Pritzker to find replacement for acting chief of Illinois' child welfare agency

Pritzker to find replacement for acting chief of Illinois’ child welfare agency

By Sun-Times staff

The acting director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services says she’s stepping down next month.

Beverly “BJ” Walker told the Chicago Tribune late Friday that Gov. J.B. Pritzker is conducting a national search for her replacement and she has agreed to stay on to help the transition.

Walker was appointed as the acting head of the agency by former Gov. Bruce Rauner in June 2017 following the departure of George Sheldon, who left in the fallout of DCFS’ admitted mishandling of the Semaj Crosby case.

A DCFS worker visited the filthy Joliet Township home where the 17-month-old was living just hours before she was reported missing in April 2017. Semaj was later found dead under a couch in the home, a homicide that remains unsolved.

DCFS’ frequent contact with Semaj’s family before her death — and the agency’s failure to remove her from the home — highlighted massive state shortcomings and put the agency under intense scrutiny as Walker took over.

“We’ve been engaged in taking a hard look at ourselves at every level but I want to assure you that this look is something that will always be continuous,” Walker told state legislators probing the case in July 2017. “We’re not going to simply make a couple of changes in procedure and pronounce the job done.”

Walker’s tenure also was marred by accusations of physical and sexual abuse against children under DCFS care at a North Side psychiatric hospital.

The South Side native previously worked for the Illinois Department of Human Services and as an assistant for human services reform under former Gov. Jim Edgar, as well as former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley’s deputy chief of staff for human infrastructure.

Walker was never confirmed by the state’s Democratic-controlled General Assembly amid partisan bickering with the Republican former governor, and thus kept the “acting” DCFS director.

Contributing: Associated Press