BATON ROUGE - A Better Childhood, a national nonprofit group dedicated to "reforming dysfunctional child welfare systems," has filed a class action lawsuit against the Department of Children and Family Services. 

According to the press release from the group, the suit is being filed on behalf of more than 4,000 Louisiana children in the foster care system. The lawsuit alleges DCFS is "in desperate need of a systemic reform" due to the department having far too few workers and far too few places to safely place children, and the state "has failed to take necessary action and continued to cut the DCFS budget."

The complaint, which can be read in full here, comes after multiple children's deaths at the hands of DCFS, such as Mitchell Robinson III, who died of a fentanyl overdose, and Ezekiel Harry, whose remains were found in a trash can. 

The complaint also alleges workers are inundated with caseloads. According to the complaint document, one former DCFS employee in their resignation letter wrote: "when a worker has 100 cases, that's a fatality waiting to happen."

"Plaintiffs therefore seek declaratory and injunctive relief against Defendants to remedy the harm and risk of harm to thousands of foster children in Louisiana," the complaint concluded. "This lawsuit seeks to have Louisiana’s child welfare system brought into compliance with applicable federal law and constitutional standard."