The Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) confessed to under reporting the number of children fatally lost because of neglect or abuse over the last five years. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that a recent DCFS audit revealed 11 more children to date had died since 2009. Testifying before Illinois Senate hearings, DCFS acting Director Denise Gonzales attributed the under reporting due to tracking and reporting errors. For decades, the ACLU of Illinois has represented the interests of children in the care of DCFS and worked to reform the foster care system:
“There’s no excuse for the DCFS system not being able to count accurately the number of children who died,” said Benjamin S. Wolf, an American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois attorney who monitors DCFS under a federal court order. “It’s something we’re going to look at more closely.”