Morrison Vows to Make DCFS Improvement a Priority

Getting the state’s troubled Department of Children and Family Services back on track will be a priority for State Senator Julie Morrison, D-Deerfield, who was just named vice-chair of the Illinois Senate’s Human Services committee.

“It seems like we hear new horror stories about DCFS every year,” Morrison said in a press release Monday. “I’m committed to turning this important agency around, and I intend to use my new position on the Human Services Committee to help push forward an aggressive reform agenda.”

She says she plans to introduce measures “to help protect abused and neglected children in the care of DCFS,” partially in response to “damning media reports that found hundreds of allegations that children in residential treatment centers are raped and assaulted by their peers while authorities fail to act.”

Her appointment as vice-chair will be for two years.