Illinois Statutes Chapter 325. Children § 5/7.1. Cooperation of agencies; multi-disciplinary teams

§ 7.1. (a) To the fullest extent feasible, the Department shall cooperate with and shall seek the cooperation and involvement of all appropriate public and private agencies, including health, education, social service and law enforcement agencies, religious institutions, courts of competent jurisdiction, and agencies, organizations, or programs providing or concerned with human services related to the prevention, identification or treatment of child abuse or neglect.

Such cooperation and involvement shall include joint consultation and services, joint planning, joint case management, joint public education and information services, joint utilization of facilities, joint staff development and other training, and the creation of multidisciplinary case diagnostic, case handling, case management, and policy planning teams. Such cooperation and involvement shall also include consultation and planning with the Illinois Department of Human Services regarding referrals to designated perinatal centers of newborn children requiring protective custody under this Act, whose life or development may be threatened by a developmental disability or disabling condition.

For implementing such intergovernmental cooperation and involvement, units of local government and public and private agencies may apply for and receive federal or State funds from the Department under this Act or seek and receive gifts from local philanthropic or other private local sources in order to augment any State funds appropriated for the purposes of this Act.

(b) The Department may establish up to 5 demonstrations of multidisciplinary teams to advise, review and monitor cases of child abuse and neglect brought by the Department or any member of the team. The Director shall determine the criteria by which certain cases of child abuse or neglect are brought to the multidisciplinary teams. The criteria shall include but not be limited to geographic area and classification of certain cases where allegations are of a severe nature. Each multidisciplinary team shall consist of 7 to 10 members appointed by the Director, including, but not limited to representatives from the medical, mental health, educational, juvenile justice, law enforcement and social service fields.