How IL DCFS compares to other states - personal observation

When I had a job, part of that job was to research child welfare laws in other states besides IL. I must say that compared to my recent treatment by ILDCFS, Florida, Georgia and North Caroline is staffed with child welfare workers who have class, knowledge and who put customer service first. Iowa and Colorado, also seem invested in doing their job right and have good training.

Compared to IL, these states are much more open about their records and provide them to the public with a minimum of hassle. Michigan is also superior in this aspect.

With IL, somehow I get the impression (and I'm not lumping in every employee of private and IL DCFS into this statement since some actually do seem to do their jobs right), that the goal here is saving their jobs, not doing their jobs. I can sense this attitude that "I'm union" and no matter how much I screw up, I won't lose my license or my job dealing with some IL DCFS staff.

The cases I've read where a DCFS employee really blows it and is fired, there's the union backing up reinstatement, no matter how egregious the mistake. Kids die and caseworkers get their hands slapped going by the DCFS OIG reports to the legislature and the BND "Lethal Lapses" series.

There was a NC agency that lost their license. I spoke to the licensure person in NC often and Rita came across to me as concerned and willing to make it right. Now, Rita had to fight a bureaucracy to accomplish this and the PAPs harmed by this agency were impatient but that's the reality of child welfare.

It's a massive web of workers, most who are clueless about what other departments do, bound by a set of rules that don't make any sense, some of them extremely poorly trained. I've listened to workers have a statute read to them that contains the word "shall" and they'll interpret it totally different than written to avoid work or to avoid helping someone. Had it happen to me so many times I've lost count with IL DCFS.