DCFS says it shouldn't be held responsible for children who die under its watch, but its own inspector general wonders if these lives had to be … cut short

Chicago Reporter, The, June, 2004 by Sarah Karp

The response shocked him. Under "front-end redesign," leaving a child with a relative who was able to care for the child was considered acceptable.

"The lady told me that because she didn't leave him by himself, because she left him with responsible adults, it wasn't a case of neglect," he said. Brown, incredulous, called back several more times over the next couple of days hoping to get someone who would understand the family's position, but he was unable to get anyone to take a report. Of the 300,000 calls to the state child abuse and neglect hotline each year, about one-fifth of them prompt operators to take a report. Only once a report is taken does DCFS investigate the situation.

Eventually, Chloe's mother came back and got her son. Brown said the family was worried about where the two would go, but they had no right to tell her she couldn't take him.

A year later, in March 2002, Chloe's mother gave birth to a boy at Jackson Park Hospital in South Shore. "This baby was a crack baby," Brown said. The family was sure that the child welfare system would finally see what was going on and take the children into state custody, Brown said.

Officially, the baby was substance-exposed, according to court documents. As required by law, the hospital called the hotline, and a report was taken. And DCFS investigated.

If an investigator determines abuse or neglect occurred but the child is not in immediate danger, the child will typically be allowed to remain at home and his parents will be referred for services, usually provided by a private social service agency.

Giving birth to a substance-exposed infant is, on the surface, a substantiated case of neglect, but the state does not routinely place these children in foster care, said Teresa Aversa Maganzini, chief of the child protection division for the Cook County State's Attorney's Office. In Cook County, her office is the gatekeeper for which DCFS cases are brought before judges to determine if a child should be placed in foster care.

Maganzini said the mother of a substance-exposed infant will usually be told to go to treatment. This is especially true after a woman gives birth to her first substance-exposed infant, but, even if she has several and never gets treatment, her children still might not get removed. In an earlier report, Kane noted that the department should review its policy of leaving children with their mothers after they give birth to a third substance-exposed infant.

But some addicts can be good parents, Maganzini said. "Some parents can take their children to grandma's house and get high and then come back and get their kids," she said.

Powers is skeptical of this reasoning. "Imagine having to deal with a child when you are coming down from a high or in withdrawal," she said. "I think these are the most dangerous times for children."

Brown said it was more than just his cousin's drug use that worried the family. It was the whole dire picture, he said. "She had no home, no job. She couldn't take care of herself, much less a newborn baby."