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…
Center for Child Well-being
TLDR: As AI becomes more sophisticated, child welfare professionals will increasingly need to champion the importance of human connection, empathy, and compassion in caring for children and families. Those that do will carve out a distinctive and essential role that uniquely emphasizes the human elements in child welfare, especially as AI capabilities grow and state agencies use AI to increase…
Rosemary Westwood, WWNO November 4, 2025 When there’s an outbreak of a vaccine-preventable disease, state health officials typically take certain steps to alert residents and issue public updates about the growing threat. That’s standard practice, public health and infectious disease experts told KFF Health News and NPR. The goal is to keep as many other vulnerable people as possible from…
by Elise Plunk, Louisiana Illuminator October 22, 2025 Louisiana’s child poverty rate over the past three years leads the nation, according to a new study that attributes the trend to rising costs and expiring public assistance programs. The state also had the largest increase in child poverty rate over the same period of time. The report from the Annie E.…
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…
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…
News: 04/30/2025 Louisiana’s Jackson Parish Jail Violates Regulations, Holds Kids, by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, writing for The Appeal. (This news report is about the facility that sought to incarcerate children in shipping containers. Louisiana, we must do better.) “OJJ licensing specialists visited the jail multiple times between July and February and found the facility violated state regulations 83 times. The…
Invariably, when we hear, “Louisiana found the bottom,” someone responds, “Oh, yeah? Give me a bigger shovel!” Last month, by a vast majority, Louisiana’s citizens rejected four Constitutional amendments. The amendment beaten most soundly across the state would have permitted the Legislature to put children in adult prisons for any crime it chooses. Essentially, with its proposed constitutional amendments, the…
A drop in childhood vaccination rates has consequences for children. News: 04/03/2025 The American Academy of Pediatricians reports 2 Louisiana Infants Die of Pertussis as Infections Rise. The state’s last infant death from Whooping Cough was in 2018. Immunization against Whooping Cough (pertussis) prevents 78% of cases in newborns and is 91% effective at preventing hospital stays. Childhood vaccination…