David Reed served as the Deputy Director of Child Welfare Services for the Indiana Department of Child Services (DCS) from September 2017 until June 2025. His team oversaw all the services and programming provided to DCS-involved kids and families across the state. He also facilitated the state’s implementation of the federal Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) which has helped provide evidence-based services to safely keep children with their families when possible while prioritizing the utilization of family-based placements when they must be placed into foster care. He helped craft Indiana’s 5-year Title IV-E Prevention Plan, which was the first in the nation to have an approved “community pathway” allowing families with no formal involvement with child welfare to received Title IV-E-funded evidence-based services, and it created Indiana’s Family Preservation Services model (INFPS) which is a promising practice on the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (CEBC) and is currently under review by the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse. He’s a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has been practicing in the field of child welfare in Indiana since 1995.
He has worked in the social work field in a range of settings including residential and acute treatment centers, group homes, outpatient counseling centers, and private practice, but the majority of his career has involved working with foster youth and children involved with the child welfare system. He is a nationally certified Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) therapist and has been a Credentialed Sexually Abusive Youth Clinician (CSAYC) since 2007. He was a faculty member of the Indiana Association of Juvenile Sex Offender Practitioners (IN-AJSOP) and regularly trained therapists and other social work professionals on how to best work with youth who exhibit sexually maladaptive behaviors. He has presented at conferences on the topics of trauma, attachment, childhood mental health, and parenting. He was the co-chair of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Task Force of the Commission on Improving the Status of Children in Indiana and also served as a member of the Indiana Behavioral Health Commission. In addition, he is an executive committee member of the National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators (NAPCWA) within the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA). He holds a Master of Social Work and a BS in Psychology from Indiana University.