Illinois State Representative Jed Davis is leading the charge in defending the rights of parents and demanding immediate action and accountability from Illinois’ child protective services agency.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is once again under fire for what one member of the Illinois General Assembly is calling a “systemic failure” and “legal disaster.” Representative Jed Davis, one of the strongest voices defending freedom and protecting families in the Illinois legislature, issued a scathing press release on Monday, August 11, exposing the widespread practice by DCFS of using employees working under the title of “Children and Family Service Intern” to conduct child abuse investigations of Illinois parents in clear violation of longstanding Illinois statutes.
“This collapse of lawful procedure isn’t a clerical error — it’s a moral failure of a legal disaster,” said 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.”
Under Illinois statutes 20 ILCS 505/21 and 225 ILCS 420, a DCFS employee who holds the child protective investigator position, Child Protection Specialist, is required to be both qualified and certified by DCFS. In most cases, the DCFS investigator position requires certain minimum educational credentials, as well as two years of professional experience that is directly related to child welfare work.
The intern position with DCFS, though it has the same educational requirements, such as a bachelor’s degree in psychology or other human-related field, requires no directly related professional child welfare experience. Without the required professional experience, interns are not qualified to be certified by DCFS as a Child Protection Specialist and, therefore, cannot solely conduct investigations into allegations of child abuse or neglect.
“Our office has been investigating this issue for over five months.” said Jared M. Schneider of Schneider Law, P.C., an Indiana-based attorney licensed to practice in Illinois. “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.”
“For years, if not decades,” Schneider continued. “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,” said Schneider. “Our office fully supports Representative Davis’ push for greater transparency, accountability, and adherence to the rule of law by DCFS.”
Davis is calling on the Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s administration to act immediately to:
- 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, Davis is preparing multiple legislative solutions to help end these abuses and restore trust. One proposal would create an online verification system where parents and residents may 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.”
The urgency to force DCFS to stop using uncertified interns to investigate parents stems from the fact that once protective custody is taken and a court grants custody to DCFS through the state, parents can lose all medical decision-making authority, and DCFS will make the child’s medical decisions.
“The speed at which a parent can lose custody of their children and medical decision-making authority is scary enough,” said James F. Holderman III, Founder of Protect Parents’ Rights, Stand for Health Freedom’s partner organization in Illinois. “But, when you add in the level of dishonesty and outright fraud I have seen perpetrated by both employees and the top leadership of DCFS, it should send shivers down the spines of every single parent in the state.”
DCFS has historically faced significant challenges finding enough qualified investigators to comply with caseload limits. But DCFS’s policy of using interns as investigators is being identified as a clearly unlawful solution.
“DCFS does not have the power to rewrite law for convenience,” Davis continued. “For years, the agency has allowed uncertified interns to carry out and conduct abuse and neglect investigations, file legal findings, and initiate family separations. This disregard for the law is both dangerous and unacceptable.”
Illinois parents who are concerned that they may have been wrongfully investigated by a DCFS intern may have legal recourse available to them, particularly if they have suffered harm or are prevented from working certain jobs because of a false “indication” that they abused their child.
“Families have a constitutional right to familial association. This means that government agencies like DCFS cannot use misrepresentations or deception in court proceedings,” said an attorney at a highly regarded Chicago based law firm that represents the victims of negligent and intentional misconduct. “If DCFS used interns to conduct investigations and if DCFS instructed those interns to misrepresent themselves to the families and courts as Child Protection Specialists or Child Welfare Specialists, this type of conduct may have violated Illinois families’ constitutional rights. Illinois families who think that their cases may have been improperly investigated by interns should seriously consider contacting an attorney about their rights.”
To watch our interview with Rep Jed Davis, please click here on our sister website.
