Rauner maneuvers to keep DCFS director at the helm after she runs into Senate opposition
Democratic lawmakers say they remain concerned about whether Beverly "BJ" Walker is moving quickly enough on proposed reforms at the
Late last month,
The political flap marks the latest controversy at an agency where stability has proved elusive for years amid highly publicized deaths of children in state care, management upheaval and scandal.
It's against that backdrop that U.S. District Judge
Rauner named Walker to lead DCFS in late
During her short time at the helm, Walker negotiated an agreement with DCFS' largest employee union that allowed her to fill vacant positions faster and reduce caseloads for overburdened child protection investigators. Agency officials say the improvements came despite rising calls to the state's child abuse hotline and subsequent investigations. Walker also dumped a widely panned analytics program that fell woefully short on its promise of predicting the probability of future harm to a child.
Walker defended the work she and her staff have undertaken, and said she is focusing on two of the most challenging at-risk groups in the system -- children under the age of 4 to ensure they find safe homes and don't grow up with the state as a parent, and older youths with severe mental health and behavioral problems.
"It will take time to turn around an agency that has been struggling for a number of years," Walker said in a statement to the Tribune. "We are working on many fronts to keep children safely with their families, to make sure every child in foster care is better off from our involvement, and to give our front-line staff more support and the tools to make the right decision every time for children and their families."
Even some of the agency's toughest critics are cautiously optimistic about her plan to transfer the most complex intact family cases from outside agencies back to DCFS caseworkers to be managed in-house.
That and other changes to improve case reviews for children whose families have multiple investigations are in direct response to the
Experts and lawmakers say vexing agency problems persist, from delays at the state's child abuse hotline to unreliable, untimely data and insufficient services and appropriate placements for DCFS youths. As a result, hundreds of youths languish in shelters, detention centers, psychiatric hospitals and other inappropriate settings.
The rules give the
Sen.
So as a confirmation hearing approached and fellow senators asked if they should vote for Walker, Morrison told them her reservations.
"I just haven't seen the leadership that I would have hoped she had," Morrison said. "While she has been accessible, I personally do not feel at this time she would warrant my vote for confirmation."
Sen.
"That message was relayed to the governor's office," said
The Rauner administration pulled the nomination
For Walker, the DCFS job represents a return to state government. She grew up on the
From 2004 to 2011, Walker led
Rauner, who pledged better agency leadership and ran attack ads regarding tragic child abuse deaths against then-Democratic Gov.
"Under her direction, DCFS has reduced caseloads by filling vacancies in front-line positions," Rauner spokeswoman
The administration could get some direction on another potential DCFS hurdle Wednesday, when it's back in court for a hearing on one of its consent decrees. Though agency administrators meet regularly with experts and attorneys connected to the federal case, the
"We think there are significant failures on critically important initiatives," said
"It's not possible for an agency of (DCFS') size and complexity to make long-term systemic reform when there's not stable leadership at the top," Golbert said.
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