I’ve been an investigator for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services for 16 years. It is my job to respond to reports of child abuse and neglect, assess risk and make a determination as to whether the reports are valid. I am also responsible for removing children from their homes if I believe they are in danger.
Each day, hundreds of DCFS investigators like myself enter homes where abuse and neglect is alleged. We work under emotionally charged and sometimes hostile and dangerous circumstances.
Despite these conditions, we are expected to make extraordinarily difficult determinations–almost instantaneously–that literally can change the course of (and in some instances save) a child’s life.
The recent notorious allegations against Gerald and Barbara Hill make clear the complexities presented by so many child-welfare cases.
For months the Hill’s four children were interviewed, examined and observed by physicians, psychologists and child-welfare experts. Witnesses were questioned time and again. The 1,238 criminal counts against Gerald Hill were thoroughly investigated by police and by experts from the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.
Yet despite the time and resources devoted to this case, the charges were dropped. And although many experts believe the allegations to be true, officials cannot say with certainty that these children were abused.
As DCFS investigators, we do our jobs with nowhere near the kind of resources devoted to the Hill case. For all intents and purposes, we are on our own. Most of us stick with our jobs because we truly believe we make a difference in children’s lives. And, amazingly perhaps, given the way the odds are stacked against us, we are able to protect children in the vast majority of cases.
I sincerely hope that the anguish and confusion created by the Hill case will give the public and the news media a greater understanding of the challenges we confront daily as child-welfare workers.
The unfortunate truth is that despite our best efforts, the volume and complexity of child-abuse cases make tragedies almost inevitable. Child-welfare workers know that, at any time, a child they are trying to protect could be hurt or killed and that their competence and integrity could be called into question on the evening news or the front page of a daily newspaper.
It’s a responsibility we have chosen to accept, and although we constantly seek to improve our performance, there are, unfortunately, no guarantees. It is hoped that when tragedies do occur in the future, they will stimulate all of us–the public, the media and those of us in the child-welfare system–to pursue even greater efforts to protect children.
