DCFS suspends drug tests
Job seekers won’t be tested; budget crunch cited
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The Associated Press
Posted Dec 03, 2008 @ 10:42 AM
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SPRINGFIELD — Illinois’ child-welfare agency, looking for savings amid a budget crunch, has stopped a 10-month-old employee drug testing program officials say kept five dozen substance users from jobs that could have put them in contact with the state’s most vulnerable children.
A memo from Department of Children and Family Services director Erwin McEwen, obtained by The Associated Press, indicates drug testing of job seekers, including those of private contractors or vendors, ended Nov. 18.
Spokesman Kendall Marlowe said the agency started pre-employment drug screens in February to determine the extent of drug usage among prospective employees. He wouldn’t comment on whether there were specific problems, but he said client safety drove the idea.
Testing was required for anyone who wanted a job working directly with children and families, such as DCFS workers who investigate allegations of abuse or neglect, caseworkers who determine the best care for an abused child and private-agency monitors of children in foster care.
About 3,100 people who had been offered jobs — provided they were drug-free — were tested, Marlowe said. Roughly 2 percent — about 60 — were positive.
“There is a valid concern,” Marlowe said. “Even one positive test is a concern.”
Each test costs $23.50, for a total of just over $70,000, a small amount in a huge state budget. But agencies under Gov. Rod Blagojevich have to find savings because of a worsening economy that will contribute to what state officials say will be a $2 billion deficit.
The budget hole nearly led to the layoff of 179 DCFS employees, spared when Blagojevich restored funding last month.
“We will seek to resume this testing as soon as sufficient funds are available,” Marlowe said.
McEwen noted in the memo that some private contractors working for DCFS conduct their own tests on incoming employees and encouraged them to continue.
Required testing helped those agencies put more emphasis on the issue, but DCFS hadn’t worked out all the kinks, said Margaret Berglind, president and CEO of the Child Care Association of Illinois.
Private agencies were troubled by the need to test even volunteers, regardless of how little time they spent with children or whether they were in settings supervised by full-time employees, Berglind said.
She said DCFS used only one drug-testing vendor, so some job applicants had to travel long distances to get to approved labs. And she said DCFS told the agencies it did not have money to continue the program next year, so the agencies feared they would get stuck with the cost.
“No one disagrees that we need to have clean and sober employees working with children,” Berglind said. “Whether these drug tests would actually ensure that, I don’t think there’s any proof of that anywhere.”
The council that endorses child-welfare agencies, including DCFS, does not require drug testing because it’s not cost-efficient, not entirely effective and is illegal in some states.
“We look at criminal history records that could deal with drug abuse,” said Richard Klarberg, president and CEO of the Council on Accreditation. “We look at criminal and civil child abuse and neglect registries and we have other standards around recruitment.”
Although it’s not required, the council supports random testing of current employees as a more effective way to find drug abusers, Klarberg said.
One of DCFS’ aims was to expand testing to employees for reasonable suspicion and then possibly to random screens, Marlowe said. But employee unions would have to agree to those moves.
Other state agencies test for drugs. Prison-system and state police workers must be clean to get a job and then face random tests. State workers with access to nuclear facilities and people who want state jobs that require driving commercial vehicles such as trucks also must pass, officials said.
Job seekers won’t be tested; budget crunch cited
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Associated Press
Posted Dec 03, 2008 @ 10:42 AM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SPRINGFIELD — Illinois’ child-welfare agency, looking for savings amid a budget crunch, has stopped a 10-month-old employee drug testing program officials say kept five dozen substance users from jobs that could have put them in contact with the state’s most vulnerable children.
A memo from Department of Children and Family Services director Erwin McEwen, obtained by The Associated Press, indicates drug testing of job seekers, including those of private contractors or vendors, ended Nov. 18.
Spokesman Kendall Marlowe said the agency started pre-employment drug screens in February to determine the extent of drug usage among prospective employees. He wouldn’t comment on whether there were specific problems, but he said client safety drove the idea.
Testing was required for anyone who wanted a job working directly with children and families, such as DCFS workers who investigate allegations of abuse or neglect, caseworkers who determine the best care for an abused child and private-agency monitors of children in foster care.
About 3,100 people who had been offered jobs — provided they were drug-free — were tested, Marlowe said. Roughly 2 percent — about 60 — were positive.
“There is a valid concern,” Marlowe said. “Even one positive test is a concern.”
Each test costs $23.50, for a total of just over $70,000, a small amount in a huge state budget. But agencies under Gov. Rod Blagojevich have to find savings because of a worsening economy that will contribute to what state officials say will be a $2 billion deficit.
The budget hole nearly led to the layoff of 179 DCFS employees, spared when Blagojevich restored funding last month.
“We will seek to resume this testing as soon as sufficient funds are available,” Marlowe said.
McEwen noted in the memo that some private contractors working for DCFS conduct their own tests on incoming employees and encouraged them to continue.
Required testing helped those agencies put more emphasis on the issue, but DCFS hadn’t worked out all the kinks, said Margaret Berglind, president and CEO of the Child Care Association of Illinois.
Private agencies were troubled by the need to test even volunteers, regardless of how little time they spent with children or whether they were in settings supervised by full-time employees, Berglind said.
She said DCFS used only one drug-testing vendor, so some job applicants had to travel long distances to get to approved labs. And she said DCFS told the agencies it did not have money to continue the program next year, so the agencies feared they would get stuck with the cost.
“No one disagrees that we need to have clean and sober employees working with children,” Berglind said. “Whether these drug tests would actually ensure that, I don’t think there’s any proof of that anywhere.”
The council that endorses child-welfare agencies, including DCFS, does not require drug testing because it’s not cost-efficient, not entirely effective and is illegal in some states.
“We look at criminal history records that could deal with drug abuse,” said Richard Klarberg, president and CEO of the Council on Accreditation. “We look at criminal and civil child abuse and neglect registries and we have other standards around recruitment.”
Although it’s not required, the council supports random testing of current employees as a more effective way to find drug abusers, Klarberg said.
One of DCFS’ aims was to expand testing to employees for reasonable suspicion and then possibly to random screens, Marlowe said. But employee unions would have to agree to those moves.
Other state agencies test for drugs. Prison-system and state police workers must be clean to get a job and then face random tests. State workers with access to nuclear facilities and people who want state jobs that require driving commercial vehicles such as trucks also must pass, officials said.
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