DCFS Strengthens Frontline Child Welfare Workforce to Improve Outcomes for Louisiana Children

Baton Rouge, La. — The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is implementing a series of strategic actions to strengthen and stabilize the frontline child welfare workforce. These steps are part of the Department’s broader commitment to improving safety, timeliness, and permanency outcomes for children and families across the state.

Over the past year, DCFS has undertaken a top-to-bottom review of its operations, informed by staff feedback, legislative discussions, and best practices from child welfare organizations. That review made clear that child safety and timely response depend on having sufficient staffing and supervision at the frontlines.

“Louisiana’s children deserve our very best response, every time,” said DCFS Secretary Rebecca Harris. “We are making the necessary adjustments to ensure we have skilled, supported staff where children and families need us most — on the frontlines in their communities.”

As part of this effort:

• More than 100 child welfare staff are being reassigned to place expertise closer to the children and families while also building a stronger operational backbone to sustain the change. These reassignments ensure that investigations and in-home services are properly staffed and supervised in every community.
• Centralized Intake (CI) operations are being restructured to reinforce the strong commitment to child safety, rapid response, and accountability in how reports of abuse and neglect are handled. Beginning in December, CI staff will report to a DCFS office, improving connection to field operations, training, and supervisory support.
• The Department is also expanding evening and weekend coverage, including a second shift of 53 newly hired child welfare professionals to address after-hours reports and reduce response delays.

Secretary Harris noted that the move toward in-office and community-based work reflects both national best practice and the evolving expectations for public service delivery.

“Child welfare work is intensely human work,” Harris said. “It requires collaboration, supervision, and real-time decision-making. Being together as teams especially in intake and investigations allows us to provide faster, higher-quality responses that keep children safer.”

DCFS is following all State Civil Service procedures in the implementation of these changes, and every impacted employee has been notified and will be supported through the transition.

The Department’s recent hiring efforts and organizational changes will produce improvements in response time and workload balance.

“These are difficult transitions, but they are absolutely necessary,” Harris said. “Every decision is being made with one goal - to strengthen the system so children are protected, families are supported, and staff are empowered to succeed.”

For more information about the Department’s improvement initiatives, visit LA-DCFS-25-26-Business-Plan-final.pdf.