Bill Text: IL HR0033 | 2023-2024 | 103rd General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Urges Marc D. Smith to resign as the Director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Urges Governor Pritzker to formally ask for the resignation of Marc D. Smith from the position of Director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2023-02-07 - Referred to Rules Committee [HR0033 Detail]
Download: Illinois-2023-HR0033-Introduced.html
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| 1 | HOUSE RESOLUTION
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| 2 | WHEREAS, Governor JB Pritzker has reappointed Marc D. | ||||||
| 3 | Smith to the position of
Director of the Illinois Department | ||||||
| 4 | of Children and Family Services (DCFS); and
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| 5 | WHEREAS, DCFS is awarded $1.5 billion of Illinois taxpayer | ||||||
| 6 | money each year; and
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| 7 | WHEREAS, DCFS is in charge of keeping the most vulnerable | ||||||
| 8 | youths in Illinois
safe and healthy; and
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| 9 | WHEREAS, DCFS released Damari Perry into the care of his | ||||||
| 10 | mother, Jannie Perry, in 2017;
he was born in 2015, and she had | ||||||
| 11 | lost custody of her five other children in 2014; DCFS
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| 12 | conducted two investigations into reports of abuse and | ||||||
| 13 | neglect, including the child being forced
to stand in a | ||||||
| 14 | freezing shower until he threw up and became unresponsive; | ||||||
| 15 | DCFS failed to
remove Damari Perry from the care of his mother | ||||||
| 16 | before he was found dead in Gary, Indiana;
Jannie Perry, her | ||||||
| 17 | son and Damari's brother, Jeremiah Perry, age 20, and a | ||||||
| 18 | juvenile sibling have
been charged with Damari's death; and
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| 19 | WHEREAS, DCFS was involved with the Hill family for 19 | ||||||
| 20 | years; the Hill family had 16
children, and each child was | ||||||
| 21 | investigated as being abused or neglected at least once in | ||||||
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| 1 | that 19-year period; 10 of the children had been removed from | ||||||
| 2 | the home due to neglect; I'Kera Hill, age
three, died of | ||||||
| 3 | malnutrition while in the care of her parents, and she was not | ||||||
| 4 | the first of her siblings to die, as her sister, reported by | ||||||
| 5 | CBS News as "child 10", died while in foster care in
2015; and
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| 6 | WHEREAS, In 2019, there were nine child deaths with a | ||||||
| 7 | connection to DCFS within nine
days; and
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| 8 | WHEREAS, Under Marc D. Smith's watch as director of DCFS, | ||||||
| 9 | at least 171 children in
contact with DCFS have died in 2022, | ||||||
| 10 | according to the DCFS Inspector General; and
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| 11 | WHEREAS, DCFS only fully investigated 97 of the 171 child | ||||||
| 12 | deaths; and
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| 13 | WHEREAS, The Inspector General's report found that 36 | ||||||
| 14 | children died from homicide,
six from suicide, 38 from | ||||||
| 15 | accidents, 19 from unknown causes, 67 from natural causes, and | ||||||
| 16 | five
for which the cause was still pending; many of the | ||||||
| 17 | children died in homes flagged as violent by
DCFS, homes in | ||||||
| 18 | which the children were not supposed to be allowed to live due | ||||||
| 19 | to the threat of
violence; and
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| 20 | WHEREAS, Illinois had a record number of child deaths | ||||||
| 21 | under the watch of DCFS in 2022,
with a 40% increase over | ||||||
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| 1 | previous years; and
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| 2 | WHEREAS, Reports of child abuse and neglect to DCFS have | ||||||
| 3 | taken up to 100 days for the
department to investigate; and
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| 4 | WHEREAS, DCFS Director Marc D. Smith has been found in | ||||||
| 5 | contempt of court 12 times
for failing to properly place | ||||||
| 6 | children in care while serving as DCFS Director; and
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| 7 | WHEREAS, The Illinois Auditor General's Office documented | ||||||
| 8 | 30 problems within DCFS, including 18 repeated problems that | ||||||
| 9 | had been noted in the past and were still not
resolved; and
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| 10 | WHEREAS, There are approximately 20,000 youths in the DCFS | ||||||
| 11 | system in Illinois, but the
audits found the department rarely | ||||||
| 12 | tracks where these youths are placed or whether they are
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| 13 | healthy; and
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| 14 | WHEREAS, Auditors found that 98% of the home safety | ||||||
| 15 | checklists that DCFS is required
to conduct every time a child | ||||||
| 16 | returns home were not completed in 2020; and
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| 17 | WHEREAS, Director Marc
D. Smith's actions as leader of | ||||||
| 18 | DCFS have
directly led to more children dying from abuse and | ||||||
| 19 | neglect, as well as increased failures and
problems within | ||||||
| 20 | DCFS; therefore, be it
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| 1 | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | ||||||
| 2 | HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | ||||||
| 3 | we urge Marc D. Smith to resign as the
Director of the Illinois | ||||||
| 4 | Department of Children and Family Services; and be it further
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| 5 | RESOLVED, That we urge Governor Pritzker to formally ask | ||||||
| 6 | for the resignation of Marc D.
Smith from the position of | ||||||
| 7 | Director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family | ||||||
| 8 | Services;
and be it further
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| 9 | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | ||||||
| 10 | delivered to Governor JB Pritzker
and DCFS Director Marc. D. | ||||||
| 11 | Smith.
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