Illinois agency tries to determine how it failed foster child

CHICAGO -- Officials of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services were scrambling Tuesday to find out why its child welfare system that had been much praised in recent years broke down in the case of a 3-year-old boy found chained by the neck to a bed.

Critics say the new scandal indicates the department should be reformed at least by reducing its reliance on private agencies to monitor the care of children in foster care.

One critic said Tuesday it may be time to split DCFS in two agencies to increase its effectiveness.

"They need to tear it up and do something new," Cook County Public Guardian Patrick Murphy said of the agency. "They are using a model that was developed in the 1890s and hasn't been changed since."

In July 2000, DCFS became only the second state child welfare agency in the country to win national accreditation by the New York-based Accreditation for Children and Family Services. Singing the agency's praise then, David Lieberman of the accreditation group, said, "Illinois is setting the pattern for the rest of the country."

Soiled diaper

But a police drug raid Saturday on a South Side Chicago home led to the discovery of foster child tied to a bedpost by a chain. The chain was wrapped around his neck and held in place by a padlock. The boy wore a soiled diaper wrapped in a plastic bag apparently to keep the urine inside.

According to police, the foster mother, Mary Bryant, 64, said the boy was chained to the bed because he stole food.

Bryant and the boy's foster father, Melvin Bond, 49, were charged with misdemeanor child endangerment. Melinda Bryant, 29, Mary Bryant's daughter, was charged with felony child endangerment as well as weapons and drug charges.

DCFS had been relying on at least two private agencies to supervise the care of foster children in the home of Mary Bryant and Bond.

The boy and four other children living in the home, ranging in age from 3 to 11, were taken into DCFS custody after the discovery.

"Everything we have achieved in the last eight years has disintegrated before our very eyes," said DCFS chief of staff Martha Allen, apparently referring to the agency's reputation. "No one case should define an agency that has gone from having 51,000 children in foster care eight years ago to 23,000."

DCFS carefully checks the backgrounds of foster parents, and it is careful to check the backgrounds of the private agencies, Allen said.

"Our top private agencies dealt with the case," she said. "The public guardian checked the home in December. They were all there, and none of them caught what was going on there."

Never indicated difficulty

Naomi Jennings, executive director of one of those agencies, Youth Empire Services located in suburban Country Club Hills, said her organization supervised the foster care of the 3-year-old boy. She said the 3-year-old boy never indicated there was a difficulty in the home.

Moreover, "The foster parent never indicated there was a problem," Jennings said. "If she had, there are services that could have been put in place to eliminate any problem she had been having. The home was clean. It was appropriate."

Catholic Charities was assigned to supervise the care of another foster child in the home. But at least three foster children were placed in the home, a 3-year-old girl by Catholic Charities and the chained boy and his 7-year-old sister by Youth Empire Services.

Neither private organization knew the other organization was supervising the care of children in the same home.

"The extent the department relies on private agencies is a problem," says Bruce Boyer, director of Loyola University's Child Law Clinic. "The department doesn't do a good job of quality control."

Budget pressures have induced the department to rely on private agencies, but those organizations aren't being provided with enough resources to stop them from cutting corners.

Murphy said DCFS should be split into two agencies. One should consist of law enforcement, medical doctors and social workers and should investigate abuse and neglect cases. It also should decide whether a child should be placed into the child care system.

The second agency could find foster homes and provide guardianship.

He said DCFS also should reduce the movement of foster children during their stay in state custody.

Murphy also said the chained boy and his sister, both developmentally challenged, have been in seven foster homes in three years.

DCFS had a dismal reputation in the mid-1990s when the number of children in foster care reached 51,331. But legislative reforms, an increased emphasis on adoption, guardianship and returning foster children to their biological parents, enabled Illinois to reduce the number of children in foster care to 23,382 in 2002.