The following statement can be attributed to Heidi Dalenberg, Director of the Institutional Reform Project, ACLU of Illinois:
 
“A cursory examination of the capacity of DCFS reveals that the agency does not have adequate resources to fulfill their core mission - assuring the safety and permanency for youth in their care. Consider the reality: DCFS does not have enough workers to investigate allegations of abuse and neglect, does not have enough caseworkers to help children return to their families or find a permanent home with other loving adults, does not have enough community-based services to help children with significant mental or behavioral health problems, and does not have enough doctors or enough residential facilities to safely care for those same youth.
 
None of these problems are addressed in the budget adopted for the new fiscal year. Instead, the budget appears to believe that DCFS is about to enjoy a series of miracles, starting with a reversal of the years-long trend of adding thousands more children to the total youth in DCFS care. We would love to live in the world where miracles are possible. The children in DCFS care live in the real world. Every day, DCFS underserves children to such a gross degree that its mistreatment exceeds the ‘offenses’ that DCFS labeled as abuse or neglect when taking the children from their families. 
 
DCFS cannot fulfill its obligation to the children in its care with the budget it requested. We can only hope that if the miracles DCFS is counting on do not materialize, the Department comes to the Legislature for supplemental funding.”

The following statement can be attributed to Khadine Bennett, Director of Advocacy and Intergovermental Affairs, ACLU of Illinois:
 
“Both chambers have now approved House Bill 2553, the Protecting Household Privacy Act, which now goes to the Governor for enactment. The bill provides modest guidelines on how law enforcement can access intimate data collected by household electronic devices like virtual assistants, Ring doorbells and smart appliances. As these devices grown in popularity, it is critical to protect the range of data collected by these devices.
  
This measure is consistent with efforts in Illinois over the past several years to strike a critical balance between emerging technologies each of us use for our personal convenience and the personal data about residents in our state captured by these devices.
 
We are grateful to Senator Cristina Castro and Representative Ann Williams for their leadership and vision, not only on this measure but on their commitment to protect privacy for all Illinois residents.
 
We urge the Governor to sign this bill as soon as possible.”