WBEZ investigative series on Illinois children in-need, reports that the Illinois Department of Human Services, Division of Mental Health has dramatically reduced the number of Individual Care Grants (ICG) given to families with mentally ill children. The grants were established to support families whose children need mental health care, helping to keep families together and averting mental health crises for their children. WBEZ found 11 ICG grants issued in 2013, down from 124 in 2006. WBEZ reports:
Ben Wolf, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said the state might actually be breaking the law. He oversees a 1980’s state consent decree that deemed ICG was an entitlement. That means, no matter what the budget is, the government is legally obligated to give grants to anyone who qualifies. “If the level of appropriation is affecting the final judgment about who is eligible and who is not, then that in my view would be a violation of the law, and of our consent judgment,” he said.