Downloadable PDF Version: Open Letter: On SB 462 – Troubled Arkansas State Police Child Abuse Hotline is Not a Model for Louisiana
Thursday, April 16, 2026
Members of the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare
Louisiana Senate
P.O. Box 94183
Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70804
RE: Open Letter on SB 462 – Troubled Arkansas State Police Child Abuse Hotline Is Not a Model for Louisiana
Dear Members of the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare:
During the April 15, 2026 meeting of the Louisiana Senate’s Health & Welfare (SHW) Committee, Senator and Committee Chair Patrick McMath presented Senate Bill 462 (SB 462) which was originally 5 pages.
With the amendments, SB 462 instantly grew to 111 pages. SB 462 became a significant bill deserving informed scrutiny.
The original 5-page SB 462 addressed procedures for reporting child abuse and neglect. With the 100+ pages of amendment, SB 462 intends now to abolish the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), tuck child welfare services into a renamed Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), make the Louisiana State Police (LSP) responsible for Louisiana’s child abuse hotline, and move child support enforcement to the Attorney General’s office.
The public now has one week, until Tuesday, April 21, 2026, 24 hours before the next Senate Health & Welfare Committee meeting on Wednesday, April 22, to review the amendments and provide comments. Individuals can provide their feedback to the committee by email to SH&W@Legis.LA.Gov.
Twice during this legislative session, out of frustration with DCFS’s recent history, the Senate Health and Welfare Committee has considered legislation that would abolish DCFS.(1) The Committee’s current posture creates the significant risk of returning Louisiana’s child welfare system to its darkest period, the 1970s. Louisiana’s child welfare system was hidden inside other state agencies then, especially DHHR, a precursor of today’s Louisiana Department of Health (LDH). Without proper oversight in the 1970s, Louisiana sent more than 500 children to Texas and forgot about them for years. [See Gary W. vs. Louisiana.] (2)
Today, the Health and Welfare committee’s stated desire to abolish DCFS seems like a jump into the past, 50 years into Louisiana’s darkest child welfare era. This cannot be.
Presenting amendments to SB 462, Senator McMath stated,
“First, central intake and the child abuse hotline would move to state police. This is the model that is currently used and has been successful in Arkansas. This would allow state police to coordinate with local law enforcement to immediately respond to reports of child abuse that need immediate attention.” (3)
Regarding LSP managing Louisiana’s Child Abuse Hotline, Senator McMath continued,
“One of the proponents of this suggestion was (DCFS) Secretary Harris herself. In fact, if you don’t mind, President Henry relayed to me that this is one of the suggestions that Secretary Harris made to him in a discussion that they had last week and we appreciate her input on that.” (4)
Arkansas does not have a model that Louisiana should copy.
I write to inform you that if one considers the last several years of news reports, legislative activity, and the recent performance audit of Arkansas’ troubled Child Abuse Hotline, which is managed by a division of the Arkansas State Police, it is apparent that Arkansas does not have a model that Louisiana should copy. Please, allow my explanation.
Among the 50 states, only in Arkansas do the State Police manage a state child abuse hotline. Since 1997, the Crimes Against Children Division (CACD) of the Arkansas State Police has managed the hotline. The CACD website is at: https://dps.arkansas.gov/law-enforcement/arkansas-state-police/divisions/crimes-against-children/.
What does it mean that after almost 30 years of Arkansas State Police managing the state child abuse hotline, Arkansas is the only state using this model? Could it be that other states have observed the difficulties presented by the different philosophies and world views of law enforcement and child welfare?
In fact, current news out of Arkansas regarding its Child Abuse Hotline is not good. The difficulties and failures in Arkansas have been especially evident in recent years.
Arkansas lawmakers are deep in discussions about how to solve egregious problems with their state police-managed hotline. In short, the model used in Arkansas is not successful and there are high-profile failures.
