Politics

Illinois DCFS director to step down at end of 2023 after audit

Published

2 years ago

October 5, 2023

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Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith will resign effective Dec. 31, he told colleagues in an all-staff town hall meeting Wednesday morning.For years, critics had called on Smith to resign or be fired, amid legislative hearings, contempt citations, a murdered child protection investigator and the highest number of children who died after contact with the agency in 20 years.Smith announced his voluntary resignation Wednesday via a livestreamed video to agency staff, noting that his decision came after discussions with family and colleagues within the child welfare system.“Sometimes the media sometimes politicians, sometimes critics take an opportunity of tragedy to move an agenda,” Smith said during the call. “But we understand that we are here for the day-to-day. We are here, at all times, for all of our kids and we will serve them and care for them with compassion, seriousness, and honor.”The resignation came after another scathing audit of the agency was published last week, finding that in recent decades, DCFS repeatedly violated state laws meant to protect children from abuse and neglect.Smith’s announcement was one of three agency head departures made public by Gov. JB Pritzker’s office Wednesday. Theresa Eagleson, who has led the state’s Department of Healthcare and Family Services since January 2019, will leave her post at the end of the year, according to a news release from the governor’s office. Illinois Department on Aging Director Paula Basta will also retire in December.“Theresa, Paula, and Marc reflect the best of state government – people who have sacrificed to help millions of constituents through their dedication to service,” Pritzker said in a news release. “Despite the excellent quality of the candidates who will fill their shoes, their full impact on state government can never truly be articulated or replicated, and I thank them for their years of service.”The personnel announcements come less than a month after Pritzker’s office announced Deputy Gov. Sol Flores, who oversees Illinois’ health and human service agencies – including DCFS, DHFS and the Department on Aging – will be leaving in mid-October. Grace Hou, the current director of the Department of Human Services, will be promoted to that role.Audit findingsThe audit released last week revealed repeat findings – going back decades – that directly impacted the care and safety of children.The audit found DCFS violated state law by:Failing to notify law enforcement within 24 hours of the death, serious injury or sexual abuse of a child. Audits have included similar findings seven times throughout the past decade. Failing to complete investigations of abuse and neglect within statutory timelines. Audits have included similar findings 17 times since 1998. Failing to respond to a report of abuse or neglect within 24 hours, putting the child in further jeopardy. Previous audits have included similar findings 17 times since 1998. Failing to notify schools of credible sexual and physical abuse. Failing to timely notify prosecutors of test results for children born having been exposed to controlled substances. Failing to alert the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois Department of Human Services when there were allegations of abuse or neglect of a hospitalized child, including a psychiatrically hospitalized child. House Republicans renewed what have been repeated calls for Smith’s removal after the audit’s release. In January 2022, Republicans called for hearings after Smith was found in contempt of court 12 times by a Cook County judge for failing to put abused children in appropriate placements. The judge faulted Smith for holding children in psychiatric hospitals for months after the court had ordered them to be removed.At the hearings that led to the contempt charges, Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert, who represents DCFS wards in court, said his office had raised concerns about inappropriate placements since 2016. Cook County Judge Patrick T. Murphy took the unprecedented step to find Smith personally in contempt of court.Some of the contempt charges were purged when the agency moved the children to appropriate placements. Others were vacated by an appellate court which ruled that Smith did not willfully disobey the court’s order, but simply did not have the ability to comply with it, because DCFS didn’t have enough beds in places like group homes, shelters or other foster care placements.Golbert has been one of Smith’s toughest critics and noted that the contempt citations were a statement.“The placement shortage crisis is so bad that Smith holds the dubious distinction of being the only director in DCFS’s history to be held in contempt of court a dozen times for failing to place children appropriately in violation of court orders,” Golbert said. “While the contempt findings were eventually either purged or reversed on appeal, they evidence the frustration of the parties in juvenile court, and apparently of the judges, in DCFS’s inability to find needed placements for its children.”Smith repeatedly said during hearings and in media interviews that he was working hard to beef up specialized placements that were lost during the state’s two-year budget impasse between 2015 and 2017.In addition to DCFS wards languishing in psychiatric placements, the agency’s Office of the Inspector General found in fiscal year 2023 that deaths of children who were involved with DCFS reached its highest number in 20 years. In 2023, the OIG reported that 171 children in Illinois died within a year of contact with the agency.Among the children who died was 19-month-old Sophia Faye Davis of Springfield. Sophia died in February 2022 after child abuse allegations were made against her father’s girlfriend. A DCFS investigator found allegations were not credible, despite cuts to the child’s mouth, a black eye, bruises on her face and a broken arm just weeks before the child died from blunt force trauma. Cierra Coker, the woman accused of beating Sophia to death, remains in jail on first-degree murder charges. She is set to go to trial later this month.A month before Sophia’s death, DCFS child protection investigator Deidre Silas was sent alone to a house to check on the welfare of six children. Sangamon County sheriff’s deputies found Silas’ body after she had been bludgeoned and stabbed to death. Critics pointed to high caseloads and short staffing as one contributor to Silas’ murder.Pritzker, meanwhile, consistently backed Smith publicly amid the contempt citations and pressure from Republicans and others to fire him. On Wednesday, Smith expressed gratitude for the governor’s support.“I thank him for the times that he’s had to stand in front of a microphone and defend me and our organization and his willingness to do that,” he said.

