CHICAGO, May 7 (UPI) -- Thirty years after the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services promised to find Spanish-speaking caretakers, the agency faces a chronic shortage.
In 2005, the agency was responsible for 1,165 children identified as Latino but had only 236 Spanish-speaking foster homes, according to a report by the Latino Consortium, a group of child welfare providers.
And of 1,368 private agency caseworkers, only 83 had a Spanish-language ability despite the state's burgeoning Latino population, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The problem recently has become most acute Downstate and in southern Cook County, areas where caseloads involving Hispanic children are growing fast but few Spanish-speaking foster families are available, the newspaper said.
Child abuse investigators, unable to interview critical witnesses, struggle to understand whether abuse has occurred in some homes, and some parents have been forced to wait for court-mandated counseling to regain custody of their children because of a lack of Spanish-speaking therapists.
"It's outrageous," Cook County Public Guardian Robert Harris said.
"It just shows that we haven't necessarily progressed to the extent that we say we have as a child welfare system. Basic issues that have been litigated 30 years ago tend to crop up," Harris said.
