Illinois lawmakers unanimously passed a bill during the spring legislative session that gives more transparency and tools to parents to defend themselves in child abuse cases.
The bill requires child abuse pediatricians — investigators at the hospital who look at medical records to determine if there is potential child abuse — to state who they are to parents as they start an investigation. It also allows parents to get a second opinion and use that during court hearings.
It now goes to the governor’s desk to sign.
Alan Novick is a recently-retired lawyer from Bloomington who spent 35 years in abuse and neglect court. Until recently, he served on the board of the Family Justice Resource Center, a Peoria-based organization that helps parents navigate child abuse cases.
Novick said pediatricians don't always indicate whether they are reporting findings to the Department of Children and Family Services [DCFS] that could lead to parents not seeing the reports, or knowing their legal rights until the day of the trial.
Novick said the bill would change that “by causing the pediatrician to indicate what they're really doing there” and tell the parents about their right to a second opinion.
Sometimes kids have a vitamin D deficiency, he said, that is most of the time a genetic condition, or other genetic conditions that can lead to broken bones, which a child abuse pediatrician might not have a specialty in.
Novick said a second opinion from a doctor can reveal more about a child's current medical situation that a child abuse pediatrician might not have complete knowledge about.
“There's no juries. It gives the judge the ability to go, well, the child abuse pediatrician says this, and it's not contradicted by the second opinion, or the child abuse pediatrician says this, and it's absolutely contradicted. And now I know that somebody is wrong,” Novick said.
Juries are used in criminal cases such as sexual abuse, but not in civil cases, which is what most child abuse cases involve.
Currently, Novick said parents can present a second opinion in court, but it is still expensive to get a second opinion from a doctor.
“[Family Justice Resource Center] found some sympathetic doctors who will take a look, who will look at some medical records, and knowing already that the child abuse pediatrician has determined its abuse, sometimes they're in a position to say no,” Novick said.
Novick said when a family is at a hospital, they do not expect someone to be an investigator, and the legislation could give parents more transparency that they are being asked questions about potential child abuse.
Michelle Weidner, executive director of the Family Justice Resource Center, said the bill codifies that parents can get a second opinion and that opinion can be used in the court proceedings.
“The exculpatory medical evidence that there may be a medical explanation for the findings, so that the judge can make the best decision for that child, and so that we can help protect innocent families from being wrongfully separated,” she said.
Weidner said children can have complex medical conditions that a child abuse pedestrian miss that a second opinion can bring to the proceedings, adding there are a lot of medical reasons a kid's bone can break.
When a parent is at the emergency room, she said, they are not always thinking clearly, which can lead to confusion that a child abuse pediatrician is part of the regular medical care team.
“The AMA [American Medical Association] code of ethics requires doctors to disclose when they're carrying out a medical evaluation for a third party, and when a doctor is carrying out an evaluation pursuant to a contract with DCFS or pursuant to an agreement with the Children's Advocacy Center, they are ethically obligated to disclose that to parents,” said Weidner, adding some pediatricians don't follow the code.
Weidner said the bill requires medical professionals to disclose who they are, including their name and their involvement in the child care process, so parents know who is evaluating their child.
She said people often can see child abuse pediatricians as regular medical providers, noting they have a lot of influence on whether parents keep their child.
“When they are conducting evaluations as part of a child protection investigation, their opinions can directly influence government decisions about custody, criminal charges, and administrative,” Weidner said.
Weidner said child abuse pediatricians are not just making a medical analysis, they are also acting as a forensic consultant for DCFS.
DCFS has not responded to a request for comment.
