Full Text of HR0085 103rd General Assembly
HR0085 103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The only justification for the institution of | 3 | | foster care is that the other alternatives are worse; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, Foster care is a suboptimal, long-term | 5 | | environment even when children have safe, stable, and loving | 6 | | non-relative or kinship foster parents; and
| 7 | | WHEREAS, Knowing where and to whom one belongs is a | 8 | | fundamental need of humans; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, The process of removing children from their homes | 10 | | complicates children's understanding of belonging and for whom | 11 | | they may feel affection and consequently causes them to | 12 | | experience guilt about such feelings; and
| 13 | | WHEREAS, The ability to cope and adjust to various life | 14 | | circumstances requires some capacity, within reason, to | 15 | | anticipate what is coming; and
| 16 | | WHEREAS, Lack of predictability inhibits a child's ability | 17 | | to plan and therefore exercise real or perceived control over | 18 | | one's environment; and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, The U.S. Department of Human Services reports |
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| 1 | | that 69.3% of the children who have been in the Illinois foster | 2 | | care system for more than 24 months experience three or more | 3 | | placements; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, A child entering foster care in Cook County is | 5 | | likely to remain in foster care significantly longer than a | 6 | | child entering foster care in any other region of the State; | 7 | | and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, For purposes of providing child welfare services, | 9 | | the State is administratively divided into four regions, | 10 | | Northern, Central, Southern, and Cook; and
| 11 | | WHEREAS, Children from the Cook Region remain in foster | 12 | | care significantly longer than similarly situated children who | 13 | | enter foster care in the other three regions; and
| 14 | | WHEREAS, The Juvenile Court Act of 1987 provides that | 15 | | court has the responsibility of determining whether a child | 16 | | remains in foster care or exits foster care through | 17 | | reunification with family, adoption, or private guardianship; | 18 | | and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, The Juvenile Court Act of 1987, 705 ILCS | 20 | | 405/2-14, provides that an adjudicatory hearing to determine | 21 | | whether a child is abused, neglected, or dependent shall be |
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| 1 | | commenced within 90 days of the date of service of process upon | 2 | | the minor, parents, any guardian, and any legal custodian, | 3 | | unless an earlier date is required; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, The Juvenile Court Act of 1987, 705 ILCS | 5 | | 405/2-14, also provides that, once commenced, a subsequent | 6 | | delay in the adjudicatory hearing may be allowed by the court | 7 | | when necessary to ensure a fair hearing and only for good cause | 8 | | shown; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, In FY 2020, the average number of days between | 10 | | the date of the child's entry into foster care and the | 11 | | completion of the adjudicatory hearing was 157.9 days in the | 12 | | Northern region, 150.9 days in the Central region, 137.6 days | 13 | | in the Southern region, and 489.7 days in the Cook region; and
| 14 | | WHEREAS, In FY 2021, the average number of days between | 15 | | the date of the child's entry into foster care and the | 16 | | completion of the adjudicatory hearing was 130.7 days in the | 17 | | Northern region, 126.9 days in the Central region, 115.8 days | 18 | | in the Southern region, and 325.0 days in the Cook region; and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, In FY 2020, the average number of days from the | 20 | | completion of the adjudicatory hearing to the entry of the | 21 | | order terminating parental rights was 777.0 days in the | 22 | | Northern region, 660.9 days in the Central region, 750.0 days |
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| 1 | | in the Southern region, and 961.4 days in the Cook region; and
| 2 | | WHEREAS, In FY 2021, the average number of days from the | 3 | | date of the completion of the adjudicatory hearing to entry of | 4 | | the order terminating prior rights was 729.1 days in the | 5 | | Northern region, 679.3 days in the Central region, 706.1 days | 6 | | in the Southern region, and 1,001.2 days in the Cook region; | 7 | | and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, In FY 2022, the average number of days from the | 9 | | completion of the adjudicatory hearing was 774.8 days in the | 10 | | Northern region, 717.7 in the Central region, 886.8 days in | 11 | | the Southern region, and 1,169.8 days in the Cook region; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, The Children and Family Resource Center (CFRC) of | 13 | | the University of Illinois School of Social Work has issued | 14 | | several reports demonstrating that a child entering foster | 15 | | care in Cook County is likely to remain in foster care | 16 | | significantly longer than a child entering foster care in any | 17 | | other region of the State; and
