Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

A “revolving door of failure” at DCFS

Posted in:

Illinois

* October of 2014…

Republican governor candidate Bruce Rauner today said he blames Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn for the deaths of child-abuse victims whose families previously had contact with the state’s child-welfare agency.

“Yes,” Rauner said when asked by reporters if the deaths of 95 children with past contact with the Department of Children and Family Services from 2011-2013 were attributable to Quinn.

“Pat Quinn is, in the end, responsible for the failings at the Department of Children and Family Services. If it was a one-year problem or a temporary problem you could say, ‘OK, maybe, there was, it’s not really his responsibility.’ But he’s been governor for six years. He’s had a revolving door of failure at Department of Children and Family Services for years and years,” Rauner said.

* Today…

A Cook County judge angrily scolded the state’s child welfare agency Thursday over the slow pace of its investigation into the fire death of a 3-year-old boy in foster care, losing his temper when officials refused to provide any details.

“You tell me how he died, OK?” Juvenile Court Judge Patrick Murphy said during an often combative hearing. “I failed a kid because I appointed you as a guardian.’’ […]

In another tense exchange, Murphy demanded to know why the agency hadn’t acted on an earlier complaint about inadequate supervision in the home. The complaint was made to DCFS earlier this year and investigators determined it was unfounded, but an agency attorney could not give any other details.

Man, what a mess.

And as far as Quinn’s “revolving door of failure” goes, let’s look at the history under Rauner. In January of 2015, Rauner appointed Cynthia Tate as interim DCFS director. A month later, he appointed George Sheldon. Director Sheldon abruptly resigned last year during an ethics probe, which turned up some not so savory stuff. After Sheldon resigned, Rauner appointed another interim director, Lisa Spacapan. A month later, he appointed Beverly Walker as acting director. A year into her tenure, Walker had still not been confirmed over concerns that she wasn’t moving fast enough to reform DCFS, so Rauner withdrew her nomination then nominated her again.

posted by Rich Miller
Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 10:26 am

Comments

Bring back Jess McDonald and give him what he wants. He had more success than anyone else at this thankless job.

Comment by Keyrock Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 10:30 am
Killer Bruce strikes again

Comment by Precinct Captain Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 10:31 am
Not enough case workers to adequately cover the number of cases. Needs more boots on the ground.

Comment by DuPage Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 10:32 am
=Not enough case workers to adequately cover the number of cases. Needs more boots on the ground.=

Find good people, pay them appropriately, treat them as though they are valued and what they do is important (because it is critically important).

Unfortunately, Rauner has proven that he does not value people that help people, just the uber wealthy.

Comment by JS Mill Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 10:45 am
A dose of Jess might be the tonic this agency needs. Since it’s inception, DCFS has faced significant challenges and criticism concerning protecting kids, some of which has been wholly undeserved. The actual funding they need to just manage cases is staggering, but IMO need hundreds of field agents that can intercede far faster that the agency can do now.

Beverly Walker has done the best she can with legislative handcuffs. It’s time this or the next administration really addresses the issues fully and finally.

Comment by Commonsense in Illinois Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 10:46 am
From Reagan’s “Government is not the solution, it’s the problem”, to 30 years of right wing nut bashing of all things public sector and “drain the swamp” and now Rauner hating on unions, AFscammy, corrupt government officials and corrupt courts.

Is it any wonder our government agencies have these failures?

Comment by don the legend Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 10:49 am
Dupage is correct; however that requires a larger budget. There are people in this state that balk at paying a few dollars more in taxes in order to protect young lives - or old veterans.

Comment by Interim Retiree Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 10:50 am
Can we call BS on the notion that a governor is responsible only for problems which begin under his tenure? As willy says, governors own. When you lower your hand after taking the oath, you own it all. Fix it, or at least, dont make it worse. Rauner fails. Dcfs. Medicaid. Social services network.

Comment by Langhorne Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 11:04 am
Both Governors have failed the children at DCFS. The ever-changing revolving doors of directors doesn’t provide any stability for the Department. It felt like Quinn gave no thought to DCFS when he appointed Arthur Bishop, and decisions shouldn’t be made lightly when it comes to DCFS.

And unfortunately, the children are now paying for former Dir. Sheldon’s bad decisions to aggressively close beds at institutions without having the community beds in place. Now too many children are staying in limbo at psych hospitals.

But with all that being said, it would be nice to have a leader that doesn’t point fingers at the past, but steps up to help these kids now.

Comment by Miss Marie Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 11:05 am
And what about Semaj Crosby?? Inept DCFS and intact agencies left her there despite multiple investigations and red flags…

Comment by Bud Keyes Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 11:06 am
Rauner 2014 would rip the stuff out of Rauner 2018 and judge him a complete failure as governor.

Comment by wordslinger Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 11:08 am
If the same standard candidate Rauner applied to Gov. Quinn were applied to Gov. Rauner, then Rauner would be blamed for the deaths of the children, as well as for every credit downgrade on his watch. What could be fairer than applying the same standard to him that he had applied to his predecessor?

