Nine volunteer groups around the state review child deaths and make recommendations to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
These Child Death Review Teams work with coroners, police, doctors and others after a child dies and suggest ways the agency can improve its performance.
"We make recommendations that are adopted by the department to improve the welfare of children," said St. Clair County Circuit Court Judge Milton Wharton, a member of the East St. Louis Child Death Review Team, which covers the Southwestern Illinois region.
Wharton said the review teams investigate most child deaths, not just those of children involved with DCFS. Recommendations may include making prenatal care a higher priority to changes in department procedures.
But some question the teams' effectiveness.
"I think it was a big waste of my time," said Dan Haskenhoff, a St. Clair County deputy coroner and former member of the East St. Louis Child Death Review Team.
"In most cases, there was enough there that it almost looked criminal," he said of alleged abusers, "but nothing would be done."
Thomas Shea of Alton, a retired professor of special education at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and a former review team member, said DCFS caseworker error was not the group's main concern.
"What usually happens when you talk about DCFS is someone will say, 'Well, you know, these people are poorly educated and poorly trained. That's been an excuse for years from DCFS, as far as I can see," said Shea.
Roy Harley, executive director of Prevent Child Abuse Illinois, a citizens advocacy group, said child death review teams work on a broader basis than caseworker error.
"They have made system changes and recommendations," he said. "The system is just incredibly difficult."
