* A Tribune bombshell…
A Tribune investigation of two other Cook County child fatalities since November 2015 found incomplete inquiries and nonexistent follow-ups as DCFS closed probes in the homes shortly before youths were beaten or starved to death. Investigators did not interview key witnesses, the Tribune found. They missed obvious signs of abuse and failed to gather medical reports and other evidence.
The Tribune investigation also found that after these three deaths occurred, DCFS pushed to close Cook County cases even faster, offering financial incentives to investigators who completed probes within 14 days. And the Tribune also found that, last year, investigators confirmed fewer cases for neglect or abuse compared with the previous year. […]
The Tribune investigation found that in the fall of 2016, Sheldon pushed investigators to speed up abuse and neglect investigations in Cook County, according to internal agency documents and interviews. Sheldon said his goal is to focus workers on the most serious allegations and free them from spurious cases that can be easily dismissed.
Some DCFS frontline investigators in Cook County tell the Tribune they now face unrealistic deadlines and new pressure to close cases even when young people are left in harm’s way. […]
Several DCFS employees told the Tribune that supervisors offered overtime pay, as opposed to comp time, to child protection investigators who met agency goals for closing cases in 14 days. Those employees and other government officials said they are concerned by what they view as a financial incentive that could skew workers’ handling of investigations. […]
As cases were closed more rapidly last year, DCFS saw a drop in the percentage of investigations in which abuse and neglect allegations were confirmed, according to a Tribune analysis of agency data since 2015. […]
Sheldon also disputed a January 2017 report from DCFS Inspector General Denise Kane that some investigators are handling perilously high caseloads, which Kane wrote is creating “a toxic work environment in which it is foreseeable that some investigators will take dangerous shortcuts that can lead to lethal errors.”
You can’t run government like a business. I wish people would get that through their thick skulls. These aren’t telemarketers who are taking too much time between phone calls. These investigators are there to protect some of the most vulnerable people in our state - abused and neglected children.
And this isn’t really about the budget. DCFS can go to the federal judge overseeing its consent decree at any time and ask for more staff.
Go read the whole thing. But be warned, it’ll turn your stomach.
- Fixer - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 9:30 am:
When they are already having a hard time filling vacancies, I’m not sure asking for more staff is going to completely solve this. But it’s a start.
- jerry 101 - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 9:40 am:
==You can’t run government like a business.==
So much this.
- fed up - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 9:41 am:
A piece of advice from an astute mentor: “Don’t underestimate the importance of taking time to think.” I try not to forget it.
- Anonymous - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 9:41 am:
Fixer, yup. Hard to fill vacancies when the compensation package you’re offering is at the garbage level Illinois now offers. You’d be better off working at Starbucks.
- Jerry 101 - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 9:42 am:
Anonymous @ 9:41 was me. oops.
- HangingOn - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 9:46 am:
==ask for more staff==
Sadly, if it’s the same as when I temped, just being told they can hire new staff means nothing. They still have to have the higher ups agree to post the jobs (took 2 years for the Agency I’m with now to post a federally required position). Then, there have to be people who want to do the work. It’s an emotionally and physically draining job on a good day, and with the instability of the state it’s going to be harder to find people who want those positions.
They couldn’t even get people to take/keep the clerical positions. Main reason I was there 4 years.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 9:51 am:
To do caseworker work…
… it’s a calling more than a career of job.
That’s why business principles in government, a great deal of the time, never equate to the missions of state agencies.
I read more, just incredibly sad.
- VanillaMan - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 9:52 am:
A governor sets the tone for government administration during their term in office. Governors are responsible and citizens carefully and respectfully hold them accountable for events occuring during their term. Sometimes, the expectations are unrealistic, but que sira, sira - that’s the breaks.
Rauner’s tone regarding our state’s dependents isn’t compassionate in action. He may say the right thing before cameras, but what he has done behind closed doors matters. The Governor has made it clear that he sees businesses and “taxpayers” as needing his support over citizens in need.
