Two years after a ProPublica investigation, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services still is not complying with a federal court order to better serve Spanish-speaking families.

Early last year, the Cook County public guardian grew worried that Illinois’ child welfare agency once again was failing the Spanish-speaking families whose children were in its care.

So Charles Golbert decided to conduct an experiment. For 10 months, lawyers from his office counted the number of new cases that involved Spanish-speaking families. Then the staffers checked how many of those families’ files included a critical document that determines whether the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services must provide them services in Spanish, as required by a federal court order.

Of the 80 or so cases the lawyers identified, Golbert said not one included the so-called language determination form.

“It’s shocking,” Golbert said. “It tells me this is not a priority for DCFS. All of the assignments of Spanish-speaking caseworkers and services and placements are supposed to flow from this initial form. DCFS has not made good on their promises.”