1. Arkansas lawmakers have criticized the Arkansas State Police (ASP) and the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) for “screening out” valid reports of child abuse and neglect. In one extreme 2024 case, the state received 29 reports over 11 years about a single child before any action was taken to save the child. On the 29th report, police were dispatched and found the boy locked in a bathroom. Two individuals were arrested on 230 total counts related to the alleged abuse and torture of the child. (5)
2. After that case came to light in 2024, a joint meeting of the Arkansas House and Senate State Agencies and Governmental Affairs committees interrogated Department of Human Services chief of staff Lori McDonald, as well as Lt. Col. Jason Aaron and administrator Dan Mack from Arkansas State Police. Their answers were weak. So, the Arkansas Legislature demanded an audit and the state contracted with Evident Change (formerly the National Council on Crime & Delinquency and Children’s Research Center) to conduct the audit. (6)
3. The final audit report was released in January, 2026, but slid under the radar until just this week. (7) The 2025 audit of 327 investigations found that investigators routinely failed to follow basic safety protocols to protect children. The audit, demanded by the Arkansas Legislature, found that 27% of child victims were not seen within the state-required timeframes, in 18% of the delayed cases, investigators never made face-to-face contact with the child, and 11% of investigations had no documented safety assessments. (8)
4. Understandably, the Arkansas Legislature (like Louisiana’s) has been frustrated. In the Regular Session of the 94th General Assembly, the Arkansas Legislature considered HB 1442, a bill to transfer the hotline and civil investigations from the Arkansas State Police and back to the Department of Human Services. Proponents of the bill argued that cases were being mishandled under the Arkansas State Police’s management of the child abuse hotline.
Arkansas’ model is not successful. We must not attempt to build Arkansas’ hotline model in Louisiana.
Since Louisiana’s Medicaidization of behavioral health in 2011, some have occasionally confused child welfare and behavioral health. We know the two are not the same. Child welfare services are much broader than behavioral healthcare, which provides only a small, vitally important subset of the services children in foster care require.
Likewise, while state police provide law enforcement services, the information I have shared with you from Arkansas aptly demonstrates that law enforcement is not child welfare work. It is clear that the Arkansas State Police-managed child abuse hotline model is not a model Louisiana should replicate.
Sincerely,
Rick Wheat
Director, Center for Child Well-being
Chief Advocacy Officer, Methodist Children’s Home
CC: The Honorable Jeff Landry, Governor of the State of Louisiana
The Honorable Cameron Henry, President, Louisiana State Senate
The Honorable Regina Barrow, President Pro Tempore, Louisiana State Senate
The Honorable Patrick McMath, Chair of Senate Health and Welfare Committee
The Honorable Rebecca Harris, Secretary, Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services
Bibliography
1. Senator Regina Barrow’s SB 265 is a 213-page bill which would abolish DCFS, transfer child support to LA Works and child welfare to the Louisiana Department of Health. SB 265 was considered alone in a March 17, 2026, meeting of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee.
2. Case Summary of Gary W. v. Louisiana, Civil Rights Litig. Clearinghouse, https://clearinghouse.net/case/452/ (last updated 2007, May 7). Retrieved 2026, April 16.
3. Louisiana Senate, Health and Welfare Committee. (2026, April 15). Meeting on Senate Bill 462 [Video]. Louisiana Senate Video Archive. https://senate.la.gov/Video_Archive. Time 56:02. Retrieved 2026, April 15.
4.Louisiana Senate, Health and Welfare Committee. (2026, April 15). Meeting on Senate Bill 462 [Video]. Louisiana Senate Video Archive. https://senate.la.gov/Video_Archive. Time 57:10. Retrieved 2026, April 15.
5. Spencer, Bailey. (2025, October 9). Lawmakers rip into state officials over Arkansas child abuse case reported 29 times [News organization]. KFSM-TV. 5newsonline.com. https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/regional/arkansas-news/lawmakers-rip-into-officials-arkansas-child-abuse-case/527-80b23646-6ff1-4eb8-808a-5a4cc542100c
6. Arkansas Investigations CQI Findings Report (pp. 31). (2026, January). [Performance Audit]. Evident Change. https://mhobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/AR-Investigations-CQI-Report.pdf. Retrieved 2026, April 15.
7. Fulton, Chris. (2026, April 14). Arkansas reviewed 327 child abuse investigations after legislative demand. It found systemic failures at every level. Mountain Home Observer. http://mhobserver.com/arkansas-reviewed-327-child-abuse-investigations-after-legislative-demand-it-found-systemic-failures-at-every-level/. Retrieved 2026, April 15.
8. Arkansas Investigations CQI Findings Report (pp. 31). (2026, January). [Performance Audit]. Evident Change. https://mhobserver.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/AR-Investigations-CQI-Report.pdf. Page 11. Retrieved 2026, April 15.
