Dupuy v. McDonald, 97 C 4199.

• Decision Date: 30 March 2001
• Docket Number: No. 97 C 4199.,97 C 4199.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Illinois
• Parties: Belinda DUPUY, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Jess McDONALD, Director, Illinois Department of Children & Family Services, in his official capacity, Defendant.

Page 1090

141 F.Supp.2d 1090

Belinda DUPUY, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Jess McDONALD, Director, Illinois Department of Children & Family Services, in his official capacity, Defendant.

No. 97 C 4199.

United States District Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division.

March 30, 2001.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Jeffrey Bensley Gilbert, Johnson, Jones, Snelling & Gilbert, Robert E. Lehrer, Diane L. Redleaf, Lehrer & Redleaf, Amy L. Zimmerman, Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Inc., Chicago, IL, for Plaintiffs.

Nancy K. Hall-Walker, Illinois Attorney General's Office, Barbara Lynn Greenspan, Attorney General's Office, Danielle Jenkins Steimal, Office of the Attorney General, James C. Stevens, Jr., Office of the Illinois Attorney General, Thomas Lee Ciecko, Ciecko & Murphy, P.C., Kathryn Jill Olfe, Cook County Public Guardian's Office, Patrick Thomas Murphy, Peter J. Schmiedel, Charles Perez Golbert, Office of the Cook County Public Guardian, Daniel Thomas Hartnett, Martin, Brown, Sullivan & Bowman, William Gibbs Sullivan, Martin, Brown & Sullivan, Ltd., Chicago, IL, for Defendant.

Donald G. Watson, Chicago, IL, Pro se.

Gladys F. Kennedy, Chicago, IL, Pro se.

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

PALLMEYER, District Judge.

Plaintiffs represent a class of persons who have been named as perpetrators of child abuse or neglect in "indicated reports" placed in the State Central Register of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services ("DCFS"). Defendant Jess McDonald is the Director of DCFS. Seeking injunctive relief, Plaintiffs challenge the constitutionality of certain DCFS policies and procedures for investigating allegations of child abuse and neglect and for issuing "indicated" reports. Specifically, Plaintiffs challenge three "core" policies: the indicated report decision-making policies, including the burden of proof standard; the notice and hearing policies; and the disclosure and use of indicated reports. Plaintiffs also challenge five "special" policies which arguably only affect subgroups of the Plaintiff class: the imposition of protective or safety plans; foster care placement holds; "not responsible" findings; the extended registry of indicated reports; and indicated findings made without a determination that an individual acted intentionally, recklessly or negligently. For the reasons set forth below, the court finds that certain of these current DCFS policies and procedures do in fact deprive class members of constitutionally-protected rights. The court will not, however, dictate a remedy or draft revisions to the regulatory structure. Instead, it directs the parties themselves to develop a workable solution, and present it to the court, within 60 days. Plaintiffs' motion for preliminary injunction is therefore granted in part and denied in part.

FINDINGS OF FACT

I. Overview Of The Department Of Children And Family Services

1. The Department of Children and Family Services ("DCFS" or the "Department") is statutorily required to protect the health, safety and best interests of the child in all situations, including both public and private, in which the child is vulnerable to child abuse or neglect. (325 ILCS 5/2.) DCFS is also responsible for offering protective services in order to prevent further harm to the child and to other children in the same environment or family. (Id.) As such, DCFS is the state agency charged by statute with the duty of investigating allegations of child abuse and neglect. (Id.)

2. Under the Juvenile Court Act, 705 ILCS 405/1 et seq., DCFS may be granted temporary custody of children requiring protective services. Under the same Act, DCFS becomes permanently responsible for children who are adjudicated by a juvenile court to be abused and neglected and become wards of the court. (705 ILCS 405/2-10.)

3. DCFS' Licensing Unit is responsible for issuing child care licenses pursuant to the Illinois Child Care Act, 225 ILCS 10/4, for monitoring licensees, and for enforcing the licensing standards pursuant to the Child Care Act and pursuant to DCFS rules and procedures.

