BATON ROUGE- State Senator Regina Barrow wants to abolish the State Department of Children and Family Services. Barrow says her goal is to ensure the safety of children, even if it means tearing down the entire agency and rebuilding it from the ground up.

She says DCFS has consistently failed to provide children the level of protection they need.

Most recently, in January, 5-year-old Marley Perrilloux was found unresponsive, weighing only 19 pounds, and he was taken to a hospital where he later died. Marley's parents face murder charges in connection with his death.

Last month, DCFS told WBRZ it received several reports about the living conditions of Marley and his siblings, but they were not accepted for investigation.

"How did we drop the ball? How was the safety net not safe? Why did we have these gaping holes in our system? Nobody can answer that question," Barrow said in an interview with WBRZ about Marley's death last month.

Barrow has now authored legislation to abolish DCFS as a whole and create new offices within other departments. The proposed law would transfer child support enforcement to Louisiana Works and child welfare to the Department of Health.

"I have attended countless oversight hearings and meetings, hearing promises of reform, yet our children continue to fall through the cracks and suffer preventable death," Barrow said.

In the case of the 5-year-old Marley Perrilloux, his parents, Marlon Perrilloux and Renisa Young, are scheduled to return to court on March 17th in front of a new judge.

The original judge over the case recused himself, citing a conflict of interest with the law firm representing the defendants.