The ACLU of Illinois has worked for decades to improve conditions for children under the care of Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), including advocating for policies within the Department that keep families intact whenever possible.
In November 2025, we joined a lawsuit filed in September by Legal Aid Chicago and the Chicago office of Winston & Strawn challenging actions by DCFS for unlawfully separating a safe, happy, healthy teenager from his lifelong primary caregiver for seven months solely because the family was experiencing poverty.
James Brown, Sr. has been the primary caregiver for James Brown, Jr. for his entire life. The family was residing in a rental property in suburban Chicago where the water had been shut off due to the delinquency of the property owners, not the Browns. Reconnecting the service for themselves would have required more resources than the Browns had, but the father ensured that their needs were meet. He brought in bottled water for the family to drink, had water to ensure the toilets were operating and arranged for the pair to shower outside the home on a regular basis.
DCFS – responding to a tip that the family was living in a home without water – initiated an investigation into the situation. Upon finding that the water had been shut off in the home, DCFS caseworkers sought to separate James Jr. from his father. They coerced the family, threatening that James Jr. would be sent into foster care if James Sr. did not agree to let his son live with a close relative. James Sr., under this duress, agreed.
The lawsuit attempts to enforce a previous consent decree mandating that DCFS should not separate families solely because the family is experiencing poverty. Instead, these families should be offered temporary assistance to help keep the family together, emphasizing family unification if there are no other signs of danger to the children in the family.
We have joined this lawsuit because parents and families experiencing poverty should never be punished and lose their children for their economic circumstances.