DCFS

Alexa Balen, of Homer Glen, who faces felony charges in connection with her 2-year-old daughter's death, was denied pretrial release in a Will County court on Friday.

The pre-trial detention hearing for Alexa Balen, the Homer Glen woman accused of child endangerment after the death of her 2-year-old daughter, has been postponed to give Balen more time to find an attorney.

Edward Weiher, who has been charged with child endangerment in the death of his 2-year-old toddler, faced prior allegations of child neglect during his divorce from his ex-wife in 2023.

A Homer Glen father and mother are facing a felony charge of endangering the life and health of a 2-year-old child who died after becoming “unresponsive” in a filthy residence containing garbage and evidence of drug use, police said.

Illinois DCFS will be at Community Day, which is held Saturday by the National Hook-Up of Black Women Joliet chapter.

A woman claims in a lawsuit that Joliet Public Schools District 86 officials failed to protect her son from bullying and racial harassment while he was attending M.J. Cunningham Elementary School.

A 2-year-old child in Joliet who was fatally stabbed by his 6-year-old brother earlier this month is remembered by his family as a “sweet soul” and a “fighter” who “brought joy to all those around him.”

Carlos Acosta, the DCFS caseworker convicted in the mishandling of the AJ Freund case months before the Crystal Lake boy was killed by his mother, completed his jail term this week.

A child who was hit by a car while riding an electric mini-motorbike near Johnsburg remains in critical condition and an investigation continues.

An Illinois lawmaker from Glen Ellyn who heads a child welfare committee said the state must strengthen its laws and policies to protect homeschooled children facing inadequate education, abuse and neglect.

Sarah Safranek, 37, the mother of Nathaniel Burton, is accused of killing him in the family’s Oregon home in February 2021. She is charged with five counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery.

The new Department of Early Childhood, which will become operational in July 2026, will take over programs currently housed across three state agencies, including funding for preschool programs, child care centers and the licensing of day care centers

As expected, a June 13 column on the sentencing of a former Department of Children and Family Services investigator drew spirited feedback.

DCFS employees gathered in the courtroom in McHenry County where former caseworker Carlos Acosta was jailed for child endangerment tied to the death of Crystal Lake boy AJ Freund.

At 9 years old, L.J. started missing school. His parents said they would homeschool him. It took two years — during which he was beaten and denied food — for anyone to notice he wasn’t learning.

The former Illinois Department of Children and Family Services caseworker convicted in the mishandling of the AJ Freund case could face prison time when he is sentenced Thursday.

Another person has been charged in connection to the alleged abduction of a 5-year-old child in Woodstock that prompted a statewide search last week.

State Rep. Jed Davis responds positively to the implementation of the Startup Fund Program by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

A 12-year-old girl in Joliet died after ingesting suspected heroin and fentanyl and her mother faces drug charges, according to Joliet police.

Gov. JB Pritzker’s plan to create a new state agency to oversee Illinois’ various early childhood programs moved forward on Friday after the state Senate’s unanimous approval. It was one of 244 bills that cleared the Senate this week.

The Holistic Mental Health Care for Youth in Care Task Force will meet quarterly and submit reports to the governor and General Assembly.

Gov. JB Pritzker’s plan to consolidate the state’s early childhood programs into one new cabinet-level agency ran into tough questions this week during a House budget committee hearing.

Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is holding hiring events around the state as part of Gov. JB Pritzker’s proposed headcount increase at the agency. Under the plan, the agency would grow from 3,450 employees to 4,000. The headcount in 2017 was 2,481.

Two people have been arrested on drug charges and endangering the life of a child following an incident at a Joliet hotel on Tuesday night, according to Joliet police.

A Joliet woman pleaded guilty to the 2017 killing of her own infant daughter at the Bel-Air Motel in Joliet.

A 31-year-old registered sex offender from rural Rock Falls is in Whiteside County jail, accused of beating a 6-year-old boy.

A bill in the Illinois General Assembly would ban five food additives in the state by 2027.

DCFS was contacted by Joliet police over an incident where a mother allegedly left her two sons in a vehicle unattended during the freezing weather while shopping at Target, police said. The vehicle also contained a loaded gun.

Less than two weeks after Jessica Logan’s 19-month-old died, police and a DCFS investigator came to her Decatur home and gave her a “toddler size mannequin” before telling her to reenact finding the lifeless body of her son in his bed.

Gov. JB Pritzker announced Wednesday that Department of Juvenile Justice Director Heidi Mueller will take over the embattled Department of Children and Family Services starting Feb. 1.

Sarah Safranek, 36, is charged with five counts of first-degree murder and one count of aggravated battery in the suffocation death of her 7-year-old son, Nathaniel Burton, in February 2021.

Will County prosecutors filed a petition to deny the release of a Joliet man jailed on a charge of predatory sexual assault of a child.

Vowing to make Illinois the top state in the nation for child care accessibility, Gov. JB Pritzker unveiled a plan Tuesday to consolidate all the state’s early childhood programs and funding into one new state agency.

Two sessions will take place in Sterling, one on Oct. 23, the other on Oct. 26.

DCFS chid protection specialist in AJ Freund case guilty of child endangerment, supervisor acquitted.

The head of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is resigning as leader of the long-embattled child welfare agency, a week after a state audit outlined major failures by the department in recent years.

In a rare move, the former child welfare agency workers were charged criminally for allegedly failing to follow procedures that might have prevented the boy's slaying.

A Crystal Lake police officer broke into tears Monday as she spoke of her disbelief when a child protective specialist from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services allowed AJ Freund, a bruised 5-year-old boy, to leave the police station with his mother.

The criminal trial for two former Illinois Department of Children and Family Services employees assigned to the case of a 5-year-old Crystal Lake boy killed by his parents in 2019 is set to begin Monday.

Authorities are investigating the death of a 23-month-old toddler found unresponsive last week at a day care facility in Island Lake.

After six years, the godmother of 17-month-old Sema'j Crosby said, “I’m still heartbroken nothing has been done.”

McHenry County’s top prosecutors were recognized as “heroes” recently by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for the prosecution of the Crystal Lake parents who killed 5-year-old AJ Freund in 2019.

Illinois Department of Children and Family Services’ reports and medical records pertaining to the life of a 5-year-old Crystal Lake boy killed by his parents in 2019 could be presented during the criminal trials of the social workers in charge of his case.

A case manager at a McHenry nonprofit who worked with homeless and displaced children was charged Monday with grooming, battery and disorderly conduct, according to the nonprofit’s CEO and court records.

After more than half a year of failing to appear in court, a Lockport woman was jailed on charges alleging she left her children unattended in a vehicle while she was at a bar in two separate incidents, court records show.

Legislative package named, in part, for the late Pam Knight, who was killed in 2017 while on a child protective services call in Carroll County.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services on Thursday was named in a federal class-action lawsuit on behalf of children in state care who have been held in juvenile detention centers after a judge ordered their release.

The 19 police reports that Department of Children and Family Services employees did not request during an investigation into whether AJ Freund, the 5-year-old Crystal Lake boy later killed by his mother, was being abused can be admitted as evidence, a judge ruled.

A man was charged with intimidating a DCFS investigator who petitioned a protective order against him that said he threatened her when she removed his child from his care. The charges were filed after an investigation of a reported shooting at the Joliet DCFS office.

An evaluation to determine if the Oregon woman accused of suffocating her 7-year-old son almost 18 months ago is fit to stand trial was given the go-ahead Thursday.