Mueller takes over DCFS, promises collaboration as she tries to turn embattled agency around
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (NEXSTAR) — New Director of the Department of Children and Family Services Heidi Mueller was candid when asked why she wanted to take the lead of such a troubled agency.
“I will be honest with you. I was scared to take this job,” Mueller said. “I think that anybody who is smart and competent enough To take this job, would be scared of this job.”
Her hesitation is due to the extensive list of problems the agency continues to face. Mueller will be the 13th director of the department since 2010. Former Director Marc Smith’s four years leading the department is considered a long tenure relative to his predecessors.
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Mueller views the new job as a continuation of a mission she set out on years ago.
“I have a lot of experience at (the Department of Juvenile Justice) working with a very traumatized high needs, you know, high complexity population,” Mueller said. “Those are the kids that over the past seven years I have loved and taken care of. And so I bring that sort of experience and understanding of kind of all of the wraparound services, all the care and support that kids who have really complex behavioral health needs, kids who have substance use treatment disorders, kids on the autistic spectrum, the sorts of things that those kids might need to be successful.”
Governor J.B. Pritzker chose Mueller after a nationwide search that started in the Fall. Mueller was the Director of the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice. She said her experience in that department is a boon for her going forward.
Mueller takes over DCFS, promises collaboration as she tries to turn embattled agency around
Mueller is tasked with turning around an agency that has been marred in controversy going back decades.
The most recent audit of the agency, published last Fall, found 33 separate areas where the agency was not in compliance with the law. Some of the problems were reported for the first time years ago.
The audit found the department failed to complete investigations within legal timelines, failed to respond to reports of abuse and neglect within 24 hours and failed to notify both law enforcement and schools of credible claims of abuse.
In 2022, the state saw a 40 percent increase in child deaths after DCFS made contact with the child. A report from the Office of the Inspector General found 171 deaths were reported in 2022, compared to 120 from the previous year. In 2023, there were 160 deaths.
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All of these problems have lead for many to call for radical changes in the department. Kyle Hillman, Legislative Director for the National Association for Social Workers’ Illinois Chapter, said he is looking for a clear plan for the department.
“There really just has never been a plan or a strategy on how to reform DCFS,” Hillman said. “Everybody in the room can say, Yeah, we need to reform DCFS. But, you know, I want to see from this director, clear strategy and a clear plan on what needs to change and how long is it going to take to do it.”
The department has also struggled to find proper placements for children in its care. Former Director Marc Smith was found in contempt of court by a Cook County Judge multiple times for failing to move kids out of certain facilities when the department was supposed to. Some of those charges were vacated by an appellate court, which found that the delays were caused by a lack of places for these kids to go, and not an intentional defiance of the law.
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Mueller said creating those spaces is going to be crucial for the department going forward, especially in areas of the state where care is lacking.
“Within this first year, as I’m coming in, I really want to make sure that we have a plan in place that is going to make sure that kids have a safe, stable, appropriate place to live and that their needs are met, regardless of what those needs are,” Mueller said.
DCFS is in the midst of an intense hiring push, and the legislature has continued to give the agency more money to help build the agency back up after the budget impasse led to the loss of many foster care spots and services for kids in DCFS care. Mueller said more is needed though.
“As we go forward into this next fiscal year, we are actually asking for a headcount increase to replenish our ranks to a level that we haven’t had in 20 years to get up to 4000 employees to really replenish our frontline ranks so that we’d have enough people to do the work,” Mueller said.
Hillman believes the changes need to be more than just financial.
“When I talk about a plan for the department, it really feels like the department at times is more of a corrections division than a human service,” Hillman said. “And so it’s it’s what do you need to do strategically from from top to bottom to refocus this, this department to how do we help children? And how do we stabilize families?”
Mueller, who comes from a career in a corrections setting, brings a unique perspective to that conversation. During her time at the Department of Juvenile Justice, she focused on lowering the number of children in the system. She has the same goals for DCFS.
“Whenever we can, we want to find ways to support a family and make that family strong and safe so that a child can remain at home with parents, with extended family members in their community with people who know them and love them, and kind of form the basis of all the connections that we all need to grow and thrive and become healthy, productive adults,” Mueller said.
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In a hearing last month, the Department said that only around four percent of the children they come into contact with during investigations actually enter the state’s care. Mueller said that number is a good place for the state to be at, and she does not want the state to become too eager to remove kids from their homes. She would rather opt to provide services that better their situations while allowing them to remain with their families whenever possible, unless the situation is clearly dangerous for the child.
“I think for some people, they sort of view (taking a child into the state’s care) as a low risk option,” Mueller said. “They view that as you know, this is the solution to every problem. And the reality is, whenever you remove a child from the only home that that child has ever known, that is a known trauma. That is an intense trauma for that child, and you are basically at that moment, making a decision that’s going to follow that child for the rest of their life.”
Mueller said she does not expect to have all of the answers going forward, and her plan, especially early on in her tenure, is to listen to the many different stakeholders that play a role in this process.
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“I think it would be unwise to sort of come in, you know, guns blazing, and say, I alone am going to come up with the solution to all of the problems in this agency,” Mueller said. “For me, it really is starting with listening and talking to people and gathering feedback about what has been working, what hasn’t, and together collaborating on what do what what is our path forward? And what do we need to do?”
Hillman believes that Mueller is a good hire but said this is far from a sure thing. If the trend of instability continues, he said it’s time to consider a more radical overhaul.
“The urgency and the need to reform DCFS right now is incredible. I think she’s probably the right person to do this,” Hillman said. “And frankly, if she can’t, then I think it probably is beyond reforming.”
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