‘Fatal mismanagement’: Illinois lawmakers call for DCFS reform

Three Illinois lawmakers on Thursday called for reform for the Department of Children and Family Services.

State Reps. Nicole La Ha, R-Homer Glen; Steve Reick, R-Woodstock; and Tom Weber, R-Lake Villa mentioned the death of Mackenzi Felmlee in a Fairview Heights foster home May 11, 2024.

Mackenzi’s foster mother, Shameka Williams, and Williams’ mother, Cornelia Reid, herself a former foster parent, have been indicted by a St. Clair County grand jury on charges of first-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, aggravated domestic battery, intimidation, unlawful restraint and domestic battery in connection with Mackenzi’s death, according to a Capitol News Illinois report.

Weber noted other children whom he said DCFS has failed in recent years, including AJ Freund, who was found dead in a shallow grave near Woodstock in 2019. AJ’s mother pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Carlos Acosta, a former DCFS employee, was convicted in 2023 of mishandling AJ’s case. Acosta was sentenced to six months in jail and released in September 2024.

“AJ’s death forever changed my mission and work in the General Assembly,” Weber said.

Weber said Gov. JB Pritzker and other Democrats have “consistently rejected” his party’s efforts to reform DCFS.

“Gov. Pritzker, you’ve had six years, yet the failures continue and children are dying. It’s time to work across the aisle for new solutions,” Weber said.

La Ha said the Republican caucus has introduced reforms to strengthen oversight and improve transparency to make sure caseworkers “meet the highest standards before they’re entrusted with these young lives.”

Reick said he had to read about Mackenzi’s case from an ABC7 report a year after her death.

“That is unacceptable as a member of the General Assembly and as the minority spokesperson on the adoption and child welfare committee and as a member of the joint committee on administrative rules,” Reick said, adding later that lawmakers have a job to do, too, and DCFS isn’t letting them do it.

“We have to learn about it in the press. That is not the way to do business, especially when you’re dealing with taking care of vulnerable children,” Reick said.

DCFS is required to submit a report on every child who is a ward of the state who dies or is seriously injured. Reick nodded to media coverage indicating the troubled agency has failed to produce those reports in more than 1,200 deaths of children in state care and 3,000 life-threatening injuries since 2018.

“We’ve had 1,200 kids die” who have been youth in care since 2019, Reick said. “That’s unacceptable, and we’re not getting anywhere because we’re stymied by no information, no communication, no ability to go deeper into these investigative reports until [the] horse is long out of the barn.”

Reick said he would look at rules on notification of timelines and “statutory changes that may have the ability for DCFS to get its job done sooner and then report to us,” so lawmakers can make changes and put DCFS “back on track of doing its job in a timely manner.”

Reick also called for a blanket rule statewide that would give the agency the ability to issue a report in the established timeline. The report would give details on what investigation was done, what happened, who was in charge and reports made. He later mentioned a bill Rep. Fred Crespo had brought up that would at least move inspectors general out of agencies and made them independent. He said it might be time to revisit that.

The lawmakers were also asked about Pritzker’s comments earlier in the week that the buck stops with him.

La Ha said “this isn’t just failures. This is fatal mismanagement, adding that while ”the buck stops with him,” everyone can work together on.

“This should be a consistent conversation, and it needs to become a priority,” La Ha said.

In McHenry County, the County Board recently approved allowing a sheriff’s deputy to be placed with the agency to provide assistance to children, families and caseworkers.