CARBONDALE - A state proposal to make huge cuts or eliminate funding for the Carbondale-based Child Welfare Program seems short-sighted, the program's director said.

And, she added, it would most hurt those children who already are at risk - those in foster care.

Cutting the $4.8 million grant-funded program, based at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, would mean the loss of jobs for its 45 to 50 clinical screeners and a clinical psychologist.

But the worst impact would be on the state's most vulnerable children, said Sherrie Harlow of Carterville, who has directed the program since it was set up in early 2005.

The Child Welfare Program is one of four in Illinois that provide federally mandated "comprehensive, integrated assessments" of children in the state's foster care system. Children are screened for learning problems that could be helped through early intervention and also for psychological problems or signs of abuse. Those doing the assessments also refer families to sources of help for learning disabilities or other problems.

Illinois has 102 counties; "we cover 84 of those," Harlow said of the Carbondale-based Child Welfare Program. The other three agencies do assessments in Chicago-area counties. Illinois, she said, is the first state to offer the assessments, "so other states are looking at it as an example."

Since 2005, the SIUC Child Welfare Program has screened close to 12,000 children, she said.

"Taking away those early assessments will take away the eyes that discover children at risk," Harlow said. "We don't need to put the budget on the back of our children any more."

Those doing the screenings, she said, "also work with parents, grandparents, paramours, even neighbors, so children are not overlooked for child abuse and other problems. To eliminate our program would be going back 50 years in child welfare."

A letter Friday announced the proposed cuts. Harlow said she and others worked over the weekend and had three meetings with staff Monday.

"We plan to work with legislators," she said. "We are trying to let our voices be heard."

She said she already has contacted Rep. Mike Bost, R-Murphysboro, and plans to talk with other legislators as soon as possible. Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, was reported on vacation. If the Legislature reconvenes on Wednesday, a vote on the state budget is possible by Thursday.

Harlow said she understands the state is trying to cut costs but is baffled at why the Legislature would cut a program that is federally mandated and set up through state law.

"They would be breaking the state law" if they eliminate the program, she said.

Unless funding is approved, the program will end June 30.

"We will all be unemployed and the services will end," Harlow said. Loss of the integrated assessments, she added, could impede the state goal of reuniting families within one year, achieving adoptions or establishing permanency for the children who often are shuffled from foster home to foster home. And, because the state funds spent on the program are reimbursed under a federal Title 4E program, the state would lose that money, she said.

Cutbacks, Harlow said, "would mean we are turning our eyes away from children and families who need our help."

linda.rush@thesouthern.com / 618-351-5079