In a letter dated Monday, House Republican Leader Jim Durkin said the move to hold the DCFS director in contempt of court should be a “wake-up call to the General Assembly.”

Illinois House Republicans are calling for hearings after Department of Children and Family Services director Marc Smith was found in contempt of court last week for allegedly botching two cases.

The extraordinary decision by a Cook County Juvenile Court judge should be a “wake-up call to the General Assembly,” House Republican Leader Jim Durkin said in a letter dated Monday.

“The lack of action by DCFS is failing the children in the care of the state,” wrote Durkin, who also noted the child welfare agency receives more than $1 billion in annual state funding and is “tasked with protecting the state’s most vulnerable residents, a mission both Republicans and Democrats can agree is essential to the state.”

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