Lake County Gazette

Nearly four years after Gov. J.B. Pritzker vowed to fix the problems at DCFS, Cook County public guardian Charles Golbert told a federal judge that kids spent the night in office space 516 times last year. 

"The health and well-being of the children in state care should be a top priority, but we continue to hear excuses instead of finding solutions to the serious problems at DCFS," McLaughlin posted on Facebook.

With many of the kids in the system among the state's most in need, data shows the average length of stay for office placements last year was three nights, with some of the struggling children having already been removed from homes due to violence in them or other concerns about their health or safety. "This continues to happen to hundreds of children every year and, of course, is in violation of multiple provisions or the consent decree in this case,” Cook County public guardian Charles Golbert wrote to the judge who monitors DCFS. Last year, Golbert had spoken up about a special needs girl who had to spend six nights in the DCFS office instead of being placed in a therapeutic setting. He had said, "This is a child who is in DCFS's care due to concerns about abuse and neglect; and what does DCFS say to the little girl? Here. Here's an office. Go sleep on the floor of this office."

The Pritzker administration previously blamed former Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration for hollowing-out the number of emergency shelter beds in Illinois and cuts to DCFS’ budget. In 2019, the state had access to 43 emergency shelter beds down from 159 five years earlier.

State lawmakers convened a hearing about kids sleeping in office space in 2021, with State Rep. Kathleen Willis once telling reporters "The whole reason we’re having this hearing is because of what you exposed."