(Louisiana Illuminator) — A new plan to dismantle Louisiana’s child welfare agency will likely be dialed back after Gov. Jeff Landry made it known he wants to scale back the proposal.
Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Covington, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare, presented legislation Wednesday morning to move tasks the state Department of Child and Family Services handles to other state departments. Louisiana State Police would take over its child abuse hotline and intake center as well as respond immediately to urgent cases. Child support enforcement would become the responsibility of the state attorney general, while foster care and other family services would land with the state Department of Health.
“There is a unique opportunity here and true desire here to fix a broken system,” McMath told his committee as he overhauled a bill he authored to require training for DCFS employees with a 111-page amendment to instead scrap the department. At McMath’s request, the committee deferred the revised bill for a week to give lawmakers and the public time to digest the updated legislation.
In an interview with The Advocate, the governor said his office did not get the opportunity to offer input on McMath’s bill, and he defended the work of DCFS Secretary Rebecca Harris, who he named to the post in August.
Landry later met with McMath, Harris and Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, to discuss how to address DCFS issues, and McMath said in a subsequent interview his proposal was likely to change.
“I think maybe the bill doesn’t get all the way across the finish line in the form that it is now, but as long as we can point to something that makes our child welfare system in Louisiana just that much safer for children, then that’s a win,” McMath said.
In a social media post, Landry referenced “a great and productive meeting” with the senators and Harris.
“We’re focused on the best path forward to protect our kids,” the governor wrote.
“The governor obviously made it very clear today that he’s very passionate about child welfare … and also made it clear that he might be interested in taking the lead on this,” McMath said.
Henry told reporters that while he has not taken a position on McMath’s proposal, he anticipated a scenario where DCFS services could be “reduced or shared with other agencies.”
In a statement, Attorney General Liz Murrill said she has met with McMath about his proposal and supports involvement from her office to enforce child support payments.
“It would certainly take some transition time, but many AG offices around the country perform this function,” Murrill said. “It’s a legal process, so it would fit within our overall responsibilities.”
Children and Family Services has nearly 2,200 employees, according to state budget figures, and McMath told the health committee there would be “no mass layoffs” under his proposal, though he acknowledged some state employees might have to be reclassified in order to move to other departments. It was not immediately known whether there would be any salary ramifications for the affected employees.
Louisiana is one of only seven states with a stand-alone child welfare agency, McMath said.
Lawmakers were already presented with a proposal to close Children and Family Services from Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, who’s long been the legislature’s most vocal critic of the department’s shortcomings. She agreed last month to press pause on her bill and work with Harris on a measure to spur improvements at the agency.
McMath said nothing should be read into his decision to rework his own bill rather than update Barrow’s measure, and that she would continue to be a leading voice for reform at Children and Family Services.
Barrow appeared briefly at the Senate committee meeting during McMath’s presentation but did not comment on his proposal when he offered her the opportunity. She could not be reached for comment after the meeting.
According to DCFS numbers, there were 53 child deaths reported to the state in 2025 with 28 substantiated as abuse- or neglect-related. As of mid-March, 12 child deaths were reported to the state with three connected to abuse. Investigations were ongoing into the causes for most of the remaining cases.
It was Harris’ suggestion to move the abuse hotline and intake to State Police, according to McMath. Harris did not respond to an interview request Wednesday, but since late last year she has undertaken an effort to train the agency’s call center workers using a 911 model and ensure better integration with law enforcement.
McMath said having child abuse calls go through State Police will allow for better response from local law enforcement, and state social workers would be less likely to encounter a dangerous crime scene when responding to urgent calls.
The inspiration for Louisiana’s hotline switch is Arkansas, McMath said, which has a Crimes Against Children Division within its state police agency.
Louisiana State Police does not comment on proposed legislation, spokesman Maj. Nick Manale said in an email.
“However, our Troopers and Criminal Investigators are continuously working in conjunction with our local, state and federal partner agencies to ensure the safety of our communities,” Manale wrote.
Harris is bringing an end to remote staffing for the DCFS abuse hotline, but only a handful of the 50 hotline employees across the state were offered jobs at a new call center in Baton Rouge. The remainder were given the option to take jobs at DCFS regional offices, in addition to 100 child welfare supervisors who Harris has moved from office jobs to handling child abuse cases in the field.
More than 50 DCFS child welfare employees have resigned, retired or been removed from their jobs department since Dec. 15, the initial deadline Harris set for remote workers to accept transfers to regional offices. Barrow and Sen. Katrina Jackson-Andrews, chair of the Senate Select Committee on Women and Children, said they have received numerous calls and emails from DCFS employees upset with the changes Harris has made.
Though McMath’s bill was bumped to next week’s Senate health committee agenda, Henry said it will take longer to arrive at solutions for Children and Family Services.
“To fix that department would take a year,” he said. “If we can just pull out one part of it and have the attorney general’s office involved, that would be productive. But this isn’t a quick fix. This is going to take a while.”
