DCFS

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.