* Ghirlandi Guidetti, staff attorney with the ACLU of Illinois…

Today’s Auditor General’s report reveals a sad but unsurprising truth: DCFS is not meeting the needs of LGBTQ youth in care as required by its own policy. We regularly hear from youth about the lack of basic respect for their identity as well as the challenges they face accessing affirming medical care.

Instead, there is a well-worn pattern for these youth: when we learn of problems an individual youth is facing, DCFS typically cobbles together a one-off ‘solution,’ but leaves unaddressed the wide-ranging systemic issues that continue to expose LGBTQ youth to harm.

All children deserve the dignity of being respected for their authentic selves and feeling safe. When the State takes children away from their families of origin and into custody, we all are responsible for ensuring safety and dignity are accorded to them. Until safe and affirming care is the norm at DCFS, will continue our ongoing work advocating for these children.

* From the audit’s report digest…

Senate Resolution Number 403, adopted May 31, 2019, directed the Auditor General to conduct a performance audit of the Department of Children and Family Services’ (Department) compliance with its obligations to protect and affirm children and youth who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning or queer.

Overall the audit found that there is a lack of reliable and consistent information regarding LGBTQ youth in the care of the Department. Further, although the Department has established policies and procedures to ensure the well-being of LGBTQ youth in care, the Department did not implement all of these procedures or the procedures were not implemented in a timely manner. We also found that there is a lack of monitoring and oversight of private agency compliance with these procedures.

In this audit, we also reported that:

• The Department does not have a formal process in place to identify youth in care that may identify as LGBTQ.
• The Department utilizes outdated, inadequate, or non-existent computer systems to track youth in care and particularly LGBTQ youth in care.
• The Department is not ensuring that caseworkers review the Foster Children’s Bill of Rights with youth in care as is required.
• The Department did not implement training requirements in a timely manner.
• The Department failed to monitor the requirements of Appendix K including whether POS agencies have adopted policies that are at least as extensive as Appendix K.
• The Department does not require licensed foster parents to commit to provide care and homes that are affirming of all children and youth, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity as part of the licensing process.
• LGBTQ status was taken into consideration for some placements. However, the Department is not utilizing its Child/Caregiver Matching Tool in most cases.
• The Department has taken some steps to recruit LGBTQ affirming foster parents by holding events specifically to recruit LGBTQ affirming parents. However, there was no evidence that these efforts have led to more LGBTQ affirming foster homes.
• The number of emergency shelter beds in Illinois decreased dramatically between FY15 and FY19, leaving some areas of the State with no beds for youth in crisis.
• The Department is not providing accurate and complete information to the General Assembly in the required Youth in Care Waiting for Placement annual reports.

The audit report contains a total of 16 recommendations to the Department.

*** UPDATE *** DCFS…

Statement

The Department of Children and Family Services, under its current leadership, has taken aggressive measures to improve the services and care provided to LGBTQI+ youth since the time period covered by this audit. The progress is outlined in our audit responses, and DCFS continues to work diligently to provide resources and guidance to its staff and external partners to ensure that we meet the needs of this vulnerable population.

Background

This audit was conducted in 2019 using data primarily from 2017 and 2018.

Recent efforts include maintaining and expanding a list of providers, agencies, and organizations across the state that are available to meet the needs of LGBTQI+ youth. These providers include affirming therapists, LGBTQI+ organizations and agencies, and health care professionals that provide gender-affirming hormone therapy.

In June 2020, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) Clinical Division and Office of Affirmative Action (OAA) began a coordinated effort to expand programmatic support for LGBTQI+ youth in care.

The Clinical Division completes staffing and consultations, while providing clinical recommendations regarding interventions, resources, and resource linkages for the youth in care.

The OAA LGBTQI+ Services team is addressing competency training needs and recruitment of affirming caregivers, continuing to build resources, and investigating all claims of discrimination as it relates to our LGBTQI+ youth and their families.

The Clinical Division and OAA are working closely together to ensure that DCFS is following best practices for LGBTQI+ youth and their families.

As part of our commitment to providing services across the state, DCFS has created a new hiring plan and is working to fill every vacancy as quickly as possible. The newly created position of Chief for LGBTQI+ Services will bring additional leadership to DCFS and advocacy on behalf of our LGBTQI+ youth in care. This vital position is being filled as quickly as possible and will provide additional support for our current LGBTQI+ specialist and LGBTQI+ team under OAA.