Series prompts DCFS to review agency policy

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The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is reviewing its investigations policy in response to a News-Democrat series that concludes today.

The deaths of children who were supposed to be protected by the DCFS are "cause for a reflection and recommitment to our efforts to improve our ability to protect children in Illinois," said Kendall Marlowe, a spokesman for the department.

Marlowe, deputy chief of communications, said Monday that errors by DCFS workers that came before the children's deaths are unacceptable.

"No error that results in harm to a child is acceptable," Marlowe said. "And the department continually works to improve its ability to protect children in Illinois."

Marlowe said the newspaper's stories of children who died after DCFS worker errors has prompted a review of the department's child protection procedures.

In a three-part series that began Sunday, called Lethal Lapses, the newspaper reported that 53 children died between September 1998 and January 2005, even though they were supposed to be under the care of the DCFS.

The deaths came after errors by state caseworkers, investigators, supervisors or contracted private workers and involved children being beaten, burned, smothered, shaken and starved.

The accounts of worker errors are published in annual child death reports compiled by the Office of the Inspector General for the DCFS. These reports give anonymous accounts of child deaths but lack names, places or dates.

The newspaper linked real children to the botched cases by using police and coroner's reports, newspaper stories and other documents.

Marlowe said the department has reduced the caseload of child protection investigators and caseworkers from 15 to nine in recent years.

The union that represents many DCFS workers stated that while the number of cases has increased since 2000, the number of investigators and caseworkers statewide has decreased.

A study by Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees reported that despite an 11 percent increase in child abuse cases from 2001 to 2005, the department lost 23 percent, or 747 of its front-line staff.

Contact reporter George Pawlaczyk at gpawlaczyk@bnd.com and 239-2625, and Beth Hundsdorfer at bhundsdorfer@bnd.com or 239-2570.

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