Downloadable PDF Version: Open Letter: On SB265 Against Abolishment of DCFS
Thursday, March 26, 2026
An Open Letter to the Louisiana Legislature regarding Senate Bill 265 of 2026 with Reasons for NOT Abolishing the Department of Children and Family Services
Dear Honorable Senators and Representatives,
Louisiana’s past contains the proof that abolishing DCFS is not the best way forward.
If passed as written, Senate Bill 265 of the 2026 Regular Session (SB265) threatens to return Louisiana’s child welfare services to an era characterized by Louisiana’s neglectful harm to children and to the high costs associated with federal judicial intervention.
While Louisiana’s child welfare services may be insufficient for the tasks of effective child welfare work, SB265’s proposed abolishment of DCFS is not a solution.
Historical Context
An instrument of the Legislature’s legitimate frustration, Senator Regina Barrow’s SB265 proposes to abolish the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and place its two functions within other state departments. The reasons for frustration are real, but the risks created by abolishing DCFS are demonstrably worse than working to improve DCFS as an independent, observable, and accountable state agency.
Louisiana’s child welfare history contains important lessons to inform today’s thinking about tomorrow’s child welfare services.
If SB265 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 (HB617), authored by Representative Kim Carver, which intentionally trimmed DCFS so that it might focus exclusively on child welfare work. Following HB617’s transfer of TANF from DCFS to Louisiana Works, and SNAP to the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH), today, DCFS focuses exclusively on children and child welfare services.
Given the many non-child welfare matters that DCFS previously handled, HB617 transformed DCFS from a too-broadly focused social services agency into a focused agency dedicated to child welfare and protection. Today, it is important to note that some changes imposed by HB617 are not yet complete. So, even before DCFS has had an opportunity to demonstrate its ability to succeed as a child-focused agency following HB617’s reorganization, abolishment looms in SB265.
Louisiana Must Avoid the Dangers that Created Gary W. v. Louisiana (1974)
That the Legislature is considering SB265 before DCFS has stabilized following HB615 is understandable given Louisiana’s 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 in Louisiana and the absence of clear oversight 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 is a class action lawsuit filed against Louisiana in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District on September 3, 1974, 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. Louisiana’s children were out of sight and out of mind because Louisiana’s child welfare system were out of sight of Louisiana’s Legislature.
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 services to abused and neglected children in Louisiana and neglected to monitor the conditions of Louisiana children placed in Texas institutions. Louisiana took custody of children, sent them out of state, and forgot about them. Without a centralized, independent child welfare agency, the Legislature had no obvious, responsible state agency over which it could exert its oversight. The federal courts 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.
Initially, Louisiana did not comply with the courts orders. Consequently, the court appointed 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 has continued under different names and responsibilities as Louisiana’s current child welfare agency, the Department of Children and Family Services.
The chief effect of SB265 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 a single independent, accountable agency for child welfare would lead to similar bureaucratic neglect and harm to children.
A History of Louisiana’s Child Welfare Structure
The creation of DCFS, Louisiana’s current independent child welfare agency, followed a path of reform that was a direct and intentional response to decades of systemic and gross 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 LDH 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 child welfare 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 point of accountability for every child in state custody for reasons of abuse and neglect.
Eventually, 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 gathering Louisiana’s child welfare services into a single, independent agency with independent accountability. Through the slow processes of bureaucracy, as time passed, additional distracting 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 by removing unrelated duties and refocusing DCFS on child welfare work.
Representative Carver’s HB617 of 2025 positioned DCFS to focus on child welfare.
Is SB265 of 2026 Coming Too Soon After HB617 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. HB617 intentionally narrowed DCFS’s mission to child-centric services, allowing DCFS to focus on the classic four responsibilities of child welfare: Prevention, Preservation, Protection, and Permanency.
HB617 adjusted the internal structure of DCFS, creating the Office of Child Welfare and Office of Child Support, each with its own Assistant Secretary. HB617 of 2025 removed the distracting responsibilities of DCFS and updated statutes to reflect DCFS’s new organizational structure.
In short, HB617 transformed DCFS from a too-broadly spread social services agency into a focused child welfare and child protection agency, by redistributing the programs that were not child-centric to other state departments. Following 2025’s reorganization of DCFS to focus it on child welfare, the proposed dissolution of DCFS as an independent state department seems sudden and particularly risky given the lessons of the past.
Stakeholders see that DCFS has not yet had time to fully reorganize and establish the new child-centric policies and procedures intended by HB617 to create an effective, robust child welfare system for Louisiana. Given the many risks associated with the dissolution proposed by SB265, DCFS needs time to implement, test and prove the reorganization imposed by HB617. For those who remember Gary W., the proposed dissolution of SB265 is a reminder of a dark chapter in the history of Louisiana’s child welfare system.
Other Potential Consequences and Risks Attending the Abolishment of DCFS
In addition to a potential return to an undesired past, there are other consequences and risks that must be considered before one can reasonably take a firm position on SB265 and the abolishment of DCFS.
Certainly, Louisiana is fortunate to have Senators and Representatives who are rightfully frustrated with the status quo of Louisiana’s child welfare system and who actively assert their oversight duties over DCFS when the department’s outcomes do not reflect what our children deserve. In recent years, in response to child deaths, the Legislature has properly taken a very hands-on approach to improving DCFS for children. Today, the Louisiana Legislature must ask a clarifying question: What are the potential negative outcomes from the abolishment of DCFS?
In returning to the model that led to Gary W., abolishing DCFS and distributing its two functions, child welfare and child support, to other state agencies 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 or single point of authoritative 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.
- As a relatively tiny function in the state’s largest department, LDH, child welfare services
may lose focused regulatory and budget attention. - Reduced morale may accompany the abolishment.
- Unanticipated transition period vulnerabilities may result in worse outcomes for
Louisiana’s children or the state. - A reorganization that simply moves all current operations, staff, culture, and policies
(perhaps necessary to ensure the ongoing maintenance of federal relationships and funding)
may not provide the desired refresh and restart.
Is It Better to Abolish DCFS or See If HB617 and Continued Correction Are Effective?
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 HB617 improves DCFS as the Legislature desires?
Rightfully, SB265 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 many risks associated with DCFS’s abolishment are real and each is consequential.
Passing SB265 should not be done out of immediate frustration, but out of a genuine, studied determination and belief that abolishing DCFS is the best way forward. Until other options for reform are exhausted, the risks of abolishment give sufficient reason to set SB265 aside to determine if DCFS will make the desired improvements under the clarity of purpose afforded by 2025’s HB617.
The sense that progress has been too slow has created enough legitimate frustration that SB265 proposes a complete dissolution of DCFS, but all must remember that DCFS exists as an independent organization to ensure that the necessary Legislative oversight is possible.
Abolishing DCFS removes it as a target for the Legislature’s oversight. As we see in the lessons of the past, Louisiana’s child welfare services would likely become lost if decentralized, risking a return to the egregiously harmful practices of the 1960s and 1970s.
Louisiana’s children and families are fortunate that Louisiana’s Legislature cares so deeply about the well-being of our children that it deliberates even the extreme options to find the best way forward. Louisiana’s abused and neglected children have too much to lose if our Legislature loses clear sight of our child welfare system. The continuation of DCFS provides the Legislature with an obvious, responsible, and independent target for their work on behalf of Louisiana’s children.
Sincerely,
Rick Wheat
Director, Center for Child Well-being
Chief Advocacy Officer, Methodist Children’s Home
