ABSTRACT
In initiating a reform of how psychological testing was provided in the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), Denise Kane, the inspector general of the DCFS, got everyone’s attention by referring to the existing psychological testing practice as “another form of abuse of the children.” Although extreme, her point was that the children were repeatedly tested regardless of their needs and regardless of whether psychological testing could actually answer any questions that were pertinent to the children’s service needs. The reform that the DCFS undertook involved two simple steps. First was the creation of a decision tree for case workers that required (1) an identifiable problem and (2) no psychological testing in the past 12 months. Second, the case workers would then take the problem to a consulting psychologist, and this consultant would identify whether psychological testing could address the identified issue. This simple reform resulted in a nearly immediate decline of more than 80% in the use of psychological testing within the DCFS.
