HR0998 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0998 LRB100 20625 MST 36058 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives wish to congratulate Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) Inspector General Denise Kane, Ph.D. on the occasion of her departure from government service on January 31, 2018 after 25 years of service; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Kane was the State's first DCFS inspector general appointee under former Governor Jim Edgar in 1993; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Kane is the State's longest-serving inspector general and has dedicated her life to the children, youth and families of Illinois; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Kane played an instrumental role in the landmark federal case, Norman v. Suter, that resulted in the Norman Consent Decree that prohibits children from being removed from their homes due to poverty while serving as Director of Social Services with the Public Guardian's office; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Kane was the model of a true public servant in her capacities as a social worker, parent, and foster parent; and

WHEREAS, During her tenure as inspector general, Dr. Kane championed many practices and policies that have reformed DCFS in Illinois and increased safety, permanency, and well-being for children, youth, and families involved in the child welfare system; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Kane encouraged DCFS to use Parenting Assessment Teams to ensure that competent parents who suffered from mental illness would not be wrongly removed from their children; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Kane advocated for the criminal background checks of caretakers and worked with the Illinois State Police to ensure that DCFS would be permitted to access relevant criminal history; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Kane was dedicated to never losing focus on the individual child through initiatives such as requiring child protection investigators to contact child centered collaterals; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Kane developed the Intensive Intact Family Recovery Program, which recognizes the special needs of working with families struggling with substance use disorders; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Kane successfully challenged the DCFS practice of labeling children as young as two years old as 'sexual predators'; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Kane developed the first Code of Ethics for Child Welfare Professionals, which has become a national model and has been adopted in other states; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Kane recognized the critical importance of including extended family in developing solutions for struggling parents and ensured that investigators fully debriefed case information with intact service workers; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Kane ensured that DCFS workers would not place children in homes without knowing that the homes were being investigated for abuse or neglect; her office developed the Home Safety Checklist to help families identify easily correctable safety risks in the home; and

WHEREAS, In addition to her unwavering commitment to child welfare practice issues, Dr. Kane worked tirelessly to identify fraud and waste of taxpayer funds, whether it was by unscrupulous providers, or within DCFS itself; under her leadership, the Office of the Inspector General for DCFS uncovered major frauds cases that were successfully criminally prosecuted; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we, along with her family, friends, and co-workers, congratulate Dr. Denise Kane on the occasion of her retirement, and thank her for her years of dedicated public service to youth in care and to the State of Illinois; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to Dr. Kane as an expression of our utmost esteem and respect.