In the United States, people accused of criminal wrongdoing are considered innocent until proven guilty. But in Illinois, people accused of child abuse by the Department of Children and Family Services are guilty until proven innocent.
It's a bad standard that results in a lot of people being wrongly accused and having to spend tens of thousands of dollars to get their names off the state's child abuse registry.
Of the 11,473 people who appealed in a five and a half year period, 27 percent have so far had the decision reversed. That's an unacceptably high percentage of mistakes.
DCFS's justification is that it wants to err on the side of protecting kids. But how does removing a child from his home based on little evidence help a child? How does putting his family or foster family through hell help? The answer is, it doesn't.
The state Supreme Court in 2004 recommended a reasonable balance in these kinds of cases: Raise the standard to a preponderance of evidence -- middle ground between a criminal case and DCFS's standard to put someone on the child abuse list. It's the standard that is used in civil lawsuits and in child abuse investigations in California.
DCFS already uses the preponderance of evidence standard when hearing an appeal. A lot of heartache and grief by parents and children could be avoided if the department would use that same higher standard during its investigations.
