The Office of Inspector General recently issued a report to the legislature finding that nearly 100 children in Illinois died while in contact with DCFS for the period between July 1, 2017 and June 30, 2018. In response, the counsel for the children in DCFS care, in the case B.H., issued a strong reaction.
The below statement can be attributed to Claire Stewart, Staff Counsel at the ACLU of Illinois:
“This report makes clear one thing – DCFS is broken. The past administration believed that problems in the agency could be covered by platitudes and public relation stunts. All the while, DCFS was failing at its core mission to protect children in our state.
There can be no more time wasted. We need new leadership in the Department, leadership that is unafraid of doing the hard work and taking advice from experts to avoid a full collapse by this agency.
Nearly 100 children died who were somehow connected to DCFS – nearly 100. This is not tolerable and must be fixed.”
