Prairie State Wire

Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Institutional Review Board met July 22.

Here is the agenda provided by the board:

I. Call to Order

II. Acceptance of Minutes

• June 24th, 2025

III. New Proposals / Amendments

• Sachdev-Gande, Kajal (2025-07) Missed Well Visits and Maltreatment

Retrospective chart review on patient records from St. Louis Children's Hospital, which may include Juveniles in Care. Research is studying the potential relationship between incidence of physical abuse and missed well child visits. My research will utilize an internal database of physical abuse cases evaluated by our Child Protection Team and retrospectively review their medical records. No direct benefit but minimal risk.

IV. Manuscript Reviews

• Schneider, William (2025-07) Eviction Manuscript

We examine the role of eviction filings and judgement in maltreatment reports in Illinois—overall, by maltreatment type, and by report source—as well as in subsequent CPS involvement, including substantiations, service case openings, and foster care placements. Given substantial variation in both eviction and maltreatment patterns by urbanicity, we also assess geographic differences.

• Schneider, William (2025-07) Kinship Paper

A large and growing share of children in out-of-home placements in the U.S. are placed in kinship care. Evidence shows that kinship placements have substantial benefits. Yet, kinship caregivers are not often entitled to the same stipend payments as traditional foster parents without becoming licensed, an arduous process. However, a federal rule change now permits states to provide separate licensing for kin to equalize payments. We explore the possible implications of this change by examining previous increases in kinship caregiver payment rates in Illinois, using administrative data to analyze outcomes for all cases which opened and closed between 2015 and 2023 (N=74,285). We find that increases in payments are associated with significant decreases in risk of re-investigation and increases in the likelihood of reunification, with differences by demographics and maltreatment history. Results indicate that the federal rule change could potentially have positive impacts on the quality of kinship care.

• Kim, Hyunil (2025-07) Lifetime Prevalence of Child Maltreatment Reports

This study aims to generate more accurate estimates of the cumulative prevalence of child maltreatment reports and subsequent Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement in Illinois by identifying and adjusting for duplicate identifiers in administrative records.

V. On Hold – Nothing to report at this time

VI. Other

• Role & Boundaries of Institutional Review Board

▪ Evaluator Review Sheet -

▪ Review alternate tool based on DCFS Rule 432.5 Criteria by Which Proposed Research Will be Evaluated of DCFS

▪ Review of consolidated comments

• Rules of Procedure/Bylaws:

▪ Review draft bylaws – Review of consolidated comments

• FY26 Board Membership

• Next Meeting: August 26th, 2025 at 2:00 pm

VII. Adjourn

https://dcfs.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/dcfs/documents/about-us/impact-public-policy/documents/irb/irb-agenda-072225.pdf