In January 2015 Governor Rauner appointed George Sheldon to head up Illinois’s beleaguered Department of Children and Family Services. Sheldon had previously served in similar posts in the state of Florida and at the federal level.

Rauner hoped Sheldon could set DCFS on the right path after years of scandals and a rotating cast of directors. 

He’s working on it. By October, Sheldon hopes to finalize the Illinois Child Welfare Strategic Plan, a kind of manual for the department’s plans for the next four years. 

Most recently, he’s been pushing a proposal that would, among other things, provide addiction treatment for mothers without separating them from their children. He speaks with Morning Shift’s Tony Sarabia about that plan and about the future of child welfare in Illinois.