YORKVILLE, IL — State Representative Jed Davis (R-Yorkville) is demanding immediate and sweeping action and accountability after uncovering a systemic failure inside the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS): Interns — uncertified and unqualified under Illinois law — have been allowed to investigate families, leading to the removal of children from their homes.
“This collapse of lawful procedure isn’t a clerical error — it’s a moral failure and legal disaster,” said Rep. Davis. “DCFS is conducting formal child abuse investigations with uncertified interns, despite laws requiring certification before an investigator touches a case. Families are paying the price.”
Illinois statute leaves no room for differing interpretation. The Child Protective Investigator and Child Welfare Specialist Certification Act of 1987 (225 ILCS 420/), along with (20 ILCS 505/21(d)), requires certification before employment in any official investigative capacity. These safeguards exist to protect children, preserve family rights, and ensure only trained, legally certified professionals handle life-altering decisions.
“DCFS does not have the power to rewrite law for convenience,” Davis continued. “For years, the agency has allowed uncertified interns to conduct and carry out abuse and neglect investigations, file legal findings, and initiate family separations. This disregard for the law is both dangerous and unacceptable.”
Internal records and past agency statements confirm the certification requirement. In a 2009 federal review, DCFS acknowledged the mandate for all child protective investigators to be certified before employment begins. The law remains unchanged — only DCFS’s decision to ignore it has shifted.
“Picture your own family under investigation,” Davis said. “Picture your child removed — not by a trained, certified professional, but by an intern who never met the legal standard. This abuse of authority has inflicted trauma on countless families and undermined trust in our child protection system.”
Davis is calling on the Pritzker administration to act immediately:
- Stop using uncertified interns in official investigative roles.
- Review every case involving intern-led investigations and vacate or reinvestigate findings issued outside the law.
- Hold DCFS leadership accountable for these ongoing violations of Illinois statute and parents’ rights.
- Restore lawful, transparent practices across the agency.
In addition to demanding immediate corrective action, Rep. Davis is preparing multiple legislative solutions to help end these abuses and restore trust. One proposal creates an online verification system that allows parents and residents to instantly confirm the photo, identity, official position, and certification status of any DCFS employee or investigator.
“If someone knocks on your door claiming authority to investigate your family, you should know right then if they’re legally certified — no hiding, no guessing, no exceptions,” Davis said. “This misuse of interns is more than a policy issue — it’s a violation of rights, a threat to the next generation, and a betrayal of trust. Families across Illinois deserve an agency honoring the law, not one rewriting it. I will pursue every legal and legislative remedy to ensure this practice ends now.”
Here’s further insight from an attorney involved in a case where an intern, uncertified and unqualified under Illinois law, led the investigation.
“Our office has been investigating this issue for over five months. Under Illinois law, only those DCFS employees who have been certified as Child Protection Specialists or, in limited circumstances, Child Welfare Specialists, can conduct investigations into allegations of child abuse or neglect, make final determinations about those allegations, or decide to remove children from their parents,” said Attorney Jared M. Schneider of Schneider Law, P.C.
“For years, if not decades, Illinois has represented to the public that its DCFS investigators had significant, directly related professional experience working alongside veteran specialists before their certification to conduct investigations on their own. Experience is crucial in these cases to ensure that these investigators have the practical knowledge to follow DCFS’s rules and procedures in their investigations, and safeguard parents’ constitutional rights to raise their children without undue interference from the State. Allowing uncertified and inexperienced interns to conduct investigations on their own, without boots-on-the-ground oversight, creates the dangerous potential for the State to tear children away from innocent parents. Our office fully supports Representative Davis’ push for greater transparency, accountability, and adherence to the rule of law by DCFS,” Attorney Schneider said.
Please reference the attachment, Attachment A, for a review of the applicable statutes.
Attachment A – Legal Requirements for DCFS Investigators
Summary Statement:
Illinois law is clear: No person may conduct child abuse or neglect investigations unless they hold both:
- Certification as a Child Protective Investigator or Child Welfare Specialist under the Child Protective Investigator and Child Welfare Specialist Certification Act of 1987 (225 ILCS 420/), as incorporated into the Children and Family Services Act (20 ILCS 505/21).
- Licensure as a Direct Child Welfare Service Employee under (20 ILCS 505/5c).
These requirements are separate and distinct under the law.
Relevant Statutory Language:
EXECUTIVE BRANCH (20 ILCS 505/) Children and Family Services Act.
(20 ILCS 505/21) Sec. 21. Investigative powers; training.
(d) Beginning July 1, 1988, any child protective investigator or supervisor or child welfare specialist or supervisor employed by the Department on January 1, 1988 (the effective date of Public Act 85-206) shall have completed a training program which shall be instituted by the Department. The training program shall include, but not be limited to, the following: (1) training in the detection of symptoms of child neglect and drug abuse; (2) specialized training for dealing with families and children of drug abusers; and (3) specific training in child development, family dynamics and interview techniques. Such program shall conform to the criteria and curriculum developed under Section 4 of the Child Protective Investigator and Child Welfare Specialist Certification Act of 1987. Failure to complete such training due to lack of opportunity provided by the Department shall in no way be grounds for any disciplinary or other action against an investigator or a specialist.
