Everyone failed Laquan McDonald
Monday, Feb 8, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* We already know that Laquan McDonald was a ward of the state when he was shot by police. So, his family (immediate and extended) obviously failed him. And so did the government at all levels, according to the BGA…
* The city schools McDonald attended had some of the lowest academic ratings, and two were later closed because they were so bad.
* The psychiatric hospital he was sent to by child welfare officials was the subject of a scathing report detailing physical and sexual abuse there.
* The Chicago Public Schools system placed him in a small, private school for children with emotional disturbances, but the district failed to collect any performance measures on the facility and others like it for years.
* The last school McDonald attended is highly rated but child advocates believe it didn’t have the resources needed to help students with complex behavioral issues.
* The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, which was responsible for McDonald’s well-being when he was a foster child, was “nonexistent” when it came to ensuring McDonald was adequately placed in schools.
* More..
Ben Wolf, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which has pushed for greater accountability at DCFS, said too many foster children wind up in the worst schools and eventually drop out.
“In general, most schools don’t know what to do with foster children,” Wolf said.
One CPS social worker who reviewed McDonald’s school records said she was appalled at the lack of involvement by DCFS, saying, “It was nonexistent.”
As has been reported, McDonald was sexually and physically abused while in foster care — while living with people he was not related to — under the supervision of DCFS.
- The Man on 6 - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 9:19 am:
Everyone may have failed Laquan McDonald, but there’s only one bad actor out there who took his life. All these injustices must, in time, be rectified, but making sure that McDonald’s killer faces justice (real justice) has to be the top priority.
- Maguffin - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 9:57 am:
First and foremost, Laquan McDonald’s parents and family failed him. The state, and its programs, are, at their theoretical best, a poor substitute for the kind of life any child deserves. Second, the state spent ten of thousands of dollars (hundreds of thousands?) on Laquan and failed, it seems, at every level. Yet nothing changes, no one is disciplined, no programs are cut as being ineffective, no teachers are held accountable, no counselors lose seniority, everyone throws up their hands and decries a ‘lack of resources.’ There are tens of thousands of kids just like him in a system that is completely ineffective, unaccountable, and out of control despite intensions. More money isn’t the answer. The question: what is?
- Cassandra - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 11:08 am:
I’m not inclined to defend DCFS, another large state bureaucracy overstuffed with highly-paid, politically connected state bureaucrats who never seem to accomplish much-or worse.
Nevertheless, I find Wolf’s comments more than a little disingenuous. The ACLU sued DCFS in the nineties to improve the care of the state’s wards. The result was a consent decree which the ACLU has been monitoring off and on, mostly on, for thirty years. When your organization has been monitoring something for thirty years and conditions are this bad, where have you been? Haven’t you become part of the problem? The ACLU has access to powerful stakeholders, including the federal courts. The average DCFS administrator does not. So whose failure is this really. All to easy to blame the latest version of DCFS, a version that will probably change again soon given the short-term nature of most DCFS administrations.
- Tequila Mockingbird - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 11:24 am:
Maguffin’s words are an accurate expression of my thoughts.
- Ghost - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 12:16 pm:
pair this w/ woukd you be willing to pay higher taxes t correct the problems….
the medical care for foster kids is just horrible. its the worst of the worst. you have to find a doctor or facility who ate willing to be paid fractions of the cost of care;
dcfs keeps cutting staff, and they lost lutheran and other contractors who assist them.
not to mention its hard to keep qualified workers in the job. high turnover. telling people to fix it work. it needs money and tedeisgned from the grnd up, which will also take money.
- Mama - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 12:38 pm:
““In general, most schools don’t know what to do with foster children,” Wolf said.”
Schools try to treat all children the same. Put the blame where it belongs. The government does not fund DCFS with enough money so they can hire enough field staff to monitor the state’s foster children. Stop blaming the schools for everything.
- bestday - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 12:48 pm:
What utter nonsense ,, parents failed MCd…mistake by CPD… worse the cover up…..
- Cassandra - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 12:50 pm:
I believe that the medical insurance that DCFS wards have is a somewhat enhanced Medicaid. If the wards are receiving bad care, the entire Medicaid kid population must be in roughly the same boat.
Once again, this isn’t a DCFS problem, I’d guess. It’s a much broader one, if accurate.
The solution? Single payer. You don’t hear a lot of complaints about the terrible care received by Medicare recipients.
- Carhartt Representative - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 6:28 pm:
This is one of the issues that CTU is fighting on where I really believe there is a moral imperative. The school social workers can have 500 or more students on their case load. In inner city schools where there are cases of PTSD and all number of issues related to poverty, this is unconscionable.
- Property of IDOC - Monday, Feb 8, 16 @ 11:48 pm:
Rich, it is also telling that at 11:45pm, this article has only 10 comments, including mine…
Political snark is apparently more entertaining than the horrific history/murder of a ward of the state.