4. DCFS is organized into various operational divisions. The Division of Child Protection ("DCP") is responsible for operating a hotline to accept calls regarding allegations of child abuse and neglect (the "DCFS Hotline"). In addition to accepting reports of abuse or neglect, DCP is also responsible for investigating the allegations. (325 ILCS 5/7, 5/7.3.) Edward Cotton is currently the DCP's chief administrator. The DCFS Hotline accepts over 350,000 calls per year, of which 65,000 are investigated. (Tr. 1475, 1492.) Approximately 23,000 (or 1/3) of the investigations are "indicated," meaning that the investigator has determined that credible evidence of child abuse or neglect exists. (Tr. 1492-93.) The rest of the investigations result in "unfounded" determinations, meaning that the investigator has not found credible evidence of abuse or neglect. (Tr. 1493.)

5. The State Central Register ("SCR") is a subdivision of the DCP that maintains a computerized listing of information regarding allegations of abuse or neglect, including the determination that an allegation of abuse or neglect has been indicated against a particular named perpetrator. Linda Everette-Williams is the head of the SCR; she reports to Edward Cotton. The Child Abuse and Neglect Tracking System ("CANTS") is a computerized tracking system maintained by the SCR.

6. The DCFS Operations Unit provides follow-up services to children and families and includes both foster care licensing workers and primary case managers for children who are in the guardianship of DCFS and placed in foster homes, group homes and child care institutions.

7. The Administrative Hearings Unit ("AHU") receives, processes, and hears appeals from DCFS actions, including any appeal seeking expungement of an indicated report from the SCR. The AHU also hears licensing denial and revocation appeals, and service appeals which involve, for example, decisions to remove a child from a particular placement.

8. DCFS has promulgated rules and written procedures which specify the manner in which the Department implements its statutory mandates. DCFS has also established standardized form notices concerning, among other things, the conduct of abuse and neglect investigations and determinations, licensing investigations and determinations, and background checks.

II. The Abuse and Neglect Investigative Process

A. In General

1. Assessments of child abuse or neglect can result in criminal prosecutions, civil actions, juvenile court proceedings, adoption actions, domestic relations suits, and administrative determinations.

2. In 1975, Illinois enacted the Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act ("ANCRA"), 325 ILCS 5/1 et seq. Sometime between 1989 and 1992, DCFS adopted the current centralized state-wide system for investigating, registering and tracking allegations and findings of abuse and neglect.

B. Training of Investigators

1. To become a DCP investigator, an individual must have a bachelor's degree in a social services field and two years of social service or investigative experience. It is unclear from the record what degrees qualify as social service degrees. DCP investigators are not required to have any experience or background in child development.

2. Prior to assuming responsibility for conducting investigations, DCP investigators are required to attend two weeks of specialized training in addition to the five weeks of core training for all DCFS case managers. The five week core training covers, among other subjects, case planning, interviewing, clinical decision making, child development, family dynamics, juvenile court processes, and Child Endangerment Risk Assessment Protocol ("CERAP") forms, rules, and procedures. The specialized two-week training, solely for investigators, includes eight modules: (A) principles of investigation; (B) indicators of child abuse and neglect; (C) interviewing children and families; (D) investigation preparation; (E) investigation, including decision-making and documentation; (F) risk assessment; (G) initial services; and (H) placement services. The total time devoted to the specialized training is 49.45 hours. This specialized training does not include instruction on how to weigh evidence; Edward Cotton testified that the principal goal of the training is to teach investigators what evidence should be gathered. After the specialized training, investigators must pass a certification exam.

3. The DCP requires investigators to have twenty additional hours of training every two years, but investigators are not disciplined if they do not meet this requirement.

4. Once they complete this additional two weeks of specialized training, investigators continue their training by accompanying more experienced workers on investigations. Six months later, DCFS assigns the investigators their own cases. Each investigator is expected to be individually responsible for conducting twelve investigations per month. These investigators gather evidence, conduct investigations, and then weigh the evidence in order to decide whether to "indicate" or "unfound" a report.

5. In addition to their seven total weeks of training, investigators are provided with a comprehensive CPS Handbook, hundreds of pages in length, which details the investigative process. The CPS Handbook explains what the investigator is required to do during the investigation, what evidence he or she is expected to consider, and what facts are to be considered in determining the outcome of the investigation.

C. The Initiation of an Investigation and CANTS 1

1. Any person can make a child abuse or neglect report by calling the toll-free DCFS Hotline. Certain persons whose employment brings them into frequent contact with children are "mandated reporters" and are thus required to make a Hotline report if they have a reasonable belief that a child may be abused or...