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioWhen announcing Smith as acting director of DCFS in late March of that year, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office touted his years of experience working in Illinois’ child welfare system.

Uphill battleSmith was one of Pritzker’s last key hires in 2019. When announcing Smith as acting director of DCFS in late March of that year, Pritzker’s office touted his years of experience working in Illinois’ child welfare system. Smith spent some of his early career at DCFS, and for a decade prior to his appointment as DCFS head, he oversaw foster care and intact family services for a decade at the state’s largest private child welfare service contractor, Aunt Martha’s.Before officially appointing Smith the troubled agency’s 11th leader in less than eight years, Pritzker spent $50,000 of his own money to conduct a national search for a new director. Most of the previous 10 directors were stopgap appointees who held the role for less than a year under former Govs. Pat Quinn and Bruce Rauner.
The Senate didn’t vote to confirm Smith as DCFS director until June 2021, but when he leaves state service at the end of the year, he’ll have been the fourth-longest-tenured leader in the agency’s history going back to 1964. Smith faced immediate challenges upon his appointment in the early months of Pritzker’s administration. The previous summer, ProPublica published an investigation detailing the circumstances that ultimately lead to Smith’s contempt citations – that Illinois foster children had been “languishing” in psychiatric hospitals, staying “beyond medical need” due to lack of appropriate placements being available.Advocates, however, argued that situation worsened after Smith took over the agency and he also faced an onslaught of news reports that foster children sometimes slept in DCFS offices because there weren’t enough shelter beds available.News outlets also reported that a DCFS contractor transported foster children in shackles during long car rides to and from placements. The agency subsequently banned the use of metal restraints, allowing only “soft” restraints in limited situations. But DCFS was forced to fire the company after it used shackles despite the ban, and in 2021 the General Assembly passed a law prohibiting their use.In the months before Smith became DCFS director, the agency scrambled to deal with the fallout of a pair of high-profile child abuse and neglect deaths in central Illinois. In January 2019, eight-year-old Rica Rountree of Bloomington died from abuse inflicted on her by her father’s girlfriend, and in February of that year, the emaciated body of two-year-old Ta’Naja Barnes was found wrapped in a urine-soaked blanket in her family’s Decatur home. The day Smith was appointed, authorities say the parents of five-year-old AJ Freund of Crystal Lake beat the boy to death, though his body wouldn’t be found until more than a week later.DCFS had previous involvement with all three families before the children’s deaths.Smith also faced challenges implementing an inherited plan to transfer tens of thousands of foster children and former youth-in-care from traditional fee-for-service Medicaid to a managed care organization during his first year. The transition was ultimately delayed three times after media reporting and outcry from foster families showed the state had failed to recruit enough providers — including specialists — to care for that population, who often have complex medical needs.Seven months into Smith’s tenure at the agency, a state audit found repeated failures at DCFS’s hotline for reporting child abuse and neglect, including that it sometimes took daysfor mandated reporters to get a call back from the agency.

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioTravel nurse Stacey Solomon, of Lake City, Fla., administers a COVID-19 test to Michael Failoni, 29, of Edwardsville, in January 2022 at a testing site in Grand Center. Solomon estimates health care workers have given as many as 1,000 coronavirus tests a day as the nation sees a surge of the omicron variant. Less than a year into Smith’s tenure, the COVID-19 pandemic hit Illinois, and the child welfare system was left scrambling.

COVID-19 exacerbates issuesLess than a year into Smith’s tenure, the COVID-19 pandemic hit Illinois, and the child welfare system was left scrambling. In addition to organizational chaos in those first few months, COVID set off a period of tension between the state and its myriad child welfare contractors that serve more than 80 percent of children and families in the system.In the spring of 2021, a coalition of providers penned a scathing letter about Smith’s leadership as he awaited Senate confirmation.“Ideally, a strong public-private partnership would leverage the best of both sectors for the benefit of the children and families they serve,” the letter said. “However, that relationship has eroded over time to the point now where providers say they feel disconnected and disrespected, segregated from decision-making and starved of resources and support.”Since then, however, tensions have calmed between the state and providers, eased by an infusion of cash for provider reimbursements that had been held at the same levels for approximately two decades.The chronically understaffed agency has also increased its headcount to its highest levels in the last 15 years, according to the governor’s office.On Wednesday, Andrea Durbin, the CEO of the Illinois Collaboration on Youth, which sent the 2021 letter on behalf of service providers, praised DCFS’ response to the pandemic and the strides made during Smith’s tenure to recover from the budget impasse.“Child welfare services are always a lagging indicator of the functionality of that system, and as predicted, the number of children and youth in care exploded following the impasse, putting an enormous strain on a system that had been neglected for nearly two decades,” Durbin said in a statement. “Thanks to the Governor and Director Smith, Illinois has seen five consecutive years of investments into the child welfare system to help it better cope with the growing population and the ongoing workforce crisis.”Pritzker had reappointed Smith for another term in January, although his appointment was still pending in the Senate.Smith left the all-staff call Wednesday with a charge to DCFS workers: “We are running and working at the highest level I believe that this agency has ever worked. Do not let anybody take that away from you. Because I’m sure as hell not letting them take it away from me.”Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of print and broadcast outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.

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Poll: Support for Missouri abortion rights amendment growing

Published

1 year ago

August 29, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A proposed constitutional amendment legalizing abortion in Missouri received support from more than half of respondents in a new poll from St. Louis University and YouGov.That’s a boost from a poll earlier this year, which could mean what’s known as Amendment 3 is in a solid position to pass in November.SLU/YouGov’s poll of 900 likely Missouri voters from Aug. 8-16 found that 52% of respondents would vote for Amendment 3, which would place constitutional protections for abortion up to fetal viability. Thirty-four percent would vote against the measure, while 14% aren’t sure.By comparison, the SLU/YouGov poll from February found that 44% of voters would back the abortion legalization amendment.St. Louis University political science professor Steven Rogers said 32% of Republicans and 53% of independents would vote for the amendment. That’s in addition to nearly 80% of Democratic respondents who would approve the measure. In the previous poll, 24% of Republicans supported the amendment.Rogers noted that neither Amendment 3 nor a separate ballot item raising the state’s minimum wage is helping Democratic candidates. GOP contenders for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, treasurer and secretary of state all hold comfortable leads.“We are seeing this kind of crossover voting, a little bit, where there are voters who are basically saying, ‘I am going to the polls and I’m going to support a Republican candidate, but I’m also going to go to the polls and then I’m also going to try to expand abortion access and then raise the minimum wage,’” Rogers said.Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Kehoe has a 51%-41% lead over Democrat Crystal Quade. And U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley is leading Democrat Lucas Kunce by 53% to 42%. Some GOP candidates for attorney general, secretary of state and treasurer have even larger leads over their Democratic rivals.

Brian Munoz

St. Louis Public RadioHundreds of demonstrators pack into a parking lot at Planned Parenthood of St. Louis and Southwest Missouri on June 24, 2022, during a demonstration following the Supreme Court’s reversal of a case that guaranteed the constitutional right to an abortion.

One of the biggest challenges for foes of Amendment 3 could be financial.Typically, Missouri ballot initiatives with well-funded and well-organized campaigns have a better chance of passing — especially if the opposition is underfunded and disorganized. Since the end of July, the campaign committee formed to pass Amendment 3 received more than $3 million in donations of $5,000 or more.That money could be used for television advertisements to improve the proposal’s standing further, Rogers said, as well as point out that Missouri’s current abortion ban doesn’t allow the procedure in the case of rape or incest.“Meanwhile, the anti side won’t have those resources to kind of try to make that counter argument as strongly, and they don’t have public opinion as strongly on their side,” Rogers said.There is precedent of a well-funded initiative almost failing due to opposition from socially conservative voters.In 2006, a measure providing constitutional protections for embryonic stem cell research nearly failed — even though a campaign committee aimed at passing it had a commanding financial advantage.Former state Sen. Bob Onder was part of the opposition campaign to that measure. He said earlier this month it is possible to create a similar dynamic in 2024 against Amendment 3, if social conservatives who oppose abortion rights can band together.“This is not about reproductive rights or care for miscarriages or IVF or anything else,” said Onder, the GOP nominee for Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District seat. “Missourians will learn that out-of-state special interests and dark money from out of state is lying to them and they will reject this amendment.”Quade said earlier this month that Missourians of all political ideologies are ready to roll back the state’s abortion ban.“Regardless of political party, we hear from folks who are tired of politicians being in their doctor’s offices,” Quade said. “They want politicians to mind their own business. So this is going to excite folks all across the political spectrum.”

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Democrat Mark Osmack makes his case for Missouri treasurer

Published

1 year ago

August 29, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Mark Osmack has been out of the electoral fray for awhile, but he never completely abandoned his passion for Missouri politics.Osmack, a Valley Park native and U.S. Army veteran, previously ran for Missouri’s 2nd Congressional District seat and for state Senate. Now he’s the Democratic nominee for state treasurer after receiving a phone call from Missouri Democratic Party Chairman Russ Carnahan asking him to run.“There’s a lot of decision making and processing and evaluation that goes into it, which is something I am very passionate and interested in,” Osmack said this week on an episode of Politically Speaking.Osmack is squaring off against state Treasurer Vivek Malek, who was able to easily win a crowded GOP primary against several veteran lawmakers including House Budget Chairman Cody Smith and state Sen. Andrew Koenig.While Malek was able to attract big donations to his political action committee and pour his own money into the campaign, Osmack isn’t worried that he won’t be able to compete in November. Since Malek was appointed to his post, Osmack contends he hasn’t proven that he’s a formidable opponent in a general election.“His actions and his decision making so far in his roughly two year tenure in that office have been questionable,” Osmack said.Among other things, Osmack was critical of Malek for placing unclaimed property notices on video gaming machines which are usually found in gas stations or convenience stores. The legality of the machines has been questioned for some time.As Malek explained on his own episode of Politically Speaking, he wanted to make sure the unclaimed property program was as widely advertised as possible. But he acknowledged it was a mistake to put the decals close to the machines and ultimately decided to remove them.Osmack said: “This doesn’t even pass the common sense sniff test of, ‘Hey, should I put state stickers claiming you might have a billion dollars on a gambling machine that is not registered with the state of Missouri?’ If we’re gonna give kudos for him acknowledging the wrong thing, it never should have been done in the first place.”Osmack’s platform includes supporting programs providing school meals using Missouri agriculture products and making child care more accessible for the working class.He said the fact that Missouri has such a large surplus shows that it’s possible to create programs to make child care within reach for parents.“It is quite audacious for [Republicans] to brag about $8 billion, with a B, dollars in state surplus, while we offer next to no social services to include pre-K, daycare, or child care,” Osmack said.Here’s are some other topics Osmack discussed on the show:How he would handle managing the state’s pension systems and approving low-income housing tax credits. The state treasurer’s office is on boards overseeing both of those programs.Malek’s decision to cut off investments from Chinese companies. Osmack said that Missouri needs to be cautious about abandoning China as a business partner, especially since they’re a major consumer of the state’s agriculture products. “There’s a way to make this work where we are not supporting communist nations to the detriment of the United States or our allies, while also maintaining strong economic ties that benefit Missouri farmers,” he said.What it was like to witness the skirmish at the Missouri State Fair between U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and Democratic challenger Lucas Kunce.Whether Kunce can get the support of influential groups like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which often channels money and staff to states with competitive Senate elections.

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As Illinois receives praise for its cannabis equity efforts, stakeholders work on system’s flaws

Published

1 year ago

August 29, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Medical marijuana patients can now purchase cannabis grown by small businesses as part of their allotment, Illinois’ top cannabis regulator said, but smaller, newly licensed cannabis growers are still seeking greater access to the state’s medical marijuana customers.Illinois legalized medicinal marijuana beginning in 2014, then legalized it for recreational use in 2020. While the 2020 law legalized cannabis use for any adult age 21 or older, it did not expand licensing for medical dispensaries.Patients can purchase marijuana as part of the medical cannabis program at dual-purpose dispensaries, which are licensed to serve both medical and recreational customers. But dual-purpose dispensaries are greatly outnumbered by dispensaries only licensed to sell recreationally, and there are no medical-only dispensaries in the state.As another part of the adult-use legalization law, lawmakers created a “craft grow” license category that was designed to give more opportunities to Illinoisans hoping to legally grow and sell marijuana. The smaller-scale grow operations were part of the 2020 law’s efforts to diversify the cannabis industry in Illinois.Prior to that, all cultivation centers in Illinois were large-scale operations dominated by large multi-state operators. The existing cultivators, mostly in operation since 2014, were allowed to grow recreational cannabis beginning in 2019.Until recently, dual-purpose dispensaries have been unsure as to whether craft-grown products, made by social equity licensees — those who have lived in a disproportionately impacted area or have been historically impacted by the war on drugs — can be sold medicinally as part of a patient’s medical allotment.Erin Johnson, the state’s cannabis regulation oversight officer, told Capitol News Illinois last month that her office has “been telling dispensaries, as they have been asking us” they can now sell craft-grown products to medical patients.“There was just a track and trace issue on our end, but never anything statutorily,” she said.

Dilpreet Raju

Capitol News IllinoisThe graphic shows how cannabis grown in Illinois gets from cultivation centers to customers.

No notice has been posted, but Johnson’s verbal guidance comes almost two years after the first craft grow business went online in Illinois.It allows roughly 150,000 medical patients, who dispensary owners say are the most consistent purchasers of marijuana, to buy products made by social equity businesses without paying recreational taxes. However — even as more dispensaries open — the number available to medical patients has not increased since 2018, something the Cannabis Regulation Oversight Office “desperately” wants to see changed. Johnson said Illinois is a limited license state, meaning “there are caps on everything” to help control the relatively new market.Berwyn Thompkins, who operates two cannabis businesses, said the rules limited options for patients and small businesses.“It’s about access,” Thompkins said. “Why wouldn’t we want all the patients — which the (adult-use) program was initially built around — why wouldn’t we want them to have access? They should have access to any dispensary.”Customers with a medical marijuana card pay a 1% tax on all marijuana products, whereas recreational customers pay retail taxes between roughly 20 and 40% on a given cannabis product, when accounting for local taxes.While Illinois has received praise for its equity-focused cannabis law, including through an independent study that showed more people of color own cannabis licenses than in any other state, some industry operators say they’ve experienced many unnecessary hurdles getting their businesses up and running.The state, in fact, announced last month that it had opened its 100th social equity dispensary.But Steve Olson, purchasing manager at a pair of dispensaries (including one dual-purpose dispensary) near Rockford, said small specialty license holders have been left in the lurch since the first craft grower opened in October 2022.“You would think that this would be something they’re (the government) trying to help out these social equity companies with, but they’re putting handcuffs on them in so many different spots,” he said. “One of them being this medical thing.”Olson said he contacted state agencies, including the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, months ago about whether craft products can be sold to medical patients at their retail tax rate, but only heard one response: “They all say it was an oversight.”This potentially hurt social equity companies because they sell wholesale to dispensaries and may have been missing out on a consistent customer base through those medical dispensaries.Olson said the state’s attempts to provide licensees with a path to a successful business over the years, such as with corrective lotteries that granted more social equity licenses, have come up short.“It’s like they almost set up the social equity thing to fail so the big guys could come in and swoop up all these licenses,” Olson said. “I hate to feel like that but, if you look at it, it’s pretty black and white.”Olson said craft companies benefit from any type of retail sale.“If we sell it to medical patients or not, it’s a matter of, ‘Are we collecting the proper taxes?’ That’s all it is,” he said.State revenue from cannabis taxes, licensing costs and other fees goes into the Cannabis Regulation Fund, which is used to fund a host of programs, including cannabis offense expungement, the general revenue fund, and the R3 campaign aiming to uplift disinvested communities.For fiscal year 2024, nearly $256 million was paid out from Cannabis Regulation Fund for related initiatives, which includes almost $89 million transferred to the state’s general revenue fund and more than $20 million distributed to local governments, according to the Illinois Department of Revenue.Medical access still limitedThe state’s 55 medical dispensaries that predate the 2020 legalization law, mostly owned by publicly traded multistate operators that had been operating in Illinois since 2014 under the state’s medical marijuana program, were automatically granted a right to licenses to sell recreationally in January 2020. That gave them a dual-purpose license that no new entrants into the market can receive under current law.Since expanding their clientele in 2020, Illinois dispensaries have sold more than $6 billion worth of cannabis products through recreational transactions alone.Nearly two-thirds of dispensaries licensed to sell to medical patients are in the northeast counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and Will. Dual-purpose dispensaries only represent about 20 percent of the state’s dispensaries.While the state began offering recreational dispensary licenses since the adult-use legalization law passed, it has not granted a new medical dispensary license since 2018. That has allowed the established players to continue to corner the market on the state’s nearly 150,000 medical marijuana patients.But social equity licensees and advocates say there are more ways to level the playing field, including expanding access to medical sales.Johnson, who became the state’s top cannabis regulator in late 2022, expressed hope for movement during the fall veto session on House Bill 2911, which would expand medical access to all Illinois dispensaries.“We would like every single dispensary in Illinois to be able to serve medical patients,” Johnson said. “It’s something that medical patients have been asking for, for years.”Johnson said the bill would benefit patients and small businesses.“It’s something we desperately want to happen as a state system, because we want to make sure that medical patients are able to easily access what they need,” she said. “We also think it’s good for our social equity dispensaries, as they’re opening, to be able to serve medical patients.”Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, who was the first statewide project coordinator for Illinois’ medical cannabis program prior to joining the legislature, wrote in an email to Capitol News Illinois that the state needs to be doing more for its patients.“Illinois is failing the state’s 150,000 medical cannabis patients with debilitating conditions. Too many are still denied the patient protections they deserve, including access to their medicine,” Morgan wrote, adding he would continue to work with stakeholders on further legislation.Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.

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