CHICAGO (AP) - State officials say the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services lost out on millions of dollars in federal money in recent years because it failed to process paperwork.
Agency Acting Director George Sheldon estimates the agency likely missed out on about $40 million in federal funds in just the past two years. He says after a months-long bureaucratic effort to fix the lapses, $21.5 million in new federal funds flowed to the agency this fiscal year.
Officials say hundreds of agency wards ages 18 to 21 were classified incorrectly, and the agency was collecting a little over half of its entitled federal funds.
Sheldon says the problem was due to paperwork and was largely a consequence of having eight agency leaders in five years.
