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Under the plan, Maryville will begin
implementing necessary reforms to convert the Des Plaines campus
into an academic enrichment center and help children in the DCFS
system graduate from high school (currently, only 33 percent of
children in the DCFS system finish high school). In addition to
helping children graduate from high school, the program will provide
vocational training for high school students who are not going on to
college, provide a home for college students during summers and
vacations, and provide tutoring for students, mentoring programs and
internships.
The plan includes the following key
elements:
Thirty-nine of the 130 children who
currently live at Maryville’s Des Plaines campus and have
significant needs will be moved within the next several weeks to
programs in a better position to serve children with complex needs.
This transition process includes a meeting at the Des Plaines campus
with the child, Maryville staff, DCFS, the child’s family and others
to ensure each child’s specific needs are properly assessed and
addressed. At these meetings all participants, especially the child,
have input into the placement decision. Once the new program is
selected, the child will visit the site and meet the people who run
the program. This process has already begun.
Maryville will have six to eight weeks
to implement a host of management reforms that will address the
issues and problems that have faced the campus over the past several
years. If the problems have been successfully addressed and the
reforms have been successfully implemented -- meaning the Des
Plaines campus can provide a safe living environment and proper
treatment for the children who live there -- the remaining children
will stay on the campus until they complete their treatment plan.
If the reforms have not been
successfully implemented, DCFS will continue to move the children to
programs that can provide better care.
In addition to making a series of
reforms, Maryville must complete a plan outlining the individualized
care each child needs and detail the clinically appropriate length
of time the child stays on the Des Plaines campus before moving to a
more appropriate setting. As each child remaining on the campus
completes his or her treatment plan and moves on to the next level
of care, DCFS will begin sending children to the Des Plaines campus
to participate in the academic enrichment program.
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The average length of stay for the
children who are currently at Maryville is supposed to be 11 months.
As a result, by the beginning of the next academic year, the vast
majority -- if not all -- of the children who currently live at
Maryville will have moved on to the next appropriate level of care,
and a new group of 130 children will have moved into the campus to
attend the academic enrichment program.
The management reforms to be made by
Maryville include:
--Establishing a management structure
that clearly allocates all decision-making authority and
accountability for programs, policies and administration of the Des
Plaines campus.
--Establishing a leadership team with
specific expertise in secondary and higher education, child and
adolescent development, clinical social work, and psychology.
--Providing a three-year budget in the
Consolidated Financial Report format, which should include costs for
operations, proper staffing, occupancy and direct care of all
children who live at Des Plaines.
--Establishing intake protocols that
document specific academic, social and clinical histories of each
child.
--Requiring Maryville’s leadership team
to participate in joint admissions processes with DCFS for children
applying for enrollment at Des Plaines.
Father John Smyth will help lead the
conversion at the Des Plaines campus into an academic enrichment
center by joining Maryville’s board of directors and will act as the
chief fund-raiser for the institution.
"This plan gives Maryville a direction
and a focus that takes advantage of their years of experience,"
Blagojevich said.
"But most
importantly, it helps the children who currently live at Maryville,
and it gives thousands of other children in the DCFS system a chance
at a better future."
[Illinois
Government News Network
news release] |
