New report shows how many kids on DCFS radar died in last 18 months

CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services takes in $1.5 billion of Illinois taxpayer money each year.

The department is in charge of keeping the most vulnerable kids in Illinois safe - and alive. But in a just-released report, we got an insider's look at the number of kids with DCFS contact dying over the last 18 months.

CBS 2's Chris Tye has covered the department for years - with some of his reporting leading to law changes. He dug into a new DCFS Inspector General report on Thursday.

For DCFS Director Marc Smith and his 2,900 employees, the wellbeing of children is job one. But the kids who lean on DCFS as a safety net are falling through it at a pace not seen in decades.

Over the last year, we have told the stories of 11 kids who have died on DCFS radar. They were in foster homes and child welfare facilities and were killed in homes flagged as violent.

As it turns out, those 11 are the tip of a much larger and chilling iceberg.

The DCFS Inspector General released its Annual Report to the Governor and the General Assembly on Wednesday, showing the total number of kids who died on the DCFS radar wasn't 11 - or even 111.

It was 171.

Of the 97 deaths investigated by DCFS for abuse or neglect between July 2021 and June 2022, many died from natural causes, but 18 were homicides and 30 were accidents.

"And now we have a record number of dead kids - worse than in decades," said Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert.

Golbert says it's one part staffing shortage and one part mismanagement that has led to catastrophic results.

"This pisses me off," Golbert said. "These are kids. These are our kids. DCFS is the agency charged with taking care of them, and they are failing miserably."

CBS 2 dug through 20 years of data. Never has the number of kids with prior DCFS involvement died at this rate.

It was a 40-percent jump over just last year.

The report includes the case of 8-year-old Amaria Osby. DCFS waited 60 days to make contact with her or her mom after a hotline call came in on her wellbeing.

She was later killed by her mother in their Uptown apartment.

The report indicates those 60 days are far from the worst of the wait-times.

Even though department policy says in these cases, "good faith attempts must be made every 24 hours or sooner," the IG report says, "timeframes of these delays ranged from just under a month to over 100 days before contact was made… leaving alleged victims of child abuse/neglect in unassessed."

"When DCFS is not seeing kids in a prompt way like they're required to - when they learn of abuse and neglect - it shouldn't be a big surprise that we huge explosion of the number of kids who are dying while they are involved with DCFS," Golbert said.

The report also points out these staffing shortages are also putting DCFS workers at risk. Two of them have died on the job in recent years.

DCFS has been a troubled institution for decades.

A DCFS spokesperson provided the following statement:

"Our highest priority at DCFS is protecting vulnerable children and families. This year's report covers the more than 425,000 children reached by the department through its work, which is 55% more than a decade ago. Under this administration, the department has strived to meet this increased demand, including hiring 334 additional staff, expanding training and increasing resources for private agency partners. The death of any child is a profound tragedy and the department mourns every loss of life and always scrutinizes case information to understand where we can do better. Early prevention remains one of the most important ways to protect vulnerable children across the state of Illinois, and we look forward to building on the improvements highlighted in the report and implementing the OIG's new recommendations with expediency."  

DCFS also noted that the inspector general's report found that, of the 171 deaths, 37 warranted a full investigation of DCFS involvement. 

"It is critical to note that an investigatory review of the Department's prior involvement with the deceased child's family does not necessarily indicate wrongdoing or failures on the part of the Department or the child's parents or caretakers. Rather, these reviews are an opportunity for a comprehensive case examination to identify practices errors and missed opportunities for intervention on behalf of children and families.  Following an investigatory review of the 171 child death cases, a full investigation was opened in 37 cases (21.64%) after instances of misconduct or systemic deficiencies were identified. The OIG did not conduct a full investigation in 134 of the child death cases as no significant child welfare practice issues were identified, the issues identified had been previously addressed, or in cases of misconduct, the involved employee was no longer working in the child welfare field. In FY 2021, of the 122 child death cases that met the criteria for review by the OIG, a full investigation was conducted in 33 cases (27.05%)," the report states.

The 171 deaths included 67 from natural causes, 38 from accidents, 36 from homicide, 6 from suicide, 19 from an undetermined cause, and 5 for which cause of death is still pending, according to the OIG's report. Seven of the deaths involved child abuse.

We've pressed Gov. JB Pritzker a number of times on whether he might replace Director Smith. To date, Pritzker is continuing to stand behind Smith.

In:
• Illinois Department of Children and Family Services