Steve's Blog

Pilot Program Proposal for Improving Child Welfare in McHenry County 

I long ago concluded that the solution to the problem of child abuse and neglect must be local. Since these cases ultimately end up in the local court system, I’ve filed H.B. 4349, which establishes a pilot program in the 22nd Judicial Circuit in McHenry County to see if a child welfare agency, unconstrained by the rigid forms and rules of a statewide agency and working within the limited boundaries of a judicial circuit as part of a multidisciplinary team can bring about better outcomes.

This five-year pilot program, paid for from the DCFS budget, creates a local child welfare agency within the boundaries of the 22^nd Judicial Circuit, which is entirely within McHenry County. This local agency would have the authority and duties of the state agency while being more integrated with local authorities and social service agencies. This local agency would also submit reports to the Governor and the General Assembly to show its efficacy.

It is long past time for the General Assembly to get creative and rock the boat to fix our state’s broken child welfare system. This is just one solution that we should explore locally to improve our system, but statewide solutions should also move forward. Now is the time to get it done, even if it is an election year.

DCFS Has a New Director 

Marc Smith, who has been Director of DCFS for the past four years, announced in December that he’d be leaving the agency. It’s hard to place full blame upon him for the agency’s failures, since so many who came before him failed as well. But after being held in contempt of court a dozen times, it was time for him to go.

While I would have liked to have seen the new Director come from a state that takes a more local approach to child welfare, the Governor recently nominated Heidi Mueller, who has most recently served as the Director of the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice, as the new Director of DCFS. From what I’ve read of her background and activity as director of IDJJ, she appears to have a commitment to developing community services which will strengthen the ability of local entities to examine and address the root causes driving young people into the justice system. If she carries that commitment to DCFS, I’ll do whatever I can to help her make that commitment a reality. She has a difficult job ahead of her, and I’ll work with anyone at DCFS to make it better. I hope for the sake of the children within the child welfare system that she is able to tell the Governor hard truths about the agency and take a new approach.

Where My Thinking Has Evolved

The overwhelming majority of cases that trigger calls to the DCFS hotline are for allegations of neglect rather than abuse. Neglect is a very nebulous condition, because what may be outright neglect in one case may be a situation of families falling on hard times and not being able to keep their heads above water in another. If kids are coming to school disheveled, dirty and hungry, shouldn’t we take a look at what’s causing it rather than opening up a full-blown investigation which may lead to the breakup of a family that’s fallen on short-term hard times? This story from 2022 is a case in point.

I recently read a book titled “Anna, Age 8”, which led to the creation of the 100% New Mexico initiative which, through New Mexico State University conducted county surveys revealing many barriers family members face when seeking services. The initiative addresses all barriers to ten family services by building 100% Service Hubs to increase access to ten vital services through onsite, web-based, and navigator supported linking to service providers. I’m looking at this as something we could do in Illinois, because to do so might allow us to channel resources into lowering those same barriers here and allow the local agency I’ve proposed in H.B. 4349 to become more of a clearing house for providing necessary services that would reduce the need for hotline calls and potential family disruption.