A Consent Decree was signed by U. S. District Court Judge John Grady of Chicago in 1991. The B.H. Consent Decree is a 69-page document that spells out comprehensive reforms that improve the responsiveness of Illinois' child welfare system to the needs of children and families and holds it more accountable to the general public. Under the decree, the Department agreed to carry out the reforms on a phased-in basis. Reforms also have been initiated on a number of additional fronts. Also, new training programs have been instituted and all supervisors of direct service workers are now required to have a Masters in Social Work degree.
Reforms also focus on reducing the time children spend in the child welfare system.
In 1997, the Department began to implement a legislatively mandated Permanency Initiative. The initiative speeds up the timetable for permanency decision-making by amending the Juvenile Court process and emphasizing the early provisions of services to help parents correct the conditions which brought their children into the child welfare system. Parents who are unwilling or unable to make progress toward the return of their children now risk loss of their parental rights in as early as one year. Other reforms affect the Department's subsidized guardianship program. Established in 1996, the program offers a new option for children living with caregivers who are providing a safe and stable environment, but for whom the normal goals of adoption or return home have been ruled out.