Senators draw governor into debate over child welfare agency
BATON ROUGE – A Senate committee’s discussion of a bill to remake the state’s child welfare system brought Gov. Jeff Landry more deeply into efforts to fix the troubled agency.
Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Covington, proposed to move the responsibility of child welfare from the Department of Children and Family Services to the Louisiana Department of Health.
Under his bill, the Louisiana State Police would run a call center for reports of child abuse, and the attorney general’s office would handle child support enforcement.
“There is a unique opportunity here and true desire here to fix a broken system,” McMath said.
The bill, which was originally written to require training for DCFS employees, had adopted a 111-page amendment to scrap the department instead. Upon McMath’s request, the bill was deferred for a week to give the public and lawmakers time to discuss his proposal.
Gov. Landry expressed frustration with McMath and the Senate for making attempts to fix the DCFS, stating in an interview with The Advocate that his office did not get the opportunity to offer input on McMath’s bill.
The governor met with McMath, DCFS Secretary Rebecca Harris and Senate President Cameron Henry, R-Metairie, to discuss how to solve the DCFS issues. He referred to the meeting as “great and productive” in a social media post.
“We’re focused on the best path forward to protect our kids,” Landry wrote.
Henry told reporters that although he had not taken a stance on McMath’s bill, he anticipated a situation where DCFS services could be “reduced or shared with other agencies.”
Louisiana Atty. Gen. Liz Murrill also said in a statement that she supports involvement from her office to enforce child support payments.
Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, had filed a bill last month to close DCFS. After some discussions with other senators and Harris, Barrow agreed to put her bill on pause and work with Harris to improve the agency.
Barrow was present during McMath’s presentation of his bill but declined to comment when given the opportunity.
McMath said Barrow would continue to be a leading voice for changes at DCFS and that nothing should be read into his decision to rework his bill rather than update Barrow’s bill.
Barrow and McMath had been working together to decide which agencies would be best to take over some of the functions that DCFS oversees. During their research, they found that Louisiana has the worst outcomes of child homicides in the country compared to other states.
“Louisiana was at the top of the list at 11.5,” McMath said when referring to the data he got from the top 10 states per 100,000 child homicide rates. “Not that all child homicides are a result of neglect upon the state, but that is a number that needs to change. I think we can all agree.”
Harris has made some changes, such as ending remote staffing for the DCFS abuse hotline. However, only a handful of the 50 hotline employees were offered jobs at a new call center in Baton Rouge. The rest were given the opportunity to fill jobs at DCFS regional offices.
Since Dec. 15, more than 50 DCFS child welfare employees have resigned, retired or been removed from their jobs.
While McMath’s bill will be revisited at next week’s Senate Health and Welfare Committee meeting, Henry said it will take longer to craft solutions for the agency.
