SPRINGFIELD – State Senator Julie Morrison (D-Deerfield) won another victory in her campaign to make the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services more effective and accountable when her proposal to strengthen the department’s safety plans cleared the Senate Human Services Committee.

DCFS implements “safety plans” when its investigators determine that allegations of abuse or neglect are serious, but do not yet warrant that the child or children must be put into protective custody or foster care. The requirements of these plans vary, but they can involve moving the child to the home of a relative like a grandparent or aunt, requiring one or more members of the household to temporarily leave the home, or requiring another family member to temporarily move in and supervise contact.

“DCFS’ safety plans are a key part of the agency’s mission to keep children out of harm’s way,” Morrison said. “They need to be documented and well thought out, and we need to be certain that all of the adults involved know exactly what is expected of them.”

During a series of hearings Morrison hosted in late 2013 and early 2014, she learned that some of Illinois’ child welfare organizations, including the Family Defense Center, are concerned with DCFS’ implementation of safety plans. These organizations believe that DCFS never puts some plans in writing, never reviews some plans and fails to provide the adults involved in the plans with important information, such as how to obtain medical care, emergency phone numbers, and their responsibility to inform schools and doctors about the plans.

Morrison’s legislation requires DCFS to provide written copies of each safety plan to the adult caregivers named in the plan. Both the caregivers and the child protection supervisor must sign each plan, and the department must keep these signed documents on file. DCFS must also supply each caregiver with a list of their rights and responsibilities under the plans.

“DCFS requires between 2,000 and 10,000 families to participate in safety plans each year,” Morrison said. “For the sake of the children in these families, we need to hold both DCFS and the children’s caregivers accountable.”

Morrison’s legislation, Senate Bill 2909, is part of a larger plan to reform the struggling department. Her proposals to require DCFS to issue annual reports on its daycare licensing system and to require all mandated child abuse reporters to renew their training every five years also await consideration by the full Senate.

Morrison, who was instrumental in Governor Quinn’s decision to undertake a national search for the next DCFS director, continues to work with her colleagues and consider more possibilities to improve the agency.