U.S Government urged not to cut social services spending by family advocacy group

 Posted on November 28, 2012 in Divorce

If this plan is passed, families with at-risk children over the age of 6 will no longer be eligible for support under the policy directive. A legal advocacy group that defends families that have been wrongly separated by the state welfare authorities, the Family Defense Center (FDC),is asking the government not to accept a policy directive by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services that will eliminate social service programs for thousands of children that are at risk of abuse and neglect. If the new policy is not blocked, any family, whose youngest child is over the age of 6, that has not been previously investigated by the state will no longer be eligible for the support services. The Family Defense Center accused the Department of Children and Family Services of violating its contractual obligation to assist all children in need of endangering federal funding that supports foster care and adoption assistance services across Illinois in a 17 page complaint to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently. FDC Executive Director Diane L. Redleaf said this new plan destroys the trust of these families and state’s commitment to children and families of Illinois, “DCFS has an obligation to protect children from abuse and neglect and keep families intact when it is safe to do so.” Two hundred ninety seven (297) employees of DCFS were laid off in August because of the new budget cutting policy directive. Although across the board layoffs were taken back and employees got their jobs back after union negotiations, DCFS intact services case workers jobs were not returned to them. Many of these people have been reassigned to investigator positions, however. Federal and  state laws, both, contain many requirements that direct DCFS to provide coordinated services to families that will help to prevent abuse and neglect, and to avoid family separation as often as possible. Redleaf said, the state can now do nothing but label children and ‘abused’ or neglected’ or take a child away from his/her home and place him/her in foster care. Children over the age of 6 will not have any help given to them due to this new policy directive People are separated from their families for a number of reasons; if this may happen to you, contact a Family Law attorney to keep your family together. The Davi Law Group can help you keep your family together.