A proposed law to address problems at the Department of Children and Family Services has cleared the Illinois Senate. The law would require DCFS to force child care facilities that provide homes to some of the most troubled children in the state’s care to take immediate action when an employee commits an act of abuse or neglect or fails to report a similar incident involving staff or other children.

Employees that endanger kids or fail to report abuse would face immediate discipline.

“These are children who have lived through abuse, neglect and abandonment. We fail them when they are beaten, raped, allowed to prostitute themselves or allowed to run away at a DCFS facility,” said state Senator Julie Morrison (D-Deerfield), the measure’s sponsor. “Any employees of a child care organization who are knowingly not keeping these abused and neglected children safe should be disciplined – up to and including losing their jobs.”

Morrison decided to introduce the measure, Senate Bill 1763, after a series of media reports last fall revealed that hundreds of children under the care of DCFS are abused and assaulted at residential treatment centers. These treatment centers are private organizations with state contracts to care for some of DCFS’s most troubled charges. They receive more than $200 million in taxpayer funding each year to provide around-the-clock care to about 1,400 children.

The reports exposed shocking stories to both the public and legislators. Between 2011 and 2013, children in these centers experienced more than 400 incidents of sexual abuse. They also experienced more than 1,000 physical attacks – sometimes from staff. Perhaps most shockingly, there were nearly 30,000 reports of children attempting to run away or going missing.

The legislation, which now goes to the Illinois House, also creates a task force to write new rules for the care of DCFS wards who are the victims of sex trafficking and creates a pilot program to recruit more qualified foster parents to care for children who have severe physical, emotional or developmental disabilities.

“I’ve been working with the new DCFS director, and I’m pleased with the direction he’s taking the department,” Morrison said. “We’re not going to reform DCFS in a day – or even a year – but this agency is so important that we have to make sure it fulfills its mission: protecting innocent children who cannot protect themselves.”