* Sun-Times…
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s second-year budget will include a $147 million increase in funding for DCFS to boost staffing and increase support for investigations.
The Democratic governor also plans to increase the agency’s headcount to 3,056 employees, up from the 2,758 employed in 2018. That’s intended to reduce caseloads for overwhelmed investigators and to boost staffing at a hotline set up to receive calls about cases of child abuse and neglect.
Pritzker’s budget also proposes funding a third simulation lab in Illinois, to help train investigators on finding signs of abuse and neglect. […]
There were 123 deaths of children who had been in contact with the Department of Children and Family Services last year, according to an inspector general’s report released in January. Pritzker said he has personally reviewed each case with DCFS heads. He described the agency as being in a “terrible downward spiral” and blamed the budget impasse for the staffing declines and shuttered social service agencies that could have helped parents with substance abuse or mental health problems.
* Daily Line…
DCFS Director Marc Smith told The Daily Line that ACSCME Council 31, which represents many DCFS employees, has worked with the agency and with Central Management Services “to give us the flexibility and capacity to respond to the needs as we see them on the field.”
Eighty-five percent of services provided to children and families in Illinois are actually done by private social service agencies that contract with the state, and are arranged and overseen by DCFS.
Those agencies were hit hard between 2015 and 2017, when Illinois went without a full operating budget for more than two years. While some agencies shuttered in the face of severely delayed state funding, others were kept afloat by a combination of personal loans and stripping down to bare-bones operations.
Even before the impasse, the network of private agencies struggled to keep staff on payroll, as many move on to jobs with DCFS after a year or two, lured by higher pay and benefits, as well as union protections. But the high turnover rate, which DCFS puts at 40 percent, has taken a toll and costs both private agencies and the state in the long run.
Pritzker’s budget includes $21.2 million to provide a 3 percent cost-of-living increase for private agency employees, some of which is tied to increases in the state’s minimum wage, which is set to increase to $10 an hour in July and continue rising to $15 by 2025. […]
Pritkzer’s proposed budget includes an additional $6.1 million for institution and group home care, which represents about 4 percent of the agency’s budget. It also includes $3 million in construction grants for residential services, with the goal of increasing bed capacity.
The budget document details the losses in residential and shelter beds — approximately 600 in the past five years — and foster homes, which decreased by 2,300 since 2015.
* Shaw Media…
The proposal also includes $44 million from the general revenue fund for increases in foster care, adoption and family services.
“I am also pleased that money is being allocated for both more personnel and more placements,” Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert said in a statement. “The money to make drug kits available for workers in the field is long overdue and will save the state money in the long run in addition to improving child safety outcomes.
“I’m also pleased that private agency workers will see a 3% COLA to allow their salaries to keep place with the minimum wage. However, a bare minimum wage salary is not nearly enough to reduce the 40% turnover rate for private agency workers, which is key because 85% of DCFS’s caseload is privatized. These are incredibly important, high stress jobs with educational requirements that should be compensated well above minimum wage.”
* WGN TV…
For decades, the ACLU Illinois has monitored DCFS. On Monday, it applauded the funding boost.
“We’ve seen time and again that’s it’s not just about resources — although those are important — but it’s about having the ability to say what does this child need and how do I provide it?” ACLU Illinois spokesperson Ed Yohnka said.
* WTTW…
Meanwhile, the Illinois Policy Institute, which advocates for scaling back government and government spending, supports sending more money toward DCFS.
“We do need to invest more in DCFS and a range of other agencies. The thing is we can’t invest more in those things sustainably and in the long term if the only plan for more investment is higher taxes,” said the IPI’s Adam Schuster.
Schuster said spending on pensions is overcrowding spending on other needs – like DCFS – and proposes a constitutional amendment that would allow Illinois to scale back state employees’ retirement benefits.
Pritzker is adamantly opposed to that, and instead on Wednesday will likely highlight a constitutional amendment that is on the ballot, which would allow the state to tax income at graduated rates.
- efudd - Tuesday, Feb 18, 20 @ 9:31 am:
Let’s say a constitutional amendment passed that scaled back promised pensions.
Schuster would be fine with every dime “saved” going to other state agencies and not the “overburdened taxpayers”?
Sure.
- DarkDante - Tuesday, Feb 18, 20 @ 9:40 am:
==Schuster said spending on pensions is overcrowding spending on other needs – like DCFS – and proposes a constitutional amendment that would allow Illinois to scale back state employees’ retirement benefits.==
Cut contractual obligations to retirees… for the children.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Feb 18, 20 @ 9:52 am:
We support hiring more state employees . . . but only if you take away their pensions.
