Illinois DCFS needs transformational change to end its cycle of failure

When Marc Smith was appointed director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services in 2019, the Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board warned that he would be set up for failure if he and the agency did not receive adequate support.

Inadequate support is not the reason Marc Smith failed as director. The reason Marc Smith and so many of his predecessors have failed is that the system itself is broken and cannot be redeemed.

The agency's budget nearly doubled since Smith was named director, and still we see failures running throughout the agency as disclosed in the recent Auditor General's adverse opinion which found 33 instances of agency noncompliance with its own rules and with Illinois law, some going back as far as 1998. Blaming these failures on COVID or prior administrations is not solving the problem.

DCFS has lost sight of its core mission which is to protect children from abuse and neglect. It doesn't matter what the race, ethnicity or religion of a child is when that child is being abused. Focusing on statistics instead of the root causes of abuse and neglect, while trying to fit all parts of the state into a one-size-fits-all manner of enforcement does nothing but perpetuate the problem. And when the system fails, we get excuses.

The agency has engaged in years of mission creep, where it takes upon itself responsibilities that are not part of its mandate and then turned those things into an excuse for its systemic failures which are writ large in the Auditor General's report and years of Inspector General reports.

Many of the problems we see stem from the fact that we have a statewide agency that is imposing its procedures and its policies upon local jurisdictions instead of working within a system of multidisciplinary teams consisting of agencies and authorities which see the problems firsthand in their own communities every day. From investigations to medical determinations to foster care, we need to localize the function of child welfare.

As McHenry County State's Attorney Patrick Keneally said in a letter in 2019:

"[T]he primary responsibility for protecting children in a community should belong to the community, not the state. Moreover, and in my opinion, the agents designated to protect children in a community should be primarily accountable to the community, not the state. As such, I would strongly urge you to consider legislation that would provide a significant measure of control over DCFS operations within a county to county government."

Within the next few weeks, I will be proposing legislation that creates a pilot program within the 22nd Judicial Circuit here in McHenry County that will do just that. The program will take the functions now performed by DCFS and integrate them into a multidisciplinary team concept within the boundaries of a single judicial circuit.

It's time for bold action, because we cannot continue with what we have seen for so long. Kids have shelf lives, and it's important that we break the cycle that leads us to seeing children grow up to either be part of the juvenile justice system or become adults who then become abusive or neglectful parents on their own because that's all they know.

Gov. Pritzker needs to find a director who will have the vision to see things not as they are but how they can be. He must also not be afraid to give that director the freedom to build a management team dedicated to implementing new ideas.

We can't continue along the same path we've been on because if we do, we're going to lose another generation.

• Illinois state Rep. Steve Reick is a Republican from Woodstock.