As a result of those calls, reports of alleged abuse or neglect involving 106,891 children were taken, representing a 6.2 percent decrease from the previous year. A call is considered a report if the hotline worker has reasonable cause to suspect that abuse or neglect has occurred, thus warranting investigation. Some of these programs are financed through state funds and others receive funding through federal grants. In recent years, the Illinois Child Abuse Prevention Fund has been a major funding source. Since the fund was established in 1984, it has helped more than 300,000 children and families.
All donations go to community-based programs.
When children cannot be returned to their birth parents, adoption becomes the permanency goal of choice. In Fiscal Year 1999, for the second consecutive year, DCFS moved a record number of children into permanent homes through adoption and legal guardianship. State efforts to improve permanency for foster children resulted in a remarkable 294 percent increase in adoptions and guardianships, from 2,414 in FY97 to 9,514 in FY99. This included 7,315 adoptions and 2,199 subsidized guardianships. Growth in adoptions can be partly attributed to the performance-based contracting program, which went into effect in July 1997 in Cook County and was implemented statewide in 1998.