Lake County Gazette

State Rep. Chris Bos (R-Lake Zurich) has demanded answers after Illinois' Department of Child and Family Services Director Marc Smith has been held in contempt of court for the fourth time in a month and a half. 

According to Capitol News Illinois, this latest contempt citation centers around a 16-year-old girl who remained in a locked psychiatric hospital for an additional two months after she had been discharged while DCFS tried to find placement for her. 

"The director of DCFS has been held in contempt for a fourth time for failing to move a minor into an appropriate placement," Bos wrote in a Feb. 22 Facebook post. "Governor Pritzker and the agency director need to provide immediate answers for these ongoing failures. Our children cannot wait."

The 16-year-old girl was finally placed on Nov. 18, but has since been moved 24 additional times. As of Feb. 18, the agency stated there were 43 children in facilities "beyond medical necessity." Besides the other contempt citations, DCFS and Smith have been scrutinized for the recent deaths of both a caseworker and a child, Capitol News Illinois reported. 

Smith was previously held in contempt of court for similar instances of holding children in psychiatric care after they had been approved to be placed with foster families. According to Advantage News, the Cook County Guardian reported 350 children in the last year had been held on average an additional 55 days in psychiatric care after they had been cleared to leave the facility and head to families. 

As of June 30, 2021, there were 22,357 children ages 0-21 in state custody, according to information published on the Illinois Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) website. That number was up by almost 4,000 children from 2019. Of the more than 22,000 children in DCFS care, CASA noted that 20,730 of them were under the age of 18.