Editorial Roundup: Illinois

Champaign News-Gazette. May 22, 2022. Editorial: DCFS investigation reveals more of the same Too many children are falling through the cracks of the state’s structurally flawed children protection infrastructure. A recent investigation into operations at the state’s Department of Children and Family Services revealed a catalogue of shortcomings that threaten the state’s most vulnerable children. But what else is new? A similar probe conducted in 2019 by the same investigator – Illinois’ auditor general – found similar failings. Legislators were so moved by the findings they announced the creation of a new caucus whose goal was to fix what ails DCFS. Considered in that context, it’s fair to conclude that there’s plenty of talk about DCFS failings and very little action that results in improvement. Like the 2019 investigation, the 2022 investigation found that the child welfare agency failed to ensure adequate care for children in its care and failed to properly track cases of potential abuse and neglect reported to them. One gaffe stands out. The agency failed more than half the time to document support services provided to reunited families – that is those to whom a child was returned after being removed from the home. The auditor general’s recent report is just another in a long line of shortcomings that have made the news in recent months. Most prominent among them have been repeated contempt of court citations aimed at DCFS Director Marc Smith. He was repeatedly found in contempt because DCFS was holding children in psychiatric facilities when they no longer need to be there. That sounds horrific, and it is. When DCFS fails, children suffer and sometimes even die. There’s no denying that this agency has a hugely difficult job, dealing with family dysfunction on a grand scale. At the same time, there’s also no denying that it’s failing in ways that can be difficult to understand. Gov. J.B. Pritzker deserves some credit for trying to fix DCFS. He’s thrown millions of dollars at the agency and overseen increases in hiring and improvements in training. But if the reports are to be believed, management has fallen dramatically short, and without effective managers and management systems, failure is a certainty. There’s no excuse for a 50-plus percent failure rate in documenting services to fractured families. Are employees so overwhelmed with paperwork they can’t keep up? Or are too many of them just shirking their duties without fear of consequences? Either possibility reflects a failure of top management to see that necessary work gets done. The question now is what’s next for DCFS? Are the responsible parties going to wring their hands in public until the story is off the front page and then continue to wallow in failure until the next disaster? That’s been the past practice. Surely, Illinois can do better – or at least try to do better. The natural political response to problems of this nature is to throw more money at DCFS. But it’s important to keep one thing in mind – budget increases guarantee nothing. State Rep. Rita Mayfield, D-Waukegan, recently told DCFS’ Smith that ‘œevery year you guys come back and ask for more money’� and promise that fixes are imminent, but ‘œnothing happens.’� The record indicates that DCFS, probably for a variety of reasons, is beyond management salvation. But given the stakes involved, accepting continued failure is not an option. ___ Chicago Sun-Times. May 18, 2022. Editorial: Registering assault weapons would be a good first step to ending the scourge of mass shootings Already this year there have been 203 mass shootings in America. History shows registration of powerful weapons can be an effective way to save lives.