Illinois Families Now and Forever

              2005 • Volume 2 Spring • Edition
FAMILIES
Now and
Forever
Department of Children and Family Services©
ILLINOIS
Families by Foster Care, Adoption and Guardianship
Bryan Samuels
From the
DCFS
Director
®
Soon there will be a new way to
access placement changes and
services to support youth in care.
As part of the overall Lifetime
Approach, DCFS is introducing
Child and Youth Investment
Teams (CAYIT, pronounced
“say-it”). Caseworkers will refer
children and youth to the
investment teams any time it
appears the child may need more
intensive placement or services.
In many cases, the caregiver may
require the support of additional
services to meet the needs of the
children in care. Other times, the
child’s needs cannot be met by the
current caregiver, even with
support. Then the child may need
another type of placement, such
as specialized foster care,
residential or transitional living.
The new CAYIT process replaces
the old Placement Review Teams
(PRT) for residential placement,
Specialized Foster Care review,
and will be the pathway to
transitional and independent
living programs. CAYIT will also
respond to children and youth
who are moving too often.
“The investment teams will be
empowered to directly access all
services and programs,” said
DCFS Director Bryan Samuels.
“The goal is to get kids what they
need when they need it.”
Once a referral is made, the
CAYIT comes together to assist
in planning for what comes next.
The CAYIT includes a facilitator,
reviewer, intake staff and an
implementation coordinator in
addition to the casework staff,
family and caregivers. The
investment team meetings will be
held at various sites throughout
the DCFS regions to accommodate
geographic and time challenges
and encourage the caregiver’s
participation.
Child and youth investment
teams offer new path to services
Continued on page 2
Each year, state agencies partici-pate
in state budget deliberation.
And, this year DCFS fared well.
Having a fiscal year 2006 budget
of $1.3 billion affords DCFS the
financial resources to maintain
current services as well as fund ad-ditional
critical practice initiatives.
We project ending this fiscal year
with 18,299 youth in our care, and
anticipate that number to stay
stable in 2006. This is the lowest
number of children in care in the
past 15 years. However, the cost
per child in care is increasing. Our
children in care are older, they
stay in care longer and their needs
are more complex and require
more attention.
We are adapting our current
services and developing new
services to meet the needs of each
of our children in care. We are
streamlining decision-making. We
are monitoring outcomes of youth
leaving residential facilities. We
are anticipating and addressing the
trauma of children exposed to
violence. We are expanding the
options for chronic runaways.
I believe we have the resources to
do what needs to be done. With
your assistance we will meet the
needs of each youth in our care.