For Chicago Magazine

Duaa Eldeib

An employee of Millcreek Behavioral Health walks last fall with two young residents on the facility's campus in Fordyce, Arkansas. Millcreek has emerged as a national hub for treating children with emotional and behavioral disorders.

Hurt instead of helped: Foster children victimized in out-of-state facilities where oversight is lacking

June 14, 2024 at 6:39 p.m.

This story is a collaboration between the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica Illinois. Across the country, child welfare officials have sent thousands of foster children to mental health institutions in distant...

Immigrant Children Arrive in Chicago Traumatized, in Some Cases With Chicken Pox and Tuberculosis

July 2, 2026 at 2:17 p.m.

Hundreds are being detained in shelters run by Heartland Human Care Services, which says it has made changes since allegations of neglect.

Después de la controversia, Heartland va a cerrar cuatro albergues para jóvenes inmigrantes en Illinois

March 15, 2019 at 7:55 p.m.

Al mismo tiempo, otro operador de albergues está intentando expandir su presencia en Chicago CHICAGO— Ocho meses después de que sus albergues para niños inmigrantes fueran sometidos a escrutinio público...

Los archivos revelan una existencia regimentada en los centros de acogida, con los empleados controlando casi cada minuto del día de los niños.

Mientras pasan los meses en albergues de Chicago, menores migrantes contemplan fugarse y hasta suicidarse

March 15, 2019 at 7:55 p.m.

(Esta historia fue publicada en colaboración con Mother Jones) Un guatemalteco de 16 años dijo que quería “quitarme la vida” mientras esperaba ser liberado de un albergue para jóvenes inmigrantes...

Informes revelan supervisión ‘laxa’, actividad sexual en centros de acogida de niños inmigrantes en Chicago

March 15, 2019 at 7:52 p.m.

Poco después de Navidad en 2015, tres niños quedaron sin vigilancia en la sala de televisión de un centro de acogida en Des Plaines que alberga niños inmigrantes y es...

Beverly "BJ" Walker, shown in 2002, has been named the new director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

Illinois DCFS names new director, a veteran human services leader

May 23, 2019 at 4:35 a.m.

Illinois' new child welfare director will bring a long resume of human services leadership to an agency battered by scandals, management upheaval and the deaths of children in state care....

Colin Collette after a meeting with Cardinal Francis George on Sept. 9, 2014.

Court rules against gay man who sued Catholic church over firing

May 23, 2019 at 4:31 a.m.

Weeks after a federal judge ruled against a gay man who'd sued over his firing from a suburban Catholic parish, Colin Collette said he still struggles with a "sense of...

George Sheldon, director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, seen here on May 3, 2017, in Springfield, is leaving the agency for a job in Florida.

Head of DCFS resigns amid controversy

May 23, 2019 at 4:29 a.m.

Facing an ethics probe as well as a series of recent child deaths and scandalous headlines, state child welfare director George Sheldon made it official Wednesday: He's resigned and is...

Flowers and toys mark the grave of Sema'j Crosby at Elmhurst Cemetery on May 30, 2017. She was found dead the month before in her Joliet Township home.

DCFS was weeks behind in filing reports when Semaj Crosby disappeared, records show

June 14, 2024 at 6:42 p.m.

The morning after 17-month-old Semaj Crosby was reported missing from her Joliet Township home, state Department of Children and Family Services investigators and supervisors went to a strip mall office...

DCFS investigators competed for $100 gift cards for closing most cases

May 23, 2019 at 4:28 a.m.

As state child welfare investigators probed allegations of abuse in the Joliet Township home where 17-month-old Semaj Crosby would later be found dead, their supervisor was launching a contest that...

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