Illinois sheriff blasts state for foster child response
No one came to pick up runaway found in Chicago
Cook County (Ill.) Sheriff Thomas Dart blasted Wisconsin’s child welfare officials for what he called a “shocking and disgraceful” refusal to assist his department last week with a runaway Dane County foster child.
In an angry letter to Gov. Scott Walker, the sheriff asks the governor to “initiate an investigation into this matter to ensure that another child isn’t left alone, dependent on another state’s child welfare system for survival.”
According to Cook County Sheriff’s Office records, officers stopped a car shortly before midnight Thursday in a high-crime area on Chicago’s west side.
The car contained 420 grams of heroin, four grams of marijuana, a 28-yearold man from Wisconsin with a history
of drug arrests and a 17year-old girl.
Officers later determined that the girl had run away from a Dane County foster home.
Officers contacted the girl’s foster mother, who refused to come get her, according to the reports.
The foster mother referred the officers to the Juvenile Reception Center in Madison, which also refused to come get her.
It referred the officers to the Dane County Department of Human Services, responsible for that county’s child protective services, which also refused to come get her.
“As a result of the Wisconsin agencies refusing to take custody of this vulnerable young girl,” Dart wrote, “we secured the assistance of the Illinois Department of Children and Families Services.”
The letter also noted that the girl did not appear to have been reported missing until after the Sheriff’s Office contacted Wisconsin officials.
“Child welfare systems have an obligation to protect its wards, not boldly refuse to care for them,” Dart wrote.
“When a child goes on the run, reports must be filed. When a foster mother receives a call, she should act and agencies whose mission it is to help and care for vulnerable children must be held accountable for doing so.”
Dart called the incident “a shocking and disgraceful experience.”
About 24 hours after the girl was apprehended, according to sheriff’s reports, she ran away from an Illinois emergency placement shelter.
She is now in Wisconsin in a different foster home, a sheriff’s spokeswoman said.
Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said Monday that “the governor’s staff reached out to the Department of Children and Families and directed the department to follow up.
“DCF is talking to the Dane County Human Services Department to find out exactly what happened in this case.”
The DCF supervises county-administered child welfare services.
DCF Secretary Eloise Anderson, in a letter to Dart, chastised the sheriff, saying her department “believes that the Dane County Department of Human Services acted properly.”
Protocols set out in the Interstate Compact for Juveniles, she said, indicated that his department should have placed the girl with a local child welfare service while officials worked out her safe return.
“While we appreciate the passion that you have expressed,” she wrote, “a better understanding of well-established practices would have resulted in improved communications between Cook County and Dane County.”
She urged Dart “to further train your staff on these protocols.”
Cara Smith, chief policy officer for the Cook County Sheriff’s Office, dismissed the response.
She said the issue was not compliance with interstate regulations, but rather “turning a blind eye to this child in need.”