The Department shall develop a continuous inservice staff development program and evaluation system. Each child protective investigator and supervisor and child welfare specialist and supervisor shall participate in such program and evaluation and shall complete a minimum of 20 hours of inservice education and training every 2 years in order to maintain certification.
Any child protective investigator or child protective supervisor, or child welfare specialist or child welfare specialist supervisor hired by the Department who begins actual employment after January 1, 1988 (the effective date of Public Act 85-206), shall be certified pursuant to the Child Protective Investigator and Child Welfare Specialist Certification Act of 1987 before beginning such employment. Nothing in this Act shall replace or diminish the rights of employees under the Illinois Public Labor Relations Act, as amended, or the National Labor Relations Act. In the event of any conflict between either of those Acts, or any collective bargaining agreement negotiated thereunder, and the provisions of subsections (d) and (e), the former shall prevail and control.
(225 ILCS 420/(3), (4), and (5)) (from Ch. 111, Par. 7654).
(225 ILCS 420/3) (from Ch. 111, Par. 7653).
Sec. 3. The Department shall certify as a qualified child protective investigator or child welfare specialist, each applicant for the respective certification who proves to the satisfaction of the Department his fitness to be certified under the terms of this Act. It shall continue to issue to each person a certified status document, which shall be prima facie evidence of the right of the person to whom it is issued to present himself as a certified child protective investigator or a certified child welfare specialist, as the case may be, subject to the conditions and limitations of this Act.
(Source: Public Act 85-206)
(225 ILCS 420/4) (from Ch. 111, Par. 7654).
Sec. 4. The Department, with the cooperation of any community colleges or public entities located in this State, which the Department requests to assist it, shall develop guidelines or criteria for educational and professional requirements and a curriculum in child protection investigation and child welfare services.
(Source: Public Act 85-206)
(225 ILCS 420/5) (from Ch. 111, Par. 7655).
Sec. 5. IN ADDITION TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF SECTION 4, a person shall be qualified to be certified if he or she: [EMPHASIS ADDED]
(a) has passed an examination approved by the Department to determine his fitness to perform the duties of or otherwise function as a child protective investigator or child welfare specialist;…”
(325 ILCS 5/) Abused and Neglected Child Reporting Act.
(325 ILCS 5/7.2) (from Ch. 23, Par. 2057.2).
Sec. 7.2. The Department shall establish a Child Protective Service Unit within each geographic region as designated by the Director of the Department. The Child Protective Service Unit shall perform those functions assigned by this Act to it and only such others that would further the purposes of this Act. It shall have a sufficient staff of QUALIFIED PERSONNEL to fulfill the purpose of this Act and be organized in such a way as to maximize the continuity of responsibility, care and service of the individual workers toward the individual children and families. [EMPHASIS ADDED]
The Child Protective Service Unit shall designate members of each unit to receive specialty training to serve as special consultants to unit staff and the public in the areas of child sexual abuse, child deaths and injuries, and out-of-home investigations.
If a child protective investigator of a Child Protective Service Unit is unable to obtain assistance from other unit members when responding to a high-risk report of child abuse or neglect and the child protective investigator has a reasonable belief or suspicion that a subject named in the report has the potential for violence, the child protective investigator may request assistance from local law enforcement officers to be provided at a mutually available time. Law enforcement officers shall, upon request, make all reasonable efforts to assist the child protective investigator in receiving law enforcement assistance from any other police jurisdiction that is outside the accompanying officers’ primary jurisdiction.
(Source: Public Act 100-625, eff. 07-20-18)
EXECUTIVE BRANCH (20 ILCS 505/) Children and Family Services Act.
https://www.ilga.gov/Documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/002005050K5c.htm
(a) By January 1, 2000, the Department, in consultation with private child welfare agencies, shall develop and implement a direct child welfare service employee license. By January 1, 2001 all child protective investigators and supervisors and child welfare specialists and supervisors employed by the Department or its contractors shall be required to demonstrate sufficient knowledge and skills to obtain and maintain the license. The Direct Child Welfare Service Employee License Board of the Department shall have the authority to revoke or suspend the license of anyone who after a hearing is found to be guilty of misfeasance. The Department shall promulgate such rules as necessary to implement this Section.
(b) If a direct child welfare service employee licensee is expected to transport a child or children with a motor vehicle in the course of performing the direct child welfare service employee licensee’s duties, the Department must verify that the licensee meets the requirements set forth in Section 5.1 of the Child Care Act of 1969. The Department must make that verification as to each such licensee every 2 years. Upon the Department’s request, the Secretary of State shall provide the Department with the information necessary to enable the Department to make the verifications required under this subsection. If the Department discovers that a direct child welfare service employee licensee has engaged in transporting a child or children with a motor vehicle without having a valid driver’s license, the Department shall immediately revoke the individual’s direct child welfare service employee license.
(c) On or before January 1, 2000, and every year thereafter, the Department shall submit an annual report to the General Assembly on the implementation of this Section.
(Source: Public Act 103-22, eff. 08-8-23)
Directly related, see also Ill. Admin. Code Tit. 89, § 412.40, Licensing Requirements.
Directly related, see also DCFS Rule 412.
Bottom Line:
Illinois Law requires both certification and licensure before any child protective investigator, aka a child protection specialist, begins work. Skipping investigator certification and relying solely on employee licensure, as appears to have occurred in certain DCFS cases, is a violation of statute, not a choice based on policy.