DCFS is one agency among many that carries out our government’s duties to citizens in need. Like all government agencies since he was inaugurated - they have no idea how their agency’s needs will be met financially. Staff morale is low. Their union awaits interest from the administration to return to the contract bargaining table in good faith. Tragedies will occur more often in these kinds of setting experience since January 2015.
Naturally Governor Rauner expresses frustration and sadness over events like these. Yet only a governor sets the tone of action taken by state agencies in duress during his term in office. Action is needed, not condolences.
State government fails when governors fail. Until Rauner shows effort in governing, and respect towards those serving our citizens, he will be responsible for these deaths.
- Biscuit Head - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 9:52 am:
Another real problem with no simple solution.
Even if somehow we waved a magic wand and IL DCFS hired 100 more “investigators” this morning how long do you think it would take to adequately train them? Who exactly will stop what they’re doing already to train them? How long would it be before these new folks are able to do the job effectively?
It is going take a long time to fix the mess this State has become. If ever.
I’m not sick. I’m MAD.
- Earnest - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 9:53 am:
>offering financial incentives to investigators who completed probes within 14 day
This has to be AFSCME’s fault for their resistance to paying employees based on performance. The trade unions are so much more reasonable. /s
- Skimisher - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 10:04 am:
Willy just hit a great truth square on the head. There are very many in government who are there to do a job they very much believe in doing. Everything else is secondary.
- Slippin' Jimmy - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 10:11 am:
This article should be forwarded to Gov Scott in FLA prior to Sheldon parachuting into their system.
We needs Rauner press conference on this to– Pitiful to allow this to happen. Illinois in sad state of affairs.
- Texas Red - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 10:13 am:
When an organization exhibits gross incompetence - look to the leadership and make drastic changes.
- RNUG - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 10:16 am:
== There are very many in government who are there to do a job they very much believe in doing. ==
And THAT is the ONLY reason State government is still more or less functioning today.
- Jocko - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 10:22 am:
Earnest beat me to it. Where did Sheldon get 14 days from? Do detectives get a bonus if they solve the case in 48 hours?
Like the saying goes, the fish rots from the head.
- Oswego Willy - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 10:29 am:
(Tips cap humbly to - Skimisher -)
===And THAT is the ONLY reason State government is still more or less functioning today.===
Yep. You’d be very hard pressed to point to the “Superstars” and say they have legitimate concern.
“How can you say that?”
Welp, publicly, you are more likely to hear “taxpayers” concerns than a “Superstar” concerned, in a quote, with the missions of agencies as their concern.
It’s been about “taxpayers”, not about missions.
Luckily, there are many in government, the “non-Superstars”, that care about the state, their agency, the people needing their mission, and the mission they hope to fulfill.
Otherwise, like - RNUG - stated, and his grab too… the state would be even more worse off.
- Stuff Happens - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 10:35 am:
There’s a flip side to this, though. Most cases are unfounded, and children suffer when an investigation drags on.
Child was placed in a treatment facility? They won’t release a child to a family under investigation. Child is scheduled for adoption? Sorry, can’t happen until the investigation is complete. Sibling reunification after being in another placement? Sorry, might not happen — there’s an investigation.
So where do these investigations come from? Usually it’s mandated reporters. They hear a child say something that sounds fishy and they report it, and usually it turns out the child didn’t understand the words they said. Other times it’s the police — if they’re called to help out with a violent child, the police call in to the hotline so they don’t have to deal with it any more (consequences be damned).
The real answer is to fix the silly rules instead of acting all surprised when things happen under the current ones.
An investigation is allowed to take up to sixty days, and then there’s an option for a thirty day extension. After that there’s a ten-day waiting period wherein the guardian ad litem or the original complainant can contest the findings and ask for a supervisor’s review.
That’s a heck of a long time for a child to be stuck in limbo. And bear in mind that the affected child might not even be the one who said something.
