The Department of Children and Family Services revoked the layoff of a few hundred workers after creating a reorganization plan for more efficient resource use.

Richard Calica, director of the DCFS, said in a press release the organization will work hard to supply an even higher service quality for families in need with the $27 million staff salary reduction.

“I have been working diligently to realign the agency’s structure so that we can do more than just get the job done,” Calica said. “We have moved resources in ways that make more sense and will lead to better outcomes.”

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Although the workers were not laid off, their jobs will be repurposed and spread to the organization’s remaining parts, said David Clarkin, a DCFS spokesperson.

Clarkin said workers in the Intact Family Service, a program designed to assist abused or neglected children without removing them from their home, will recieve positions in other areas of the DCFS because the program will be cut from the organization.

The cut was made because other areas of the DCFS were more important and crucial to the goals the organization were built upon, he said.

“We can’t not have people answer the hotline when somebody calls to report abuse,” Clarkin said. “We can’t not have investigators go out and investigate allegations of abuse, and we can’t not have foster homes to send those children to who are at immediate risk of danger.”

Clarkin said changes can be seen as soon as in 45 days, and the DCFS is hopeful changes will be made at such speed.

Despite what happens, Clarkin said the DCFS is still dedicated to serving children and families, and cuts won’t change that fact.

“It’s what every man and woman in this department and the non-profit organizations that we work with is committed to,” Clarkin said. “It’s why we all get up in the morning.”

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