Some of you may remember at the beginning of summer receiving notification from DCFS that all of your staff must complete a trauma training by July 1, 2022. This notice came with little to no time for programs to get this requirement completed.
Upon further investigation, ILDOCC learned this change had actually been signed into law by the Governor a full year prior, and DCFS waited until the last minute to inform us of this deadline.
We met with DCFS and shared our concerns about this and the impact it would have on programs. In the midst of a years-long staffing crisis, they were adding on additional unfunded mandates from the government, and our programs were left to figure out how to get these trainings completed.
After our conversations with DCFS, they chose to extend the deadline required for this training, but to date, we have not been given a new due date for the trauma training.
Now we know that some programs have already completed these trainings, but we also know that some programs are too busy trying to have enough staff to survive day-to-day operations and an additional requirement is the last thing on their minds – ESPECIALLY when DCFS still has not issued a deadline.
We have been told though that because DCFS never issued a new deadline, some programs have received violations from their DCLR’s for not having the trauma training completed. If this happens to your program, please reach out to us. We have been informed by DCFS that a new deadline has not been made, and there is not a requirement for this training to be completed as of yet.
We also recommend you request a supervisory review if issued any violations that you feel are not warranted or unfounded. It is time for us to stand up for our programs, and this means pushing back on DCFS issuing violations for unwarranted reasons!! If the goal is for DCFS to make sure we are providing safe, high-quality environments for young children, we should be working with each other – not against each other. Instead of issuing needless violations, work with us to improve our programs and make sure we are always doing our best!