Committee on License and Consumer Protection RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, the City of Chicago is a home rule unit of government pursuant to the 1970 Illinois Constitution, Article VII, Section 6(a); and
WHEREAS, pursuant to its home rule power, the City of Chicago may exercise any power and perform any function relating to its government and affairs including the power to regulate for the protection of the public health, safety, morals and welfare; and
WHEREAS, the City has no greater duty than to protect and ensure the well-being of its children; and
WHEREAS, in June of 2018, ProPublica Illinois published a report on the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services' (DCFS) failure to find appropriate foster homes or residential treatment centers for hundreds of children languishing in psychiatric hospitals after being cleared for release; and
WHEREAS, ProPublica Illinois also found that DCFS is investigating 16 allegations of abuse and neglect at the Aurora Chicago Lakeshore Hospital (Lakeshore) in the City's Uptown community, which include allegations that children were raped and sexually abused by staff and other patients, physically assaulted and inadequately supervised; and
WHEREAS, the investigations alarmed DCFS Acting Inspector General Meryl Paniak who sent a confidential memo to DCFS Acting Director Beverly Walker to take action, stating that there were "significant concerns for the care and safety of the children" and directing that an independent expert conduct a comprehensive review of the treatment and mental health services at Lakeshore; and
WHEREAS, among the reported incidents were children who remained, despite being cleared for discharge from Lakeshore weeks or months earlier, because DCFS failed to find them a placement; and
WHEREAS, a twelve-year-old boy who had allegedly sexually assaulted a seven-year-old girl at Lakeshore in September 2018 had been admitted to the hospital in June and was cleared for discharge three weeks later, but remai...
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