Lawmakers fear DCFS reorganization could cost Louisiana experienced child welfare workers

State lawmakers are questioning an ongoing reorganization at Louisiana’s child welfare agency, raising concerns that the effort could result in the loss of experienced employees.

Sens. Regina Barrow, D-Baton Rouge, and Katrina Jackson-Andrews, D-Monroe, were also critical of the leadership at the Department of Children and Family Services and its lack of experience in child welfare. Its leader, Rebecca Harris, appeared Thursday before the legislature’s Select Committee on Women and Children and acknowledged that her top executives don’t have backgrounds working directly on child abuse and neglect. 

Jackson-Andrews said that having no one among the department’s top six leadership positions with a background in child welfare is “alarming,” given the agency’s primary mission.

“That’s what we do at DCFS. That’s the main thing, protecting children,” Jackson-Andrews said.

Lawmakers have long scrutinized the department over instances when repeated abuse apparently went unchecked. Through September, 39 children in Louisiana died this year as a result of suspected abuse or neglect. Of those deaths, 25 were at households the agency had previously investigated.

Harris, who was named the department’s leader in August, has put an emphasis on placing more child welfare workers in “front line” jobs where they can respond to allegations of abuse and neglect. So far, she’s reassigned about 100 child welfare supervisors from office jobs to positions where they can handle child welfare cases directly. Another 48 recently hired “second shift” workers have boosted those numbers, DCFS Assistant Secretary Bret Hanemann said.

Some of the shuffled supervisors contacted Jackson-Andrews to complain they were given extremely short notice about their new assignments, the senator said. Harris confirmed that the employees were moved to new roles in less than a week, adding “we did not do all this perfectly.” 

Harris also intends to end remote work for the 51 staffers who field calls to the state’s 24-7 child abuse hotline. She said no other state allows those employees to work from home, where they could potentially lose power or their internet connection. The decision is also in line with an executive order from Gov. Jeff Landry in April to require in-office work for all state employees with limited exceptions.

Instead, the department is launching a call center at its downtown Baton Rouge headquarters starting Dec. 15. The five hotline employees who live in the Baton Rouge area will have to work at the new location, which Harris is fashioning to work like a 911 call center. The remaining 46 employees, which include call workers, their supervisors and  managers, are being offered front line jobs at regional DCFS offices.

Hundreds of Louisiana child abuse reports filed online sat untouched for days

Lacy Simms, who Harris has placed in charge of the call center, provided lawmakers with details on Harris’ plans to model the hotline after an emergency call center in an effort to reduce call wait times and how long staffers spend on each call. The secretary said calls should average seven to nine minutes, including the time needed to dispatch first responders if warranted. Currently, the call center averages 26 minutes per call.

Simms said she has reached out to the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials, an organization for emergency communications professionals, to develop what she said would be the first-ever training for child abuse hotline workers. 

“I really believe with the right training, with the right information, with the right people put into our training, I really believe we’re going to take off and be the first child welfare agency in the nation where our people are certified, and we operate it as a 911 call center,” Simms said. 

The secretary originally planned for the transition to the call center to be complete by Jan. 1, but she has since extended that deadline to June 30. The additional time will allow new and existing employees to be trained on new technology and procedures being put in place.

Lawmakers also heard from Melanie Mann, who was on the hotline staff until last month when Harris began the process to relocate the team to Baton Rouge. Mann said she resigned because her disability would not allow her to work at the closest DCFS regional office to her in Amite.   

Jackson-Andrews said she has received calls and emails from about a dozen hotline employees who have said they have contemplated quitting or retiring rather than taking regional office jobs. Mann said she knows of several former co-workers who also have disabilities and aren’t likely to take new roles with the department.

Simms said Mann and one supervisor are the only departures from the DFCS hotline staff to date. Forty people have applied for jobs as hotline operators, and 10 applications have been submitted for the vacant supervisor position, she added.

Earlier in the meeting, Mann questioned the department’s new emphasis on hiring communications workers, rather than persons with background in social work or child services, to staff the hotline. She said the restructuring could result in the loss of staff with specialized training and years of experience. 

“We make high stakes decisions that can impact children’s lives every time we process a report,” Mann said.  

Jackson-Andrews said multiple times she did not want to pin the longstanding issues at Children and Family Services on Harris but stressed that her reorganization should include input from its child welfare workers, especially because that experience is lacking on her executive team.

In an interview after the hearing, Harris said the department’s top managers, who are just one level below the executive team, have the institutional knowledge and background the senator mentioned. She referenced her own experience as an investigator with the state health department involving cases of sexually transmitted disease among minors, which she said often overlapped with DCFS child welfare cases. 

“Between all of the different skills and knowledge and experience that’s brought to the table, I believe that we have a very solid team,” Harris said.