Money for DCFS will help children

According to the 2019 Illinois Office of the Inspector General Annual DHS/DCFS Report, 98 children died last year in cases involving the Department of Children and Family Services: 18 were ruled homicides, 26 were undetermined, 27 were accidents and 27 were ruled natural causes.

Of the 18 homicides, eight were from blunt force trauma, six from gunshot wounds, one from stab wounds, one from blunt trauma due to a vehicle striking a bicyclist and two from dehydration and starvation. All of the cases involved children whose families were active in the child welfare system in the preceding 12 months.

Claire Stewart, staff counsel at the ACLU of Illinois, said "This report makes clear one thing - DCFS is broken. The past administration believed that problems in the agency could be covered by platitudes and public relation stunts. All the while, DCFS was failing at its core mission to protect children in our state."

Fortunately, there is some hope for improvement. Gov. Pritzker asked the General Assembly for an extra $73 million for DCFS, and approximately $11 million of that would go toward hiring 126 additional DCFS service staff including child protection and welfare specialists. He also proposed $10.5 million for foster home care, which is needed due to expected caseload growth.

Yes, this is a substantial amount of money, but what are the lives of 98 defenseless children worth?

Karen Beyer, CEO

Ecker Center for Mental Health

Elgin