Louisiana’s currently fragile network of Foster Parents may be lost in the transition.
- As happened in the distant past, child welfare services may become fragmented as responsibility for them is spread among other state agencies and their vendors/proxies.
- Without a clear locus of control and identifiable responsibility, accountability and professional ownership of child welfare services may be lost without external observation.
- Specialized child welfare expertise may be lost as experienced staff exit.
- Coordination failures may occur in crisis situations.
- Existing Federal relationships may be disrupted.
- After becoming a relatively tiny function in the state’s largest Department, LDH, child welfare services may lose focused regulatory and budget attention.
- Staff attrition and reduced morale may accompany the abolishment.
- Unanticipated transition period vulnerabilities may result in worse outcomes for children or Louisiana.
- A reorganization that simply moves all current operations, staff, culture, and policies (to ensure maintenance of federal relationships and funding) may not provide the desired refresh and restart.
Is It Better to Abolish DCFS or See If HB 617 Is Corrective?
A final question may also help guide deliberations. Is there any factor that makes now the opportune time to abolish DCFS, or is it wiser to determine if the child-centric focus recently created by HB 617 improves DCFS as the Legislature desires?
Rightfully, SB 265 draws intense attention to Louisiana’s child welfare system. Louisiana’s history explains why DCFS currently exists as an independent agency and tells of the harms caused when child welfare was a hidden function within a behemoth department. The risks associated with DCFS’s abolishment are many and each is consequential.
Passing SB 265 should not be done out of the Legislature’s immediate frustration, but out of a genuine, studied determination and belief that abolishing DCFS is the best way forward. The risks of abolishment give sufficient reason to set SB 265 aside to determine if DCFS will make the desired improvements under the clarity of purpose afforded DCFS by 2025’s HB 617.
We are fortunate to have a Legislature that cares so deeply about the well-being of Louisiana’s children that they deliberate so rigorously to find the best way forward. As I have shared before, Louisiana’s Legislature is one of the most active on legislation related to the well-being of children. Louisiana ranks poorly on child well-being for many reasons, but an inattentive Legislature is not one of them.
Rick Wheat
Director, Center for Child Well-being
Methodist Children’s Home
