Little AJ Freund’s horrific death is not an argument for tearing up more families

When a child in the 1990s was horribly abused, Illinois politicians responded all wrong. Now, as they react to the death of 5-year-old AJ, they should learn from that.

SHARE Little AJ Freund’s horrific death is not an argument for tearing up more families
Andrew “AJ” Freund

Five-year-old AJ Freund, of Crystal Lake, was found dead in a shallow grave earlier this month, days after being reported missing by his parents. They have been charged with his murder.

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

A young child is brutally killed, allegedly by his mother. 

It soon emerges that the Illinois Department of Children and Families knew all about the family. In fact, the case file had more red flags than a Soviet May Day parade. So everyone rushes to condemn efforts to keep families together. 

A.J. Freund, 2019? 

No. Joseph Wallace, 1993.

The scapegoating of a public policy of family preservation after Joseph died only compounded the tragedy. It made all Illinois children less safe, and it took a decade to recover. But now, Illinois politicians, from Gov. J.B. Pritzker on down, appear determined to repeat the same mistakes.

OPINION

After Joseph Wallace died, DCFS and the courts did what politicians demanded: There was a foster-care panic — the number of children torn from their families soared. By 1996, a child was proportionately more likely to be trapped in foster care in Illinois than any other state. 

An already bad system was plunged into chaos. Thousands of children were traumatized when they were taken from parents who were nothing like Joseph’s mother.

Far more common are cases in which family poverty is confused with neglect. Other cases fall between the extremes. Think for a moment about what happened to all those children torn from their parents at the Mexican border last year. Yes, DCFS caseworkers almost always mean well — but the children they take suffer just as much trauma. They shed the same sorts of tears for the same sorts of reasons.

Precisely because most cases are nothing like the horror stories, at least six separate studies, two of them massive in scope and looking specifically at cases from Illinois, have found that, in typical cases, children left in their own homes fare better in later life than comparably-maltreated children placed in foster care.

All that trauma occurs even when the foster home is a good one. The majority are. But study after study has found abuse in one-quarter to one-third of foster homes. The record of group homes and institutions is even worse. And as a foster-care panic overwhelms the system, the temptation increases to lower standards for foster homes and ignore abuse by foster parents.

Even that isn’t the worst of it: The worst is another lesson we should have learned from the aftermath of the failed response to Joseph Wallace: Child abuse deaths in Illinois actually increased. 

That’s because the real reason for child abuse tragedies among children “known to the system” is almost always overloaded, underprepared caseworkers who don’t have time to investigate any case carefully — so they make terrible mistakes in all directions. A foster-care panic increases the overload, so there’s even less time for each investigation — and there are even more tragic mistakes.

Illinois child welfare didn’t improve until DCFS reversed course and embraced safe, proven alternatives to tearing apart families.

Illinois child welfare didn’t improve until DCFS reversed course and embraced safe, proven alternatives to tearing apart families. Who says that made children safer? Independent monitors appointed by the court as part of a class-action lawsuit settlement.

In 2003, the lead monitor told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that “Children are safer now than they were when the state had far more foster children.” Their latest report shows that safety continued to improve all the way through about 2011.

What happened after that? There was no change in the number of children taken away, but there were budget cuts and an ill-conceived privatization scheme. But rather than face up to tough problems and solutions that might cost money, lawmakers and others are rushing to repeat the mistakes of 1993 — including the misleading claim that Illinois takes children at the lowest rate in the nation.

That figure is a statewide average driven largely by Cook County. In the rest of the state, which also is the scene of most of the recent horror stories, the rate of removal is much higher. And, of course, the same kinds of horrors occur in states that take away proportionately far more children.

The only states that have improved child safety are those that do more, not less, to keep families together, leaving workers more time to find children in real danger. 

In the 1990s, Illinois had to learn that the hard way. Don’t make children suffer for another decade until Illinois learns it again.

Richard Wexler is executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform. www.nccpr.org

The Latest
Despite getting into foul trouble, which limited him to just six minutes in the second half, Shannon finished with 29 points, five rebounds and two assists.
Cowboy hats, bell-bottoms and boots were on full display Thursday night as fans lined up for the first of his three sold-out shows.
The incident occurred about 3:40 p.m. near Minooka. The horse was successfully placed back into the trailer, and the highway reopened about 40 minutes later. No injuries were reported.
The Hawks conceded the game’s only two goals within the first seven minutes and were shut out for the 12th time this season in a 2-0 defeat Thursday.