(The Center Square) — According to a report, the Louisiana Child Welfare division of the Department of Children and Family Services had 1,541 employees in 2024, serving over 4,000 children in foster care per month.
In some parts of the state, workers are facing a heavier than optimal workload. According to an informational brief by the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s office, the ideal per-employee workload is 10 cases, but some regions have 15 or more cases per worker.
After receiving a request to assess and analyze staffing needs for the child welfare division, the independent auditor found that 21,901 child protection investigations were conducted with total expenditures of $327.5 million for 2024.
Even with over 1,500 employees, retention is difficult due to the nature of the job.
“According to DCFS, it has struggled to recruit and retain qualified child welfare staff due to the nature and difficulty of the job, along with a low salary. Child welfare staffing is a common challenge across all states,” noted the auditor.
The department created incentives to try and address the issues with employee retention, including premium pay and incentive awards.
Ideally, one staff member for every 10 cases is the goal for Child Protective Services. However, from July 1, 2022, through February of this year, filled positions have decreased. Data showed that there was a 6.9% decrease, dropping filled positions from 1,554 to 1,446.
Shreveport experienced one of the biggest decreases of any region in the state. Between fiscal year 2023 to 2025, Shreveport lost 15.4% of its child welfare positions, dropping from 162 to 137. The city also reported the second-highest of vacant full-time positions. Shreveport had 14 in fiscal year 2025, eight last year, and five in 2023— a 180% change.
While one staff member for every 10 cases is ideal, CPS saw a spike in active cases from 2023 to 2025. In 2023, there were around 9.3 active cases per staff member each month. Now, there are roughly 15.9 active cases per staff member. Caseload standards have not been updated since 2012. Shreveport employees average 18.7 active cases per month, a 80.7% increase from 2023.
Overall, statewide, monthly CPS cases have declined by 16.2% since 2023, but staffing shortages and low wages are still affecting cases.
Despite this decrease in staffing, salaries and benefits for child welfare employees are still reported to be almost $100 million. Salaries for fiscal year 2024 were $98.9 million with $45.5 million additional in benefits.
There have been ongoing efforts by the state to help the staffing crisis in child welfare, but there is still room for improvement to close the gap between full-time employees and active caseloads.
