Dupage Policy Journal

Disgusted about children neglected by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services who are under their care, the candidate for Illinois Governor Darren Bailey called out incumbent Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Reports were received that over 100 children under DCFS's custody have been sleeping on office floors which Bailey denounces. 

"There have been 177 kids who have had to sleep on office floors because of the incompetence of the JB Pritzker Administration," Bailey said. "Pritzker's failings are hurting kids and it has to stop. It is time for JB Pritzker to be held accountable for the house of horrors - AKA the Department of Children and Family Services – he is running. The insanity in this Department is getting out of hand. It is beyond time for DCFS Director Marc Smith to go. The fact that he is still there is all of the evidence we need that JB Pritzker does not deserve a second term."

Special needs children should be placed in a special setting but a 5-year-old girl with autism, for six days has slept on the agency's floor prior to an order from a judge which compelled DCFS to place her in a proper environment.

"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?" Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert prompted CBS News Chicago. "Here. Here's an office. Go sleep on the floor of this office."

The department has recently come under fire following many high-profile child deaths. The Auditor General's Office of Frank Mautino conducted an investigation and found that DCFS “was unable to provide 192 of the 195 (98%) required Home Safety Checklists.”  A checklist, which as of March 16, needed to be updated with the required new language, "is to be completed by DCFS whenever it is determined by a court that a child that has been court ordered into foster or substitute care can return to the custody of the parent or guardian," for the child's safety, according to an audit report in May. 

In a period of only a year, Smith has been held in contempt of court twelve times, once for improperly holding a 14-year-old child in a mental health facility, CBS News Chicago also reported. In September 2021, one child was briefly detained, put through the system 21 times, and then was essentially imprisoned in the facility. In that case, the judge ordered DCFS to pay a daily charge of $1,000 until the child received the necessary care. 

Pritzker has stuck by Smith despite the court's decisions.