By: Julianna Walo, Esquire The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) faces significant challenges in fulfilling its crucial mission of protecting and caring for the state’s most vulnerable children and preventing cases of child neglect by the department itself. As of July 31, 2024, the agency oversees the care... View Article
Results & verdicts
more results & verdictsCategories for Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
WGN-TV: Former Illini football player charged with sex crimes against children in DCFS program
A former collegiate football player, Trulon Henry, has been accused of sex crimes against children in Illinois DCFS custody. He is charged with three counts of criminal sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual abuse, and predatory criminal sexual assault stemming from crimes he allegedly committed while employed by Aunt Martha’s Health... View Article
Trial of Former Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Employees Charged in Connection to Child’s Death will Continue Mid-October
A McHenry County State’s Attorney criminally charged two former Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) child protection specialists with endangering the life of a child and health of a minor. Before 2019, when 5-year-old AJ Freund was found in a shallow grave, DCFS received at least 10 prior... View Article
State Senator’s Legislation Reinforcing DCFS’ Permanency Goals to Protect Child Welfare Passes the Senate
Recently introduced House Bill 3705 amends the Illinois’ Children and Family Services Act to reinforce the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services’ (DCFS) duty to children in foster care as well as its responsibility for placing youth in permanent family homes through guardianship or adoption (as opposed to adoptive homes)... View Article
A federal lawsuit recently held child abuse pediatricians, hospitals, and the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) accountable for their actions with regard to situations involving Illinois child welfare. In his recent ruling, Judge Joe B. McDade of the United States District Court for the Central District of... View Article
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) placed a child sexual assault victim into the care of a pimp with a lengthy criminal history
DCFS licensed a three-time convicted felon as a foster parent and subsequently placed a 16-year-old sex trafficking victim into his care. DCFS placed the girl with the 24-year-old pimp, Erick Johnson, just months after he was released from federal prison after a 24-month sentence on a firearms charge. Before that,... View Article
Federal class action lawsuit alleging that the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) continually lacks placements for and has willfully and wrongly incarcerated hundreds of children in its care
Despite three decades of litigation by the American Civil Liberties Union, broken promises, court orders, news reports, and letters from informed officials, DCFS continually lacks placements for children in its care, forcing some foster children to be wrongfully incarcerated. The recent lawsuit seeks to represent all individuals placed in DCFS... View Article
Federal class action lawsuit alleging that the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) continually lacks placements for and has willfully and wrongly incarcerated hundreds of children in its care
Despite three decades of litigation by the American Civil Liberties Union, broken promises, court orders, news reports, and letters from informed officials, DCFS continually lacks placements for children in its care, forcing some foster children to be wrongfully incarcerated. The recent lawsuit seeks to represent all individuals placed in DCFS... View Article
Illinois’ Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith Held in Contempt of Court Yet Again for Lack of Placements for Foster Children After a Youth Spent More than Half a Year in a Psychiatric Hospital Beyond Medical Necessity
Judge Patrick Murphey took a hardline approach to DCFS’ inability to create or find proper placements for youth in foster care by issuing countless orders throughout 2022 that held Director Marc Smith in contempt of court. The basis for the twelfth contempt of court order involved a 15-year-old girl who... View Article
BND: Foster parents want justice for child who died after IL DCFS removed him from their care
Chicago, IL foster care child abuse law firms have been following the devasting news about the death of two-year-old Hunter Drew. After the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services took protective custody from Hunter’s mom, he was placed with his aunt and uncle. Despite several improvements to his health... View Article