North Cook News

Representative Deanne Mazzochi added her voice to seeking change from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services by removing its director after a negatively-reviewed audit.

“DCFS Director Marc Smith was held in contempt for an unprecedented 10th time in just this year,” Mazzochi said. “I can’t emphasize enough that courts issuing these kinds of contempt orders is rare.”

The auditor general began conducting the DCFS 2020 because of Public Act 101-0237.

KPVI reported the Illinois Auditor Genera's review of the DCFS found many failures, such as failing to provide safety checks before returning to their families.

“We have had all sorts of failures at DCFS over the last 30 years but this is unprecedented to have this many contempt orders against a single agency and essentially on the same topic: kids who are not being properly placed,” Mazzochi said. “Courts don’t issue contempt orders when they think you actually are trying in good faith to work towards improvement. Courts issue contempt orders when they’ve seen excuse after excuse failure after failure and when you are fundamentally heading down the wrong track.”

The Telegraph reported a law was named in honor of two-year-old Ta’Naja Barnes after her death in 2019 that required DCFS to complete home safety checks, but the audit found that even though this is now needed, it’s not happening.

“This latest contempt order involved a 13-year-old girl who was maliciously sexually abused and according to the Cook County public guardian over this past year she has only had 46 days appropriately placed,” Mazzochi said.

The audit was released on May 12 from The Office Of The Auditor.

“So what is it going to take for (Governor J.B.) Pritzker to really get involved and get these kids proper placement what's it going to take to get justice for these kids from Gov. Pritzker to get involved and get these kids proper placement?” Mazzochi said.