Illinois Department of Children and Family Services

Dcfs helped me become a better person and a better mom by getting me the help that I needed to be healthy and happy I'm sober now because of them they are good people making a difference in lives keeping kids safe and out to help families not hurt them. IM SOHAPPY NOW AND SO IS MY KIDDO!

I just called and talked to a young lady in the dept. She was very nice and professional, as was I,so it makes a difference how the employees there are approached I am most sure. I have been a registered nurse for four decades and it is sometimes difficult to be nice when the other person whether a patient or a parent as in this case. Just treat the person on the other end with some respect as you would like to be treated, more fly's with sugar than vinegar they say!

excellent customer service

Excellent !

DCFS need to do drug test on all employees. I got my grandson in April and didn't get a visit from a case worker until August. To this day I have not seen or heard from DCFS . When I reported the worker her boss said I lived too far, and when she in my area will stop by..It took 5 months.😡Her boss explained the worker had a lot of cases. I did DCFS Job and the worker got my pay.

Seemingly they don't care about children. A few bruises? Where? Traumatized kids? Leave them there. Smexual assault? My eyes are closed.
They will leave a child with evil people that it ultimately leads to death of the child and what do they say? "Oops,sorry". The department needs a deep cleanse of termination of the staff that sent these kids to their expectations.

This agency does not follow their own procedures. I was told by the DCFC investigator that I would be able to foster my great nephew within a week of the hearing I attended after his removal from his home due to neglect. However, the DCFS social worker, that was newly assigned to the case, continued to tell me my background check was not back to the agency for months. (I know it doesn’t take months to get a background check back because I’m a teacher who must get frequent background checks). I later found out from counsel that this is a stall tactic, enabling time to run out, so a prospective foster parent cannot gain standing with the Court. Therefore, the child will remain where he or she has already been placed. The DCFS social worker refused to move him from the emergency foster home, even though I was his family. I had to hire an attorney to finally (he was seven months old) pressure DCFS to allow me to foster him. I fostered him for nine months with reoccurring issues from DCFS going back on their own policies, or simply not knowing what steps they should follow because I was a relative from another state living in Illinois to foster. Due to intervention from another agency, I was allowed to take him to my home state to foster, but had to bring him back once a month for his mother and grandparents to visit him (although his mother never showed up for her visits while I lived in Illinois with him). However, after bringing him to my state to live, DCFS refused to provide me with medical coverage (he had Medicaid coverage in Illinois). The Medicaid office in my state said they would provide him coverage, and all DCFS had to do was stop his coverage in Illinois, so they would be able to start coverage. DCFS in Illinois refused to stop coverage there to allow him to have coverage in my state. I pleaded with his social worker, her supervisor, and wrote an email to the next highest DCFS supervisor to just stop his coverage in Illinois, so my husband and I could receive coverage for him. The social worker and her supervisor belittled me on a phone call with them, and the supervisor stated, “You wanted to take him to [my state] now he’s your responsibility. You can take him to any hospital and they will have to treat him.” Yes, they have to stabilize him, but I could not get a pediatrician to take him as patient without insurance. He had several medical issues that required medical care from specialists and possible surgical procedures. He had also received early intervention services while we were in Illinois. The supervisor said if he needed to see a doctor, I should just take him to urgent care, and DCFS would “reimburse me.” I took him to urgent care and sent the bill to the social worker twice to pay (this was over six months ago). DCFS did not pay it. Why would I ever trust them? They would tell me they were going to do something (i.e. legal screen) and would never follow through on commitments. One major hospitalization, and we would never be able recover financially. I was told by the supervisor, “We told you this would be a long process, if you don’t want him then bring him back, and we will find him another placement here.” I told her that she had set us up for failure. How were we supposed to care for a child with multiple medical conditions without medical coverage? We could have put him on our insurance once we adopted him. However, there was zero support given to us when we left Illinois, and our adoption process was supposed to begin in our state. We could not provide for his medical needs, and after three months, were forced to make the most difficult decision of taking him back to Illinois where he would receive proper medical care. He is in a loving foster home. They will probably adopt him. But, he will not be raised in his family who also loves him. It will be up to the generosity of his adopted family if any of his biological family is ever allowed see him. DCFS states their main goal is to keep children and their families together, when in fact, their actions demonstrate just the opposite.

I'm absolutely convinced the average DCFS case worker doesn't know what the 4th amendment or that itnapplies to them as they are no different than the police in terms of your rights(like the police they are an arm of the executive branch created by the the Illinois General assembly. In other words they are the government)

I had the misfortune of being placed in the system. And I'm here to tell you every crack there was to fall through, I fell through. DCFS failed me miserably as a child, and placed me in unsafe situations. My biggest regret in life, is that I didn't sue them for their neglectful and dismissive behavior.

Over worked with more cases then they can handle. They will blanty lie. They will destroy your family with the swipe of a pen. Many of those I have dealt with were uneducated and not well versed with the court system. I would be afraid of the misuse of power they have. Best bet move out of Illinois. The governor needs to really check out the Winnebago County Department of Children an Family Service. Lots of shady employees there. Thank you for screwing with my life.

DCFS of Cook County is misusing their power given by Government. A lot of unprofessional staff.They are not properly communicating with parents and destroying OUR family! Without their interruption OUR FAMILY would be a lot better ! They are taking custody of children without ANY proof and evidence of parents guilt.

You are all a complete joke. Do your jobs your for trying to keep families together no you destroy them. Get your jobs straight go bother the people that do abuse there kids and don't follow the laws...shame on you!!!!

The advocates do nothing for the children or the parents except for email people. They don't have any answers nor give you away to get the answers. Straight waist of time

They are shady and don't give two fuxs about anything.