By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – We’ll never know how close State Rep. Anna Moeller (D-Elgin) came to being another Semaj Crosby, A.J. Freund, or Ta’naja Barnes.

“I was exposed to opiates in the womb from my birth mother,” Moeller told a Statehouse news conference. “The state took me away and placed me in the care of my loving grandparents.”

Moeller is now a co-chair of the newly-formed Illinois House Child Welfare Reform Caucus. The bipartisan group of representatives hopes to finally get the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services turned around.

State Rep. Mary Flowers, a lawmaker of more than thirty years’ tenure, says it’s only gotten worse over those years.

“We are the cause that a lot of families are split up,” she said. “We are the cause that a lot of families are on alcohol and drugs. We are the cause that a lot of families have to work three part-time jobs and then still come home and take care of their children.”

And a man who says he is a survivor of abuse, James McIntyre, said, “We left families alone. We left families stranded. We let that kid know that his voice does not matter.” McIntyre is co-founder of the Illinois chapter of the Foster Care Alumni Association of America.

McIntyre added that abuse and neglect crosses all racial, income, and religious lines.

The new caucus was announced the same day as an auditor general’s report which said calls to the DCFS hotline went to voicemail and were not returned for a week; and that caseworkers are overloaded to illegal levels.

http://auditor.illinois.gov/

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected]