* Capitol News Illinois…

A Cook County judge found DCFS Director Marc Smith in contempt on Thursday.

It’s the ninth time this year that Smith has faced contempt citations for failing to place children in settings that comply with the agency’s recommendations and court orders.

The latest case involves a 15-year-old boy with special needs who remains in a locked psychiatric unit despite a medical release on Jan. 31. The court ordered on March 14 that DCFS move the child to an appropriate placement by March 25. DCFS had not moved the child as of Friday.

Cook County Public Guardian Charles Golbert represents the boy in court and stated DCFS failed for months to schedule a neuropsychological exam to assess the boy’s special needs. […]

“DCFS is working hard to find placements for these vulnerable children with special needs. Tragically, when Gov. Rauner decimated social services, we were warned that it would be much easier to lose the 500 beds he destroyed than to recreate them again. Advocates warned that these services weren’t like a light switch that could be turned on and off with ease,” [Gov. JB Pritzker’s spokesperson, Jordan Abudayyeh] said.

* CBS 2…

The latest contempt of court finding comes nearly one month after Smith was hit with an eighth contempt of court order over an improperly placed teen, in a case involving a 14-year-old girl who was taken into temporary DCFS custody last September. Since then, she had been moved 21 times. She was stuck in a psychiatric hospital and was then moved around to different shelters, hospital emergency rooms, DCFS offices, and emergency foster placements. […]

CBS 2’s Irika Sargent spoke to CBS 2 Legal Analyst Irv Miller to get some answers.

Sargent: “This is the ninth time that this has come up and he’s been held in contempt, yet, is anything really happening? Are there really any results?”

Miller: “Not so far. This is not criminal contempt. It’s not doing something that is an embarrassment to the court, or, you know, says a swear word to the judge. That’s criminal contempt, where you can be locked up for six months. This is a civil contempt proceeding, where all they’re doing is trying to get him to do something. In this case, the judge is saying to the director of DCFS: ‘Listen, you are obligated to provide appropriate placements for these kids, and you’re not. We’re up to number nine right now. It’s outrageous. Do your job, sir, and if you don’t, there’s going to be some consequences.’”

* Meanwhile, Molly Parker takes a look at DCFS’ probles with recurring cases…

From January 2018 through June 2020, 33% of all confirmed reports of child maltreatment — about 17,500 cases — involved households with at least two previous investigations, according to DCFS investigative case data obtained and analyzed by The Southern Illinoisan and ProPublica. In far southern and southeastern Illinois, the rural area marked by poverty and industry decline that the Schotts have long called home, the rate of repeat investigations was 42%, the highest in the state. The region is served by DCFS’s Marion office and its satellite offices.

Seen one way, those numbers aren’t surprising: They show that many families that come to the attention of DCFS continue to struggle. But among child welfare officials and academics, the volume of repeat cases is a sign that the system is failing to live up to its mission not only to protect children, but to “increase their families’ capacity to safely care for them.” The pattern of repeated investigations involving a single family or child victim is called “recurrence.”

For decades, child welfare officials across the country have used recurrence rates as an indicator of an agency’s performance.

Illinois has long had one of the highest recurrence rates in the nation, according to comparative data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (The most recent data available is for fiscal 2019.) The data measures confirmed maltreatment that recurs within six months, though both DCFS and the federal government note that there are caveats to the state-by-state comparisons because of differences in how maltreatment is defined and what circumstances prompt an investigation.

Recurrence is complex, driven by a variety of factors. But child welfare experts and families tied up in multiple investigations said DCFS’s resources aren’t adequate. Parents say that classes often aren’t helpful, drug counseling and mental health services can be hard to find, and direct financial aid is insufficient. And those problems have persisted for years. […]

DCFS director Marc Smith said Illinois’ mandates for professionals such as teachers and social workers to report maltreatment accusations are “very aggressive,” leading to increases in confirmed cases of abuse. Nonetheless, he acknowledged the problem, saying the agency will do everything it can to “reduce the recurrence abuse and neglect rate.” […]

Child welfare advocates say that federal and state lawmakers have failed to make more funding available to help families with chronic troubles, and in recent years the department has turned to the default tool for child welfare agencies: removing children from struggling families. That has fueled a 120% surge in the number of children in foster care across the Marion service area over the past decade, even as the total child population in the area has declined. Overall, when children enter foster care in Illinois, they linger there longer than anywhere else in the nation.

*** UPDATE *** Durkin…

House Republican Leader Jim Durkin called on DCFS Director Marc Smith to resign today after it was recently revealed that he had been held in contempt for a ninth time for failing to protect Illinois’ children in care.

“Unfortunately, contempt of court orders against DCFS have become business as usual for the Pritzker administration. Governor Pritzker clearly isn’t bothered by a ninth contempt of court charge against DCFS Director Marc Smith and has done nothing about it – that is simply unacceptable. The Governor has had three and a half years to get this agency under control – he owns this ongoing tragedy. Since the Governor has failed to take action, I call on Director Smith to resign for the good of the children in this state who depend on DCFS.”