Children in the state's welfare system are being warehoused in psychiatric hospitals and emergency shelters hundreds of days longer than they should be in many cases because the agency does not have a place for them, a new report found.
The highly critical review of Illinois' Department of Children and Family Services came from the state auditor general's office, even though DCFS did not track and could not provide most of the information the auditors sought, according to the report released Thursday. The data DCFS did provide were not ideal, as auditors questioned their accuracy and completeness.
The inspectors found that the delays stemmed in large part from a lack of available placements, scheduling and wait lists. One state ward remained in an emergency shelter 357 days last year, which is a staggering 10 times longer than the court-ordered 30 days, according to the report. Last year 380 children stayed in a shelter beyond 30 days, an improvement from 451 children in 2014, the audit found.
During that same period, the number of children who languished in psychiatric hospitals beyond medical necessity more than doubled to 168 in 2015. The average length of stay for those youths went up to 40 days in 2015, though the report found that one child remained at a psychiatric hospital 184 days after being cleared for discharge.
[For more of this story, written by Duaa Eldeib, go to http://www.chicagotribune.com/...-20160908-story.html]
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