I heard of a case where a child told their teacher that their friend’s house had needles everywhere. The teacher assumed this meant drugs and called it into the hotline. It turns out that she was doing a large sewing project and had pins and needles all over the sewing room and had made it off-limits to the children. Unfortunately, this kind of misreporting is all too common.
Training for mandatory reporters would go a long way, although I don’t see that happening without a budget. Common sense would help too (on both the training and budget).
- Cubs in '16 - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 10:39 am:
I know first-hand how difficult a social service job can be when the best interests of the service recipients conflict with the ‘goals’ of the agency. The bean counters sit in an office somewhere completely removed from day-to-day operations developing efficiency plans to satisfy some nebulous numbers ‘goal’.
As Rich pointed out, it’s easy to measure productivity when you’re counting widgets but when the job is dealing with human beings it’s much more complex. The black and white of business doesn’t fit well within the gray world of social service.
- Just bad leadership - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 11:28 am:
I think if we only had term limits this would solve itself SNARK!
Have to stick to talking points
- Interested - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 11:52 am:
DCFS is indeed a mess, especially in Cook County under the “leadership” of Sheldon’s Florida buddy Regional Administrator Colyer. Having said this, it is also the case that most of the other state agencies - particularly those in the human service space - are also a mess. Leadership is inept and indifferent. This administration really has no idea what they are doing, much less how much damage they are causing. Outrageous.
- Juvenal - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 12:52 pm:
=== There’s a flip side to this, though. Most cases are unfounded, and children suffer when an investigation drags on. ===
@StuffHappens
First of all, I would not file “children starving to death” under “Stuff Happens.”
Secondly, the idea that Sheldon is doing these kids a favor by doing an inadequate investigation is ludicrous. These aren’t kids who have been taken into protective custody and lingered on foster care for two years. These are kids that were left in the care of people who were abusing them.
We all agree that kids shouldn’t be lingering in foster care for two years. But the solution isn’t to leave them in an abusive environment. It is to intervene more quickly in dysfunctional homes before problems become deadly. It’s to move more quickly to terminate parental rights and finalize adoptions when a parent shows no signs of progress and hope for reunification is beyond dismal.
You argue that either we leave children in abusive homes or let them sit forever in foster care, ignoring the obvious third choice: Adequately fund DCFS governor Rauner, and appoint a director who knows what they are doing.
- Last Bull Moose - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 4:46 pm:
The close in 14 days option was already in the DCFS system. This was to accommodate cases where there was clearly neither abuse nor neglect.
For the caseworker there were incentives to keep the case open; if the case turned ugly it is better to say “I wasn’t done yet.” than “I missed it.” Also, if the caseworker has a lot of open cases, they may not get new ones.
Sheldon’s underlying mistake was that he tried to manage the DCFS workforce instead of lead it. My experience was that the staff at DCFS would usually do good work if lead. But you had to lead them and convince them that the new way was better for them and their clients.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 5:16 pm:
Last Bull Moose:
Wet dirt don’t fly, as a friend use to say.
The percent of cases being closed as unfounded is up 20 percent.
The number of kids being reported as reabused after a DCFS investigation is way up.
Reported child deaths are at a record high.
And Sheldon is pressuring his team to close cases more quickly.
What gets measured matters, to the exclusion of everything else. And if DCFS is benchmarking their child protection workers based on how fast cases are closed rather than whether kids are actually safe, whomever came up with those performance measures needs to answer for the inevitable outcome.
You can have better, faster, or cheaper. But you can’t have all three. They made a choice.
- Last Bull Moose - Thursday, May 11, 17 @ 6:36 pm:
YDD. I don’t have the current information you cite. My main point is to lead not manage. Sheldon has not led.
- RNUG - Friday, May 12, 17 @ 3:00 am:
This story is just reporting results and outcomes of current policy; it is just the tip of the iceberg. One thing the reporter and some commentators got right is the lack of faith by the front line workers in their management.
Prediction: if any reporter manages to put the whole story together, they will win a Pulitzer.