Hold DCFS accountable

Reading our series about 53 children who died as the result of botched DCFS cases is a distasteful accompaniment to toast and orange juice at breakfast, we know. Many people probably put the series down and never picked it up again. It's human nature to want to avoid or ignore difficult topics like this.

And actually, that's exactly how some people at the Department of Children and Family Services hope you reacted. If they had their way, the details of child death cases would never be made public. They like it that most records are sealed. A number of the workers worry about "heater cases" -- cases that can result in negative press. No negative press, no problem.

If you didn't read the three-part series that ends today, we urge you to go back and do so. And we hope you heat up over these children's senseless deaths and the dysfunctional system that allows them. It's going to take public pressure to force Gov. Rod Blagojevich and DCFS to start operating more in the open and fix the system.

Yes, it's a difficult job and the vast majority of DCFS workers do commendable work. But doing a good job most of the time isn't an acceptable standard when children's lives are at stake. Fifty-three deaths in eight years' time is appalling and inexcusable.

These children might still be alive today if only the DCFS caseworkers and supervisors had made the right judgment calls or had followed established department procedures. Often the errors are glaring. Yet out of the 50 cases that had substantial errors, not one worker was fired. Just seven workers were suspended, and then for relatively short times.

A former DCFS director blames that on Civil Service protections and personnel rules. But it's not that DCFS can't get rid of bad employees, it's that its leaders don't have the will to do it. It's easier for DCFS to avoid and ignore difficult situations, also, than to fix things.

It's time to switch from avoidance to accountability. These innocent victims need someone to stand up for them. You've heard of No Child Left Behind in education? Well, that needs to be the standard for DCFS, also.

The goal shouldn't be to avoid negative publicity. The goal should be to ensure that children stop dying because the system that was supposed to protect them instead failed them.