At least a dozen Department of Children and Family Services workers have been attacked or seriously threatened as they entered homes to protect children or investigate mistreatment allegations since 2013, a Tribune analysis of government records and interviews found.
The violence, though rarely publicized, can be serious.
Last week, a DCFS investigator was called to a West Side Chicago elementary school following reports that a boy there had a burned ear. The boy's mother, who also was alerted to the hotline call, rushed to the school and attacked the DCFS worker, choking her and pushing her into a wall, according to a Chicago police report and other government records.
The 24-year-old mother was charged with felony aggravated battery in the Nov. 13 incident, Cook County court records show.
The DCFS investigator — who had served for years as a south suburban police detective before becoming a state child protection specialist this year — was treated at a Melrose Park hospital and was not expected to return to work for at least a week, DCFS officials said.
In the wake of a Sept. 29 beating that left DCFS investigator Pamela Sue Knight in a coma in Sterling, Ill., Illinois lawmakers have introduced a bill to stiffen criminal penalties for such assaults. DCFS officials say they support the bill and are reviewing agency policies to protect frontline workers.
"Our staff are first responders. The severe attack was a stark reminder of the dangers of going into these unpredictable and often hostile situations," said Senior Deputy Director Neil Skene.
DCFS workers are not allowed to carry Mace or other weapons on home visits, but they can ask local police for accompaniment if needed.
The AFSCME Council 31 union that represents DCFS workers met Thursday in Springfield with DCFS Director Beverly "B.J." Walker and discussed the Knight attack and new measures that might keep child protection workers safe.
Among the union's proposals were improving training on identifying and de-escalating dangerous situations, as well as giving workers greater freedom to request police escorts. Some workers have told the Tribune that supervisors can discourage the escorts because the presence of law enforcement can impede a family's cooperation with the agency.
"We heard their own firsthand stories of hostile situations," Walker said after the meeting. "It's a constant in the life of a worker. You have to worry even when you don't know you have to worry. We're going to work collaboratively with the union to look at our policies and practices and our training on additional ways to deal with these situations."
To measure the violence, the Tribune gathered worker compensation claims, police reports and interviews with DCFS officials.
In a Cook County case from last year, a DCFS worker needed more than six months of disability leave after she was attacked by a parent, DCFS officials confirmed.
Two years ago, a child's relative purposely smashed a car into a worker's vehicle in Chicago, T-boning the car of the worker seeking protective custody of a child, DCFS officials confirmed.
In 2014, a DCFS worker in Cook County needed two months off after she went to take protective custody of a child but was confronted by the child's mother and two friends, who beat her.
A Harvey DCFS worker in 2013 needed weeks off after a beating left her with an eye injury, and she still has eye damage, according to Tribune interviews with DCFS officials and the worker's colleagues.
At least five people were arrested in attacks since 2013, court records show. Two of them were jailed after threatening to shoot DCFS caseworkers.
In other cases DCFS workers declined to bring charges against relatives of the children they were seeking to protect.
In a Chicago case from 2015, a man with a lengthy record of criminal violence and mental illness threatened to kill a DCFS supervisor's daughter, while a woman with him jumped out at that supervisor from the bushes outside the juvenile court building and cursed at her, according to government records reported by the Tribune in May. The supervisor declined to press charges, but asked to be removed from that family's case, records show.
Union officials said there is no way to comprehensively track attacks and threats against DCFS workers. But they noted that workers frequently face threats and harassment that does not warrant a police report as they visit homes racked by domestic violence, drug abuse and criminal activity.
A bill introduced earlier this month by state Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Freeport, would give DCFS workers the same protections as police officers, firemen and peace officers by making it a Class 1 felony to batter a DCFS worker performing his or her official duties. Perpetrators would face more severe penalties upon sentencing.
A dozen central Illinois lawmakers, 11 Republicans and 1 Democrat, have signed as co-sponsors.
"It's unfortunate an act of violence was inflicted on a DCFS worker in order for legislation to be proposed," said co-sponsor state Rep. Tony McCombie, R-Savanna. "This bill will give DCFS workers the additional legal protections they deserve."
DCFS Director Walker has conveyed her support for Stewart's bill to the agency's legislative staff, Skene said. "We welcome everybody's involvement to figure out what more we could do to protect the workers when they're out in these dangerous situations," he said.
In the Sterling field office, DCFS has given Knight's co-workers paid time off to deal with their grief and personal pain, offered counseling and added staff, Walker told the Tribune.
Knight is in a Chicago rehab facility and remains in a coma seven weeks after the attack. Her husband, Don Knight, said after a recent court hearing that she "will require medical assistance and equipment to support her for the remainder of her life," according to the Sauk Valley Newspapers.
Carroll County prosecutors last month upgraded charges against Andrew Sucher, who now faces two counts of felony aggravated battery for allegedly beating Knight to the ground and kicking her head when she went to his parents' Milledgeville home to take custody of a child.
Sucher has pleaded not guilty but remains jailed in Carroll County on a $200,000 bond. He also faces separate Whiteside County charges of domestic violence and aggravated battery of a child.
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