Rep. Andrew Chesney criticizes the Pritzker administration on the way it handled the case related to DCFS Director Marc Smith.
In a May 19 Facebook post, Chesney called out Gov. J.B. Pritzker and the director of DCFS for failures in leadership.
"The Governor and the director of DCFS need to be held accountable for the continued failures of leadership at the agency before more children have to suffer," said Chesney.
After DCFS was ordered to place a juvenile with special needs in a stable home in March 2021, Director Marc Smith was handed a seventh contempt of court order in just over two months. This youth has been in a temporary shelter since the initial order, according to a report by ABC 20.
As part of his Facebook post, Chesney shared a link to a Chicago Sun-Times column focused on the topic. The paper's editorial board wrote: "When a child leaves foster care in Illinois and is returned to their parents' home, child welfare workers are supposed to fill out home safety checklists to document the home is, indeed, safe for that child. That's been the law in Illinois for one year, and it's such a sensible requirement for the safety of previously abused or neglected children — making sure there are working smoke detectors in place and that firearms are secured, for instance — that we can't understand why the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services hasn't figured out how to do it."
A recently released audit of DCFS found significant problems. "The audit found DCFS was unable to provide home safety checklists, which are mandated when a child leaves state care to be returned to their home, in 192 of 195 cases studied. The checklist contains basic safety information, such as whether the house has smoke detectors and whether poisons and firearms are secured. It also requires caseworkers to check a box that they discussed with the parents the consequences of shaking a baby and leaving a child with an appropriate caretaker, if necessary. The law states that "at a minimum," DCFS must complete a home safety checklist one day prior to a child's return home and again within five working days after a child's return. Checklists must be completed every month thereafter until the child's case is closed. The auditor found that checklists are not being completed as required by the law, and the checklists had not been updated with new required language that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2020."
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