High turnover exacerbates staffing needs at Louisiana’s child welfare agency, audit finds

Baton Rouge, LA (LA Illuminator) - An analysis of the state’s child welfare staffing needs found Louisiana is short by at least 129 workers, though a member of Gov. Jeff Landry’s cabinet says the number doesn’t take into account certain factors.

At the request of state lawmakers, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor reviewed staffing levels at the state’s nine regional child welfare offices under the Department of Children and Family Services. Its review involved employee counts in fiscal year 2024, which ended June 30 last year. The calculations used staff-to-case ratios for the various programs and cases the agency handles.

The audit report counted 1,541 child welfare workers statewide in fiscal year 2024, when DCFS served approximately 4,400 children in foster care per month, conducted 21,901 child protection investigations and spent $327.5 million. 

Turnover rates for state child welfare workers declined slightly, from nearly 16% in fiscal year 2023 to 15.3% in fiscal year 2024. In both years, an average of 214 child welfare employees left DCFS, while from July 1, 2024, through March 26, 2025, just 151 departed the agency.

Louisiana, like many other states, has struggled to hire and retain qualified child welfare workers because of the nature and difficulty of the job and its low salary, according to the audit report.

The audit report lists “standard/goal” ratios for each DCFS child welfare program, ranging from 1:10 for child protective services workers and foster care staff to 1:600 for adoption and guardianship subsidy program employees. It used those ratios to determine the staffing needs at the nine regional child welfare offices.

The greatest need for additional child welfare staffing was in the Alexandria region, which was 31 workers short of the 150 needed. The Covington office needed 27 workers to reach 206, and Thibodaux was 20 short of its optimal 143 staff count.

In his response to the findings, DCFS Secretary David Matlock said the auditor’s ratios did not factor in new hires, who aren’t immediately given a full caseload, and staff on extended leave, whose caseloads are transferred to other workers.     

“In addition, caseloads vary in complexity including the severity of the allegations, family size and dynamics, and geographic location, impacting the time required for each case,” Matlock wrote to Legislative Auditor Mike Waguespack in his response to the report’s findings.

The audit also examined how many regional staffers were assigned more than 10 new child protective services (CPS) cases per month in fiscal years 2024 and 2025. It found the rate decreased year over year at every office but one: Alexandria, where 24% of its staff were given more than 10 new cases in both years.

Other offices had higher rates of 10-plus new CPS case workloads, including Lake Charles (35%), Covington (32%), Shreveport (29%), New Orleans (29%), Lafayette (27%) and Thibodaux (26%).   

According to the audit, DCFS follows Child Welfare League of America caseload standards, which state that workers who conduct initial child protective assessments and provide related services should have no more than 10 “active ongoing families” assigned to them. 

From July 1, 2024, through Jan. 31, 2025, Louisiana CPS workers averaged nearly 16 active cases, and some had far larger caseloads – including 39 with more than 100 cases in a given month.

The audit highlighted the heaviest CPS caseload in each region over the timeframe and found one worker in Alexandria had 344 active cases over a month’s time. 

The statewide backlog of CPS cases declined 20% from July 1, 2022, through Feb. 3, 2025, when the count was 2,463, according to the audit. Cases are considered backlogged if investigations take longer than 60 days.

On a regional basis, CPS case backlogs increased in Alexandria, where there has been an average of 495 delinquent cases per week in fiscal year 2025 (66% increase) and Lafayette (108 cases, 12% increase).

To tackle the growing backlog in Alexandria, the audit report said DCFS has formed a special interview team to expedite staff hiring and added permanent and temporary CPS staff positions.

“Despite ongoing challenges, DCFS remains committed to strengthening its frontline workforce,” Matlock said in his audit response. “The Department continues to explore strategies for effectively managing child welfare caseloads and workloads, with the goal of improving staff retention and increasing positive outcomes for children and families.”

This article was written by Greg Larose for and published by Louisiana news source Louisiana Illuminator (lailluminator.com). This article is being shared for educational purposes.