By Families vs DHR Staff
Published September 2025
For nearly three decades, Leslie Kelly has been embedded in the child welfare system. According to an article in the Dothan Eagle, she has held multiple positions within the Department of Human Resources, rising through the ranks until she became Director of the Houston County office.
One would think that longevity, of twenty-nine years, might suggest leadership rooted in experience, wisdom, and accountability. But families across Houston County tell a very different story. They report destruction, not protection. Fear, not safety. Retaliation, not reform.
Families are reporting that Leslie Kelly is known for using bad tactics that harm families rather than protect them. Instead of addressing corruption, she shields it. Instead of ensuring accountability, she signs off on chaos. Parents continue to come forward with strikingly similar accounts. Children are being removed under false pretenses. Teenagers’ rebellion is twisted into case files. Parents are threatened with arrest simply for asking questions. Authority is stripped from households while chaos spreads unchecked. The pattern is clear: families are being targeted, not protected.
Under Kelly’s leadership, a troubling culture has taken root inside the Houston County office. Caseworkers are known to party together on weekends and back each other during the week. The same names appear repeatedly on documents tied to removals that appear unjust and retaliatory. This is more than unprofessional. It is a conflict of interest. Workers shield each other’s misconduct rather than hold one another accountable, and that culture filters directly into the cases that decide whether children remain with their families or are torn away. The culture that operates behind those walls is built on betrayal and abuse of power.
Every story carries a human cost. Grandparents are silenced. Parents are stripped of authority. Children are left in confusion, trauma, and danger. Families come to us broken, not because of the struggles of parenting, but because of a system that twists rebellion into a weapon and discipline into abuse. This is not child protection. This is harm disguised as help.
And Houston County is not an exception. Across the nation, citizens are waking up to the reality that child welfare systems are leaving behind a trail of trauma. In state after state, parents are raising the same alarms: families are being targeted, children are being exploited, and accountability is absent. The pushback is growing louder. Communities are no longer silent.
Leadership sets the tone. If the culture is careless, children will feel it. If the culture is arrogant, parents will feel it. If the culture is reckless, the entire community will feel it. Under Leslie Kelly’s direction, Houston County feels it all. And the nation is watching.
Families deserve leadership that protects, not leadership that hides. Houston County DHR cannot continue to operate as if its walls shield it from scrutiny. We are calling for truth, transparency, and change. And it begins at the top.
If you or your family have been impacted by Houston County DHR, we want to hear from you.