| 18 | | WHEREAS, In its FY 2018 monitoring report to the federal | 19 | | court in the B.H. litigation, CFRC found that the median stay | 20 | | in care for those children entering foster care in the Cook | 21 | | region was 46 months in 2014, which was over a year longer than | 22 | | the time in other regions of the State; and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, In its FY 2021 monitoring report to the federal | 2 | | court in the B.H. litigation, CFRC concluded "In Illinois, | 3 | | there are large regional differences in the achievement of | 4 | | timely permanence for children in care. Over 66% of children | 5 | | taken into substitute care in the Cook region can expect to | 6 | | stay there longer than three years. In contrast, other regions | 7 | | of the state keep 36 percent of children in care that long. A | 8 | | continuing effort to achieve timely permanence in the Cook | 9 | | region is needed, so that these dismal numbers can be | 10 | | improved"; and
| 11 | | WHEREAS, In its FY 2021 monitoring report to the federal | 12 | | court in the B.H. litigation, CFRC reported that with respect | 13 | | to those children entering foster care in 2017, 66% of the Cook | 14 | | County children remained in foster care after 36 months while | 15 | | 36% of the children who entered foster care in the rest of the | 16 | | State remained in foster care after 36 months; and
| 17 | | WHEREAS, In its FY 2021 monitoring report to the federal | 18 | | court in the B.H. litigation, CFRC found that with respect to | 19 | | those children who entered foster care in 2017, only 23% of the | 20 | | Cook County children were reunited with their families after | 21 | | 36 months, while the figure for the rest of the State was 38%; | 22 | | and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, In its FY 2021 monitoring report to the federal | 2 | | court in the B.H. litigation, CFRC found that with respect to | 3 | | those children who entered foster care in 2017, after 36 | 4 | | months only 7% of the children in the Cook region exited foster | 5 | | care through adoption, while the figure for the rest of the | 6 | | State was 20%; and
| 7 | | WHEREAS, Those children who enter foster care in the Cook | 8 | | region and are eventually returned to their families or | 9 | | adopted will spend significantly more time in foster care than | 10 | | similarly situated children who enter foster care in other | 11 | | regions of the State; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, The Department of Children and Family Services | 13 | | (DCFS) statistics show that in FY 2020 the percentage of | 14 | | children who exited foster care through adoption was 10.5% in | 15 | | the Northern region, 9.7% in the Central region, 9.9% in the | 16 | | Southern region, and 5.4% in the Cook region; and
| 17 | | WHEREAS, DCFS statistics show that in FY 2020, the | 18 | | percentage of children who exited foster care through | 19 | | reunification with their families was 16.0% in the Northern | 20 | | region, 17.9% in the Central region, 15.2% in the Southern | 21 | | region, and 6.8% in the Cook region; and
| 22 | | WHEREAS, DCFS statistics show that in FY 2021, the |
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| 1 | | percentage of children who exited foster care through adoption | 2 | | was 9.4% in the Northern region, 9.2% in the Central region, | 3 | | 11.3% in the Southern region, and 4.9% in the Cook region; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, DCFS statistics show that in FY 2021, the | 5 | | percentage of children who exited foster care through | 6 | | reunification with their families was 22.8% in the Northern | 7 | | region, 20.1% in the Central region, 17.8% in the Southern | 8 | | region, and 6.0% in the Cook region; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, DCFS statistics show that in FY 2022, the | 10 | | percentage of children who exited foster care through adoption | 11 | | was 9.0% in this Northern region, 9.7% in the Central region, | 12 | | 10.7% in the Southern region, and 4.2% in the Cook region; and
| 13 | | WHEREAS, DCFS statistics show that in FY 2022, the | 14 | | percentage of children who exited foster care through | 15 | | reunification with their families was 22.9% in the Northern | 16 | | region, 20.0% in the Central region, 16.1% in the Southern | 17 | | region, and 7.5% in the Cook region; and
| 18 | | WHEREAS, Additional statistics show that 71.2% of Illinois | 19 | | children in foster care in the Cook region are Black, and a | 20 | | total of 31.7% of the children in the other regions of the | 21 | | State are Black; and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, Regardless of race, children who enter foster | 2 | | care in the Cook region spend significantly more time in | 3 | | foster care than similarly situated children who enter foster | 4 | | care in other regions of the State; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, In FY 2021, the median duration of care for Black | 6 | | children was 22.52 months in the Northern region, 21.11 months | 7 | | in the Central region, 26.98 months in the Southern region, | 8 | | and 42.72 months in the Cook region; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, In 2021, the median duration of care for white | 10 | | children in foster care was 16.66 months in the Northern | 11 | | region, 20.79 months in the Central region, 24.30 months in | 12 | | the Southern region, and 34.30 months in the Cook region; and
