
Oh, it will not happen to me, is what I hear some parents tell me about Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
Oh, I am working, I am married, why in the world would they investigate me?
Well, this is to all the parents who are like ostrichs with their heads stuck so far under the sand.
You are the ones that Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is mostly like to investigate.
This is because someone you think you know or may know might just turn your spouse, significant other, or you into The Illinois Department of Children and Family Service 1-800 number for alleged abuse, neglect, or a child in the need of services.
Parents think just because they are married, working, and professionals are safe from the long arm of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
The facts is: No one is safe from The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
Anyone can report your spouse, significant other, or you and then watch the trouble unfold before your eyes.
At first, they might try to keep your child or children in the home with the provision that they retain legal guardianship and you retain physical custody.
Do you have any idea what the legal guardianship is verse the physical custody is all about?
Legally, if the the Court awards The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services your child's or children's guardianship. The social worker involved in the case plan can have anything he/she wants to be done to your children.
They have legal control over your child or children. You retain the physical but they have all the legal say over what will and will not happen to your child or children. You will stand by and be helpless and unable to stop them from doing what they want to do.
At anytime they want to remove the child from your home, they can motion the court to do so. Most likely because the Court has warded Illinois Departmentn of Children and Family Services legal guardianship. The Court will award the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services physical custody as well.
What happens next, is that before they give you back physical custody. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services will give you a "Reunification or Service" plan to complete.
Most of these "Reunification Plans" are a recipe to failure and unless you have competent legal assistance you will not know how to deal with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
A service plan is drawn up and most be placed in the hands of the parents within thirty days after the child is removed from the parents home.
The first thing parents need to do is have their attorney draw up a Motion to Show Cause as to why Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is asking them to do anything that is placed on that service plan? Ask what it has to do in helping to reunify the family. How will it help to reunify the family?
Most "Reunification" Plans are pretty standard. Most consist of parenting classes, i.e. child rearing classes, home-maker services, anger management classes, family, marriage, individual counseling, and mental health therapy.
Some plans may contain vocational services, housing, and other basic necessities.
Illinois Department of Children and Family Services has a catch all catelogy "intent of risk of harm" which is the equivalent of poverty.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services don't know how to distinquish between poverty and neglect.
Due to Mandatory Child Abuse Reporting laws, just about anyone as the obligation to report what they think is suspected child abuse/neglect or a child in the need of services and dependency.
Make no mistakes about: Illinois Terminates Parental Rights on every ground that is fesible.
Some of them include: A Child Adjudged In Need OF Services Mental Illness and Deficiency Best Interest of The Child Failure To Reasonable Effort A Child In Foster care for 22 out of 15 most recent month and many more.
Illinois gets paid for every child they remove from their "true and natural" parents care, custody, and control, kept in foster care for over 22 months, and if they terminate and place that child into an adoptive home.
Child Protection Services is not about reunification anymore. It is about Big Dollars and Cents give to the state by the Administration of Children and Family.
Illinois Parents- Take Your Head Out Of The Sand.