Lake County Gazette

State Rep. Chris Bos (R-Lake Zurich) is calling for action after a hearing with Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) staffers on the subject of children in the agency’s care that have been approved for placements still being locked away in psychiatric care.

“On Friday, the House Human Services Appropriations Committee held a hearing on the failures at DCFS but so much more needs to be done, and quickly, to address the critical issues within the agency,” Bos said in a post to Facebook. “Our children cannot wait.”

DCFS Director Marc Smith was at the center of much of the grilling, which included questions about deaths of children who been in contact with DCFS and the deaths of social workers.

While Smith assured committee members the three children who had been the subject of contempt citations levied against him by Cook County Judge Patrick Murphy have now been placed, Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert said only one is a permanent placement.

According to CapitolNewsIllinois.com, the 9-year-old girl who spent seven months in a psychiatric hospital is in a temporary emergency placement, while the teenage boy who spent at least 150 days in a temporary emergency placement is now in a foster home and the 17-year-old boy relegated to a psychiatric hospital is now in an integrated care facility and on a waiting list for a therapeutic treatment center.

DCFS officials are reported to be holding 53 children in psychiatric hospitals beyond medical necessity. Of those numbers, five of the children have been held for more than six months. In written testimony, Golbert also told lawmakers his office had been raising concerns about inappropriate placement of DCFS wards for the last six years, with the situation now having reached crisis levels.

State Rep, Tom Weber (R-Lake Villa) said at a recent news conference that from 2010 through last March more than 1,120 children who had contact with DCFS have died, 

“If that’s not a crisis, I don't know what is,” he said.

According to Illinois Court Appointed Special Advocates, as of 2019 there were more than 18,500 children in the care of DCFS.