High Demand Positions
Nursing
- Division of Children and Family Services
- Division of Medical Services
- Division of Developmental Disabilities Services
- Division of Behavioral Health Services
Family Service Worker
Program Eligibility Specialist
The Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is committed to protecting children and preserving families. Every child deserves to grow up in a permanent family. The primary and preferred way of achieving this goal is to provide families experiencing turmoil with services to prevent the need to place children outside their home. When a child must be separated from his/her family, DCFS will provide a safe environment and will make efforts to provide services to reunite the family or to find the child a permanent home.
The Division's Mission Statement is as follows:
"Our mission is to keep children safe and help families. DCFS will respectfully engage families and youth and use community-based services and supports to assist parents in successfully caring for their children. We will focus on the safety, permanency and well-being for all children and youth."
DCFS staff housed in DHS county offices assess allegations of child maltreatment in which the perpetrator is in the home and not the specific responsibility of CACD. DCFS staff in the county office have primary responsibility for assessing an allegation of child maltreatment and seek to ascertain the existence, cause, nature and extent of child maltreatment, the existence of previous injuries, and the names and conditions of other children in the home. DCFS remains primarily responsible for ensuring the health and safety of the children, even if the primary responsibility for the investigation belongs to the CACD. DCFS has the responsibility for the assessment of Priority II reports.
In addition, DCFS investigates Priority I reports of abandonment, failure to protect, medical neglect of disabled infants, failure to thrive, malnutrition, and substantial possibility of severe maltreatment. DCFS also offers protective services, Preventive and Support services, Foster Care services and Adoption services.
DCFS Central Registry unit serves as the repository of all child maltreatment reports. The Child Maltreatment Reporting Act requires that a statewide central registry be established within the Department of Human Services (DHS) for the collection of information relative to the child maltreatment reports. The registry contains identifying data, dates and circumstances of any persons requesting or receiving information from the registry. There were 55,896 registry checks made in SFY 2008.
DHS introduced child welfare regulations to improve outcomes for abused and neglected children, children in foster care, and children awaiting adoption. States are assessed for compliance with Federal requirements for child protective services, foster care, adoption and family preservation and support services under titles IV-B and IV-E of the Social Security Act. This process includes a statewide assessment and an on-site review of the DCFS's service delivery.