Certain topics in child well-being call for increased attention. For Louisiana’s children, these topics include our state having too few foster homes for the number of children in DCFS custody, Louisiana’s use of “placeholder” services that should be more available, insufficient funding for critical prevention services such as Nurse-Family Partnership, Louisiana’s Coordinated System of Care, and Therapeutic Detention, and the general concern about all that has kept Louisiana ranked 49th on child well-being for 36 years.
Topics in Louisiana Child Well-being
On the IMD Rule and Child Welfare
Today, without violating its spirit or intent, the IMD Rule may be modified to improve services for children in foster care by raising the 16-bed cap it places on the use of Medicaid funds for group homes to 24 beds. Within inches of its definition of an Institution for Mental Disease, 42 CFR Part 435 – Subpart K – Federal Financial Participation, § 435.1010, defines a Child-care Institution as one with no more than 25 beds.
In addition, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) will solve a tremendous ambiguity for providers, states, legislators, and citizens by clarifying that a single provider organization may operate multiple facilities of various types that together offer more than the IMD Rule’s bed cap, so long as no single facility exceeds the bed cap, but if it does, is a certified Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility (PRTF). This simple clarification will end the chronic national ambiguity, while ensuring no single facility violates the IMD Rule’s vital protections against institutionalization.
Infant Mortality
Louisiana has an infant mortality rate of 8.1, which means that out of every 1,000 babies born in the state, 8.1 die before their first birthday. Louisiana has a higher rate of infant deaths than 46 states and 81 countries.
Foster Care
We know Louisiana has too few foster homes for the number of children in custody. So at the end of the day, if DCFS is without a foster bed, sleeping in a hotel or on an office floor becomes the only option for a child in a system with too many needs and too few resources. Child welfare uses the phrase “alternative placement” for the practice of hoteling.
Storm Warning: Louisiana Needs More Foster Homes for Children
Child Hunger
Medicaid Managed Care for Children
Children’s Ombudsman
On June 7, 2023, Louisiana’s Legislature passed Senate Bill 137, proposed by Senator Regina Barrow, which establishes the Louisiana Office of the State Child Ombudsman! On June 21, Governor John Bel Edwards signed SB 137 into law as Act 325 of the 2023 Legislature.
Louisiana’s Rank on Child Well-being
As the chart indicates, in a single year, 11 states (more than 20%) improved their rank in overall child well-being by two or more positions. Five states (10%) improved their child well-being rank by 3 or more positions. Minnesota made it to number 1 in child well-being with a 4 position move and Alaska improved by 6 positions between 2014 and 2015.
KIDS COUNT? Yes. But Do They Count in Louisiana? A Bibliography of Louisiana Newspaper Headlines: Regarding Annual KIDS COUNT Reports Since 1990, An Advocacy Paper Updated August 2022.