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
2 WHEREAS, Governor JB Pritzker has reappointed Marc D.
3Smith to the position of Director of the Illinois Department
4of Children and Family Services (DCFS); and
5 WHEREAS, DCFS is awarded $1.5 billion of Illinois taxpayer
6money each year; and
7 WHEREAS, DCFS is in charge of keeping the most vulnerable
8youths in Illinois safe and healthy; and
9 WHEREAS, DCFS released Damari Perry into the care of his
10mother, Jannie Perry, in 2017; he was born in 2015, and she had
11lost custody of her five other children in 2014; DCFS
12conducted two investigations into reports of abuse and
13neglect, including the child being forced to stand in a
14freezing shower until he threw up and became unresponsive;
15DCFS failed to remove Damari Perry from the care of his mother
16before he was found dead in Gary, Indiana; Jannie Perry, her
17son and Damari's brother, Jeremiah Perry, age 20, and a
18juvenile sibling have been charged with Damari's death; and
19 WHEREAS, DCFS was involved with the Hill family for 19
20years; the Hill family had 16 children, and each child was
21investigated as being abused or neglected at least once in

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1that 19-year period; 10 of the children had been removed from
2the home due to neglect; I'Kera Hill, age three, died of
3malnutrition while in the care of her parents, and she was not
4the first of her siblings to die, as her sister, reported by
5CBS News as "child 10", died while in foster care in 2015; and
6 WHEREAS, In 2019, there were nine child deaths with a
7connection to DCFS within nine days; and
8 WHEREAS, Under Marc D. Smith's watch as director of DCFS,
9at least 171 children in contact with DCFS have died in 2022,
10according to the DCFS Inspector General; and
11 WHEREAS, DCFS only fully investigated 97 of the 171 child
12deaths; and
13 WHEREAS, The Inspector General's report found that 36
14children died from homicide, six from suicide, 38 from
15accidents, 19 from unknown causes, 67 from natural causes, and
16five for which the cause was still pending; many of the
17children died in homes flagged as violent by DCFS, homes in
18which the children were not supposed to be allowed to live due
19to the threat of violence; and
20 WHEREAS, Illinois had a record number of child deaths
21under the watch of DCFS in 2022, with a 40% increase over

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1previous years; and
2 WHEREAS, Reports of child abuse and neglect to DCFS have
3taken up to 100 days for the department to investigate; and
4 WHEREAS, DCFS Director Marc D. Smith has been found in
5contempt of court 12 times for failing to properly place
6children in care while serving as DCFS Director; and
7 WHEREAS, The Illinois Auditor General's Office documented
830 problems within DCFS, including 18 repeated problems that
9had been noted in the past and were still not resolved; and
10 WHEREAS, There are approximately 20,000 youths in the DCFS
11system in Illinois, but the audits found the department rarely
12tracks where these youths are placed or whether they are
13healthy; and
14 WHEREAS, Auditors found that 98% of the home safety
15checklists that DCFS is required to conduct every time a child
16returns home were not completed in 2020; and
17 WHEREAS, Director Marc D. Smith's actions as leader of
18DCFS have directly led to more children dying from abuse and
19neglect, as well as increased failures and problems within
20DCFS; therefore, be it

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1 RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
2HUNDRED THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
3we urge Marc D. Smith to resign as the Director of the Illinois
4Department of Children and Family Services; and be it further
5 RESOLVED, That we urge Governor Pritzker to formally ask
6for the resignation of Marc D. Smith from the position of
7Director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family
8Services; and be it further
9 RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
10delivered to Governor JB Pritzker and DCFS Director Marc. D.
11Smith.
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