- Proud - Tuesday, Feb 18, 20 @ 9:59 am:
The 3% COLA to the private agencies, who serve 85% of the kids in care, is a good start. It is a drop in the bucket for what is needed as over the last two decades we have not kept pace with the increased costs with rate increases.
- RNUG - Tuesday, Feb 18, 20 @ 10:01 am:
I hope the new hires are all. front line workers instead of more middle management …
- Froganon - Tuesday, Feb 18, 20 @ 10:10 am:
After we cut the pensions, we will, once again, start cutting the bloated buraeucracy, and buying out experienced staff as we will need more tax cuts to stimulate economic growth and increase jobs. Just trying to help IPI with future demands for government accountability and efficidency.
- Last Bull Moose - Tuesday, Feb 18, 20 @ 10:15 am:
Applaud the added funding. Don’t see how it finds 300 positions. Inspector positions do not get federal matching funds.
- Cassandra - Tuesday, Feb 18, 20 @ 10:30 am:
Front line workers need supervisors and supervisors need managers, so if they are setting up new teams, as well as just filling existing vacancies, that means more middle management will be needed. Government bureaucracies are expensive in ways that the public doesn’t always realize. Line staff don’t function in a vacuum-they need support-expensive support.
Will all this spending cause the state’s child welfare agency to improve its performance. I have no idea. The Pritzker administration has to do something and spending large sums of money is one approach. But if you have lived in Illinois as long as I have, you’ve heard these promises before-many many times. It’s all speculation at this point.
- Just A Dude - Tuesday, Feb 18, 20 @ 10:56 am:
Most if not all of the newly hired staff will be hired as tier 2, which incorporates pension reform. Part of a long term solution is in motion as IPI beats the some old drum.
- Charlie Brown - Tuesday, Feb 18, 20 @ 11:00 am:
The CEO of Children’s Home and Aid Society of Illinois reportedly received $800K in compensation in 2017. That was during the budget crisis.
Any promise of additional funding from the state ought to rein in compensation for the CEOs.
The salary structure of a nonprofit is not sustainable when the CEO is making 20 times more than frontline workers.
I agree with the IPI that DCFS needs a sustainable funding plan, show us what this 3 percent looks like projected out over the next ten years.
- Stuff Happens - Tuesday, Feb 18, 20 @ 11:30 am:
This is a ’stop the bleeding’ fix.
What DCFS ultimately needs is an overhaul. Throwing more money at it is the easy way of claiming you’ve addressed issues without actually changing anything. It’s a great first step, but real change still needs to be made.
- MidState Anon - Tuesday, Feb 18, 20 @ 12:23 pm:
Entry level placement/intact caseworker at contracted private non-prof agency: 30k/yr. minimal benefits and few caps on service load
same entry level position with state DCFS, 56k/yr along with all the state bennies. union-protected caps on caseload and such.
Why is there such a discrepancy? Same position/duties/etc but different value compensation…
- James MacIntyre Fan - Tuesday, Feb 18, 20 @ 1:52 pm:
Midstate: you are required to be a social worker to be at DCFS, but not private agency.
And you’re right, they should tie the pay increase to an educational requirement.
- 17% Solution - Tuesday, Feb 18, 20 @ 1:58 pm:
==Why is there such a discrepancy?==
I don’t know.
Why does the CEO of Aunt Martha’s make $450k a year and the CEO of Children’s Home and Aid make $399k a year but the head of DCFS makes $110 a year?
- MidState Anon - Tuesday, Feb 18, 20 @ 2:35 pm:
J-Mac Fan:
There are Child Protection Specialists that do not have a social work degree; can be a “related” degree. But, must have MSW to be a supervisor (or higher).
And, there has been talk of a pipeline system, where graduates of degree programs will have training and education in child welfare field, start in PrivNonProf and then transition into state DCFS after ___ number of years… I am in favor of it but it solves none of the current/immediate issues. What they need is to speed up the process of background checks/applications/etc to get workers in training and then the field to give relief to the current platoon of workers.
- OpentoDiscusssion - Tuesday, Feb 18, 20 @ 2:53 pm:
Surprise, Surprise!
The IPI will back almost any program in the state if pensions can be attacked.
However, I do remember many liberal legislators who supported the unconstitutional attack on pensions being very much for those cuts as it would free up money for other government services.
- But Why? - Tuesday, Feb 18, 20 @ 4:31 pm:
Good supervision of front line staff is so crucial - its importance cannot be understated. It is difficult if not impossible to be a good supervisor if you gain that “seniority” in less than a year on the job, and because promotions go to the person with the senior position. The critical thinking skills that supervisors and managers NEED are not being developed because of high turnover and rapid (non merit based ) promotions.