Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services, Marketa Garner Walters, faces the press after another child overdose death. November 7, 2022. Photo by Brooke Thorington.
Department of Children and Family Services Secretary Marketa Garner Walters has resigned after a second child died from a drug overdose death that the state agency received warnings about. The resignation comes one day after Governor John Bel Edwards called last week’s fentanyl overdose death of a one-year-old child an absolute failure by DCFS.
“Obviously there were failures in terms of the implementation of new policies and procedures, those things didn’t happen, we are still working to get to the bottom of them, but I’m not going to sugarcoat it, it was an absolute failure,” Edwards told several TV stations during an interview on Wednesday.
DCFS announced new policies in August after a two-year-old died from an overdose fentanyl death. But last week, another child died from a drug overdose death, about ten days after the state agency received a tip about the child’s well-being. Edwards says the new policies did not prevent another tragedy
“There was obviously a failure to implement faithfully the new policies and procedures that had been announced,” said Edwards.
A few lawmakers have called for the firing of Walters. In the resignation announcement, Edwards praised her work in increasing adoptions from the state’s foster care system. But they are bringing a third-party expert organization to perform a top-to-bottom review of DCFS.
He says the investigation into this latest child death continues, especially since it’s known a DCFS supervisor was assigned to it.
“So all of that troubles me greatly and we are still working to figure it out, exactly what happened,” said Edwards.
Prior to her resignation, Walters said a smaller-than-needed workforce and higher worker caseload has been very difficult on their agency.
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