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Inquirer Investigation: 'Bury Your Mistakes'
That policy manual on investigations is still in place.
Gelles now believes the best way to change the agency is to fight it, he said.
"I said to Cheryl, 'You can do this the easy way or the hard way: You can change, or I'm going to sue you.' They've chosen to do it the hard way," Gelles said.
In May, the Penn team handed over two major recommendations: a new policy on investigating child fatalities, and a new policy on assessing the safety of a child in a home.
The city has not adopted them.
John Goad, former deputy director of the Division of Child Protection at the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, had a similar experience.
He had helped engineer a turnaround in Chicago's system, where, he said, reports of repeat child abuse fell by half. Martinez hired him to evaluate her agency.
Goad said DHS workers had a difficult time deciding how to handle cases and sometimes made the wrong decisions.
"Their decision-making structure is wanting," he said. "They tended to lose focus on some things that pertain to child safety."
After visiting the city in 2003, Goad wrote 65 pages of guidelines and definitions. His report included 14 scientifically determined factors that contribute to a child being unsafe.
