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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of
3Representatives wish to congratulate Illinois Department of
4Children and Family Services (DCFS) Inspector General Denise
5Kane, Ph.D. on the occasion of her departure from government
6service on January 31, 2018 after 25 years of service; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Dr. Kane was the State's first DCFS inspector
8general appointee under former Governor Jim Edgar in 1993; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Dr. Kane is the State's longest-serving inspector
10general and has dedicated her life to the children, youth and
11families of Illinois; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Dr. Kane played an instrumental role in the
13landmark federal case, Norman v. Suter, that resulted in the
14Norman Consent Decree that prohibits children from being
15removed from their homes due to poverty while serving as
16Director of Social Services with the Public Guardian's office;
17and
 
18    WHEREAS, Dr. Kane was the model of a true public servant in
19her capacities as a social worker, parent, and foster parent;
20and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, During her tenure as inspector general, Dr. Kane
2championed many practices and policies that have reformed DCFS
3in Illinois and increased safety, permanency, and well-being
4for children, youth, and families involved in the child welfare
5system; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Dr. Kane encouraged DCFS to use Parenting
7Assessment Teams to ensure that competent parents who suffered
8from mental illness would not be wrongly removed from their
9children; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Dr. Kane advocated for the criminal background
11checks of caretakers and worked with the Illinois State Police
12to ensure that DCFS would be permitted to access relevant
13criminal history; and
 
14    WHEREAS, Dr. Kane was dedicated to never losing focus on
15the individual child through initiatives such as requiring
16child protection investigators to contact child centered
17collaterals; and
 
18    WHEREAS, Dr. Kane developed the Intensive Intact Family
19Recovery Program, which recognizes the special needs of working
20with families struggling with substance use disorders; and
 
21    WHEREAS, Dr. Kane successfully challenged the DCFS

 

 

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1practice of labeling children as young as two years old as
2'sexual predators'; and
 
3    WHEREAS, Dr. Kane developed the first Code of Ethics for
4Child Welfare Professionals, which has become a national model
5and has been adopted in other states; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Dr. Kane recognized the critical importance of
7including extended family in developing solutions for
8struggling parents and ensured that investigators fully
9debriefed case information with intact service workers; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Dr. Kane ensured that DCFS workers would not place
11children in homes without knowing that the homes were being
12investigated for abuse or neglect; her office developed the
13Home Safety Checklist to help families identify easily
14correctable safety risks in the home; and
 
15    WHEREAS, In addition to her unwavering commitment to child
16welfare practice issues, Dr. Kane worked tirelessly to identify
17fraud and waste of taxpayer funds, whether it was by
18unscrupulous providers, or within DCFS itself; under her
19leadership, the Office of the Inspector General for DCFS
20uncovered major frauds cases that were successfully criminally
21prosecuted; therefore, be it
 

 

 

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1    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
2HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we,
3along with her family, friends, and co-workers, congratulate
4Dr. Denise Kane on the occasion of her retirement, and thank
5her for her years of dedicated public service to youth in care
6and to the State of Illinois; and be it further
 
7    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
8presented to Dr. Kane as an expression of our utmost esteem and
9respect.