Rep. Keith Wheeler has called out the Pritzker administration for not taking adequate measures with DCFS that led to numerous cases of child abuse and neglect. | Wikimedia Commons
Rep. Keith Wheeler has called out the Pritzker administration for not taking adequate measures with DCFS that led to numerous cases of child abuse and neglect. | Wikimedia Commons
Rep. Keith Wheeler calls out the administration of Gov. J.B. Pritzker for not taking adequate measures with the state Department of Child and Family Services that led to numerous cases of child abuse and neglect.
Wheeler spoke at a press conference about DCFS Director Marc Smith being repeatedly held in contempt of court. Wheeler criticizes Pritzker for failing to enact meaningful changes within DCFS.
"We threw more money at a problem, hoping for better results, but statistically speaking, looking at the numbers, the court orders, things have only gotten worse," Wheeler said. "This is unacceptable. These children, our most vulnerable residents, are trusting the state to take care of them and keep them safe. They have been failed repeatedly. While my colleagues and I have called for action over and over again, the governor sat idly by and allowed these vulnerable children to suffer."
For the seventh time in 10 weeks, Smith was held in contempt of court. In March 2021, he was ordered by the court to shift a 16-year-old-boy with low cognitive and intellectual functioning to a placement that would meet his needs, according to a Belleville News-Democrat report. Despite the court order, he wasn't shifted and remained in a temporary placement. "This boy has spent every major holiday in the last year stuck in a place unable to provide him the care and nurturing he needs," Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert's office said in a release.
There are several cases where DCFS failed to move children out of locked psychiatric facilities. In one case, there is an 11-year-old girl who has been ready for discharge since Apr. 30, 2021, but she is still in the psychiatric hospital even when 300 days are over after that. Golbert has been practicing for 30 years but this is the first time a special docket has been created for kids stuck in psychiatric hospitals.
"This docket has become known as the 'placement crisis docket' and is sometimes also referred to as the 'stuck kids call,'” Golbert said in a statement, according to Shaw Local News Network.
Smith was paid a salary of more than $110,000 in 2019, according to GovSalaries. The average salary of an Illinois State employee in 2019 was $66,819.
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