Comment by anon2 Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 11:13 am
The recent increase in opioid use has increased the case load. Not sure by how much.
Jess McDonald increased the requirements for caseworkers so that a masters degree was needed. At the time it helped. Now it is more credintialism than value. Go back to just requiring a bachelors.
The union would help if it worked with management to fire bad workers. In back office operations, one can work around a poor worker. There is no way to work around a bad caseworker.
Foster parents need more money. That alone is not enough. The reality is that it takes a special person to be a good foster parent. Like good quarterbacks, there is a shortage at any price.
The agency needs to work hard to keep children out of care. It tries, but could do more
The public needs to know that sometimes good decisions can have bad outcomes. Historically every high profile child death left in a home leads to an increase in children taken into care. That change should not happen.

Comment by Last Bull Moose Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 11:30 am
DCFS is loaded with unnecessary levels of middle managers and entry-level office workers. The number of employees in my unit alone could easily be cut in half by making a few simple changes. Unfortunately, recommendations for making state government more efficient fall on deaf ears.

Address these inefficiencies and you’d free up a ton of money for caseworkers.

Comment by DCFS Employee Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 11:34 am
Dcfs employee
You are not.
Total bull crap
Oh my God I can’t believe you tried that.
Just stop

Comment by Honeybear Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 12:28 pm
@ “DCFS Employee”. If you’re going to try lying, at least make it convincing! FAIL! Not even CLOSE to reality. How many court rulings with details of understaffing did you ignore to write that? Hit the bricks, sock puppet!

Comment by revvedup Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 12:39 pm
Enlighten us more, DCFS Employee. In what section do you work?

Comment by Wading in... Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 12:40 pm
IMO. All agencies especially the social ones expect for 2 thing. Complaining about money or something goes really wrong. Most of these agencies are under staffed at the worker level and can’t keep up. So that leads to number 2. What we see every time after a failure is a big rush to fix the problem that fades as soon as the attention is off. Till we as a society start caring regularly it will continue the same circle. By caring I mean get management that know what to do and give them the tools to do them. Yes that includes full staff and money do the job.

Comment by Union thug Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 12:44 pm
Okay, Honeybear…you’d know better than me where I work after all.

Wading in, sorry not going to publicly identify myself. As I mentioned, I’ve made suggestions for improvements to my supervisors. I’ve been told these are good ideas but would essentially mean downsizing of the unit…can’t have that.

Comment by DCFS Employee Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 12:46 pm
Revvedup, I agree that DCFS should have more caseworkers. That’s why the Department shouldn’t spend more money than necessary on office workers. Put that money toward paying providers and in the field where it should be.

Comment by DCFS Employee Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 12:56 pm
DCFS Employee, I didn’t ask you to identify yourself, I asked which unit you worked in. You brought it up, remember?

Comment by Wading in... Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 1:51 pm
O. M. G. Didn’t someone say once or 69x on this site, “Governors own…”???

This guy. Jeez. Points fingers at previous administrations but can own his own failures (hello?? Quincy???).

I’m over this guy. Once and for all. And stands basically hand in hand w Pence today made me puke. Just once have a guy or gal who is not fake and genuinely wants to make things better.

Comment by Oh Please Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 1:59 pm
@Bud Keyes - Private agencies (whether providing intact or foster care services) do not have the legal authority to remove children from their parents. The only entities who can take protective custody are DCFS/Division of Child Protection, the police and physicians.

@Last Bull Moose - You don’t need a Master’s degree to be a caseworker. If you look at the postings up now you’ll see that.

Comment by Stanley Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 2:24 pm
=DCFS Employee, I didn’t ask you to identify yourself, I asked which unit you worked in. You brought it up, remember?=

Careful DCFS employee, this could be management trap. Management gets paid to know this information already and would have adressed the problem if they cared.

Comment by Deadbeat Conservative Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 2:35 pm
Now that it’s out there, the JB team won’t need to bother with it. Rauner can be thankful the JB team likely won’t bring this up again.

Comment by Deadbeat Conservative Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 2:39 pm
Last bull moose. Let me address something again.
Firing bad workers
In our 261pg Agreement or contract
Between Afscme and the state
It clearly and methodically states in exact detail how to fire an employee. It’s not a mystery
Yes it takes longer because
1) discipline must be progressive
2) there is a clear process that must be followed and is ensured by union representatives (stewards like me)
3) it has to be properly documented. This is where capricious management fails every time. Ask RNUG, you don’t document that steward is going to mop the deck with management.

Look I’m about to see someone I’m representing get discharged. They screwed up big time. Clear violation. Totally documented and the last straw in a line of progressive discipline. I as his steward have nothing but a plea of mercy to use. He’s probably going to get fired. It’s a totally fair process. It’s not like the private sector with petty tyrant bosses capriciously firing for first offense.
It’s not biased towards the worker
It just puts the worker on a level playing field instead of being biased towards management like the barbaric undemocratic private sector.

Comment by Honeybear Friday, Jul 13, 18 @ 3:15 pm