| 13 | | WHEREAS, In 2021, the median duration of care for Latinx | 14 | | children was 16.72 months in the Northern region, 19.80 in the | 15 | | Central region, 25.80 months in the Southern region, and 35.21 | 16 | | months in the Cook region; and
| 17 | | WHEREAS, In FY 2022, the median duration of care for Black | 18 | | children was 26.36 months in the Northern region, 22.65 months | 19 | | in the Central region, 31.28 months in the Southern region, | 20 | | and 40.80 months in the Cook region; and
| 21 | | WHEREAS, In FY 2022, the median duration of care for white |
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| 1 | | children was 19.77 months in the Northern region, 25.62 months | 2 | | in the Central region, 25.16 in the Southern region, and 35.8 | 3 | | months in the Cook region; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, In FY 2022, the median duration of care the | 5 | | Latinx children was 17.54 months in the Northern region, 20.3 | 6 | | months in the Central region, 22.07 months in the Southern | 7 | | region, and 35.48 months in the Cook region; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, The disparate treatment of children in the Cook | 9 | | region is exemplified by DCFS data relating to children who | 10 | | entered foster care between April of 2019 and June 30, 2019; | 11 | | and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, DCFS statistics relating to those children who | 13 | | entered foster care between April of 2019 through June 30, | 14 | | 2019 show that statewide, 51.5% exited foster care within | 15 | | three years, with 8.7% leaving through adoption, 2.1% through | 16 | | guardianship, 39.6% through reunification, and 1.2% through | 17 | | relatives; and
| 18 | | WHEREAS, DCFS statistics relating to children who entered | 19 | | foster care in the Northern region between April of 2019 and | 20 | | June 30, 2019 show that 55.9% exited foster care within three | 21 | | years, with 7.3% exiting through adoption, 2.3% through | 22 | | guardianship, 44.9% through reunification, and 1.4% through |
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| 1 | | relatives; and
| 2 | | WHEREAS, DCFS statistics relating to children who entered | 3 | | foster care in the Central region between April of 2019 and | 4 | | June 30, 2019 show that 57.1% exited foster care within three | 5 | | years, with 10.3% exiting through adoption, 1.8% through | 6 | | guardianship, 44.5% through reunification, and 0.5% through | 7 | | relatives; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, DCFS statistics relating to children who entered | 9 | | foster care in the Southern region between April of 2019 and | 10 | | June 30, 2019 show that 52.6% exited foster care within three | 11 | | years, with 11.5% exiting through adoption, 3.2% through | 12 | | guardianship, 36.4% through reunification, and 1.5% through | 13 | | relatives; and
| 14 | | WHEREAS, Statistics relating to children who entered | 15 | | foster care in the Cook region between April of 2019 and June | 16 | | 30, 2019 show that 31.6% exited foster care within three | 17 | | years, with 2.7% exiting through adoption, 1.0% through | 18 | | guardianship, 25.9% through reunification, and 2.0% through | 19 | | relatives; and
| 20 | | WHEREAS, The disparate treatment of foster children in the | 21 | | Cook region is also exemplified by DCFS data relating to | 22 | | children who entered foster care between April of 2021 and |
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| 1 | | June 30, 2021; and
| 2 | | WHEREAS, DCFS statistics relating to those children who | 3 | | entered foster care between April of 2021 through June 30, | 4 | | 2021 show that the percentage who exited foster care within | 5 | | one year was 21.9% in the Northern region, 16% in the Central | 6 | | region, 18.4% in the Southern region, and 7.5% in the Cook | 7 | | region; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, DCFS statistics show that as of January 9, 2023, | 9 | | the average length of stay in foster care was 31.4 months | 10 | | statewide, 28.0 months in the Northern region, 26.3 months in | 11 | | the Central region, 26.6 months in the Southern region, and | 12 | | 42.6 months in the Cook region; therefore, be it
| 13 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 14 | | HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 15 | | we urge the Supreme Court of Illinois and the Circuit Court of | 16 | | Cook County to examine the reasons for the disparate length of | 17 | | foster care experienced by children in the Cook region; and be | 18 | | it further
| 19 | | RESOLVED, That we urge the Supreme Court of Illinois and | 20 | | the Circuit Court of Cook County to recommend legislation to | 21 | | reduce this disparity and shorten the duration of foster care | 22 | | experienced by children in the Cook region.
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