LITTLE ROCK – The director of the state Division of Children and Family Services told lawmakers that much of the agency’s improvements in recent years is due to greater involvement on the part of faith-based groups, churches and private sector organizations.
For example, CarePortal is a program that the Arkansas Family Alliance uses to recruit volunteers, churches and potential foster care families. When the director of the Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) described CarePortal, several legislators expressed interest and asked how to promote the program in their districts.
The division director said the program is operating in five of the largest counties in Arkansas, and the agency is working to add four more.
DCFS also partners with the state Health Department on a program titled “Baby and Me” for families who receive benefits through Women, Infants and Children, or WIC. It teaches parenting skills to mothers and fathers of newborns.
In late June it expanded from 15 to 18 counties. Lessons can be as simple as how to breastfeed. They’re designed to reduce the stress of parenting and thus to prevent possible abuse or neglect. There is no cost to the family.
The director of DCFS, alongside the Secretary of the Department of Human Services, updated the legislative Hospital, Medicaid and Developmental Disabilities Subcommittee. Legislators were so interested that the committee co-chairs plan to invite leaders of CarePortal and several other private organizations to next month’s meeting.
DCFS now uses evidence-based prevention services, and one result has been that the re-victimization rate for children remains low, at 7 percent. That is better than the national average.
From 2022 to 2024 the number of children in foster care decreased by 971 children. As of July 1, 2025, there were 3,390 children and youths in Arkansas foster care homes.
DCFS has more than 1,000 employees and the agency “continues to experience significant challenges with staff turnover,” the director told legislators. However, it is better than a few years ago when turnover among frontline staff was 60 percent to 70 percent. Since 2022 the turnover rate has improved by 19 percent, the director said.
Maintaining appropriate staffing levels has enabled the agency to lower case loads to an average of 17 cases per employee. In the recent past the work load has been significantly higher, which has negatively affected case management. For example, when the agency opens a case, family services workers are supposed to complete their findings and schedule regular visits to the home. High caseloads make it difficult to make scheduled visits on time.
Of all the children who went through the foster care system last year, 43 percent were reunited with their parents or a close caregiver. Another 30 percent were adopted, either by foster parents, by a relative or by families recruited by DCFS.
The agency has a budget of $261 million this year. Of that, $81.5 million is for salaries and benefits of staff. About $70 million is for room and board for children in the system. The state pays foster families, relatives and others with whom foster children are placed.
About $59 million is for contracts for services such as mental health counseling, therapy, substance abuse treatment and prevention and teaching parenting skills.
