Louisiana officials hope to place more children in foster care, and the state agency that oversees the system wants to pay families more to take them in.
The Department of Children and Family Services is asking for an additional $17 million for budget year 2026-27 to elevate its foster care board rates, according to its budget presentation Monday to the Louisiana House Appropriations Committee. DCFS Assistant Secretary Christopher Bahm told lawmakers foster families are paid an average of $19.47 a day per child in their care. That rate has been increased only once over the past 19 years, he said.
“If we expect children to move from foster care to permanency faster and with better outcomes, we must ensure that we are providing the caregivers … with adequate resources,” Bahm said.
Louisiana has some 7,000 children in foster care, according to DCFS Secretary Rebecca Harris, and there are 48 foster homes for every 100 in the system.
The additional foster care funding comes days after Gov. Jeff Landry added Louisiana to a new Trump administration initiative, A Home for Every Child. The new program, which doesn’t include more federal money for participating states, removes bureaucratic steps for states after they assess the risk and safety of foster homes.
On their part, the states have to share data with the federal government on their foster home-to-child ratios.
Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee are also part of the federal initiative.
On the same day Landry announced Louisiana was joining the initiative, he signed an executive order to protect Social Security survivor benefits for children whose parents have died. The action ensures the money follows them once they enter the foster care system, to be used for their education, housing and savings.
