(WTVO) — Illinois lawmakers look to make changes to the Department of Child Protective Services after the death of a five year old boy from Crystal Lake.
The AJ Freund Act would give law enforcement the ability to investigate any allegations of child abuse or neglect, instead of leaving that power solely with DCFS.
DCFS has faced relentless criticism for the way they handled calls to the house before AJ’s death.
Rockford’s Representative Joe Sosnowski weighed in on how the changes would help local families.
“Helping with adoption, helping get local law enforcement involved in these cases, and a slew of other bills, I think there is a lot of great opportunities to make the system better,” Rep. Sosnowski said.
“As was mentioned, there are a lot of good providers and a lot of good things to talk about but we’ve got to fix these big negative problems. We cannot have children suffering and dying under our care,” he continued.
Two other proposals were also introduced, which include improving online reporting for people who suspect abuse and cleaning up the agency’s adoption process for qualified families.
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