Skip To Content
E-mail this to a friend Print this page Share

Office of Community Services

The Office of Community Services provides for the public child welfare functions of the state and administers the federal grants for services directed at meeting the special needs of Louisiana's most vulnerable citizens.

Programs and Services

Adoption and Foster Care

  • Adoption Reunion Registry - a registry established by the Department of Social Services to facilitate voluntary contact between adult adoptees, their birth parents and/or siblings.
  • Adopt a Child - More information about taking the first steps toward adoption.
  • Adoption Services - The OCS Adoption Program seeks adoptive home placement of children who are in DSS custody and are legally free for adoption.
  • Adoption Petitions - Adoption petition services provide for staff to conduct investigations
  • Louisiana Adoption Resource Exchange
    Please contact LARE at 1-800-259-3428.
  • View Children waiting for Adoption
  • Foster Care Services - Foster Care is a protective service provided to children in the custody of the Department of Social Services. It provides substitute, temporary care (e.g. foster family home, residential care facility, etc.) for a planned period of time when a child must be separated from his own parents or relatives because of abuse and/or neglect
  • Foster Parents  - Foster parenting is an opportunity to make a difference in a child’s life during a time of crisis.  Foster parents help children by providing a home that provides them with stability, supervision, consistency and affection. Foster and adoptive parents provide temporary and permanent placements for children who cannot remain in their own homes
  • Safe Haven - "Safe Haven" is a designated emergency care facility where a parent may anonymously leave his/her infant child, with the intent of placing the child for adoption, without fear of prosecution.. 

Child Protection & Family Services

  • Child Protection Investigation - Investigation of child abuse and neglect and provision of short term concrete services to children and families.
  • Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) - sometimes referred to as Performance and Quality Improvement (PQI), is a process of creating an environment in which management and, workers strive to create constantly improving quality.
  • Family Services - Family Services are social services, which are provided to families and children in their own homes in order to address problems of abuse/neglect and promote the safety of the children within the family unit.
  • Louisiana Children's Trust Fund - The Louisiana Children's Trust Fund serves as a catalyst for abuse and neglect prevention efforts in Louisiana. Among its responsibilities are the creation of the plan for prevention of child abuse, presentation of its annual review to the Governor and Legislature, and the funding of community-based child abuse and neglect programs to public and non-profit organizations through its grant process.    

Homeless Services

Questions about any OCS Services?E-mail the OCS Webmaster.

Plans and Reports