Louisiana lawmakers call for more oversight, but not closure of Children and Family Services

By Greg LaRose

Contributing  Writer

(lailluminator.com) – A state lawmaker’s proposal to close Louisiana’s child welfare agency has been put on hold while she and the head of that agency work on a compromise that will address the department’s chronic issues.

For years, Sen. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, has been critical of the state Department of Children and Family Services and its inability to intercede in child abuse cases before they result in serious injury or death. She has authored a bill to abolish the department but agreed Tuesday to instead work with DCFS Secretary Rebecca Harris to replace her proposal with one that directly addresses the agency’s shortcomings without dismantling it.

If the compromise requires new legislation, it has to be filed before the March 31 deadline for lawmakers to introduce new bills. Another option would be for Barrow to submit a substitute for her current proposal, which she said she was open to considering.

Before agreeing to those next steps, Harris heard a bevy of bipartisan complaints from members of the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare during a hearing on Barrow’s bill.

Sen. Mike Fesi, R-Houma, noted that legislation he sponsored in 2023, known as Ezekiel’s Law, was intended to improve investigations into child abuse cases. Its inspiration was the death of 2-year-old Ezekiel Harry, whose body was discovered a year earlier in a duffel bag placed in a trash can yards away from the Houma Police Department. Records show DCFS had been made aware of abuse concerns at the child’s home in 2020.

Fesi’s measure created the Partners in Protecting Children Subcommittee under the governor’s Children’s Cabinet Advisory Board. Its members include representatives of DCFS, police agencies, prosecutors and other interest groups, and they were tasked with making legislative recommendations to address longstanding child welfare concerns.

Fesi said he was unaware how often or how many times the subcommittee has met since Ezekiel’s Law was approved. Harris confirmed the group has been meeting quarterly but has yet to produce any suggestions for lawmakers.

Two weeks before the body of the Houma toddler was found, Baton Rouge authorities responded to the death of Mitchell Robinson III, attributed to a fentanyl overdose. DCFS had been alerted at least three times previously about the boy being in peril, including two instances when he was brought to a hospital unresponsive, treated with Narcan and released to his mother.

Barrow said her bill is the culmination of years of frustration with Children and Families Services since the death of Robinson, who lived in her district.  

Other senators shared Barrow’s discontent.

Sen. Thomas Pressly, R-Shreveport, spoke in an exasperated tone to Harris when she could not provide examples about best practices for responding to child abuse from other states.

“Someone has to be doing it better” than Louisiana, Pressly said.

Most committee members leaned toward having Barrow make adjustments to her bill rather than proceeding with the abolition of the department, though Sens. Jay Luneau, D-Alexandria, and Katrina Jackson-Andrews, D-Monroe, told Harris they would be willing to support Barrow’s legislation as is unless the secretary commits to working with Barrow on substantial changes for the department.

Harris appeared before Jackson-Andrews and Barrow a week earlier at the meeting of the Senate Select Committee on Women and Children, when the senators directed the secretary to revise the department’s budget and ask for more resources to address child welfare.

The committee’s chairman, Sen. Patrick McMath, R-Covington, also encouraged Harris to identify ways her department could expand its capacity, rather than “DOGEing your way” to efficiency.

Gov. Jeff Landry appointed Harris DCFS secretary last year, effective Aug. 1. She replaced David Matlock, a retired juvenile court judge. Her first two months on the job involved steering the governor’s One Door initiative, which moved Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits from her agency to the Louisiana Department of Health and related employment and training programs to the state labor department.

Harris began her reorganization of the child welfare division in October, starting with reassigning some 100 supervisors with office jobs to field work responding to abuse cases. The secretary also shifted the agency’s abuse hotline from a team of 50 remote workers located across the state to a call center staff based at DCFS. Other than employees in the Baton Rouge area, all other hotline workers were reassigned to field work at regional offices.

Jackson-Andrews said she has fielded more than a hundred calls, emails, texts and direct messages from DCFS employees unhappy with the reorganization. Records from the Louisiana State Civil Service show 80 employees from the department’s child welfare division have resigned, retired or been removed from their jobs since Oct. 20, excluding temporary workers.

Senators acknowledged the problems at DCFS predate the arrival of Harris. But some committee members were dismissive when the secretary touted new “dashboards” she’s put in place for department staff to better track reports of child abuse and follow-up.

Persistent pressure for change at the department comes after 53 child deaths were reported to the state last year, with 28 substantiated as abuse- or neglect-related. The total was down slightly from 2024 when 31 deaths were linked to mistreatment.

So far in 2026, there have been 12 child deaths reported to the state, Barrow said Tuesday. A DCFS official said last week most of the investigations into causes of those deaths were still ongoing, though three have been confirmed to be the result of abuse.

This article originally published in the March 23, 2026 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.