Erwin McEwen, the head of the state Department of Children and Family Services, has put in his resignation to step down at the end of September. The agency said he was not forced out but is pursuing new opportunities. McEwen said in a statement “In ways never done before, we are now reaching out to families to help them succeed before a crisis occurs. My goal is to continue to advance that cause in our state and across the nation.”

He was appointed by then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich and during McEwen's tenure, the state has gone from 52,000 wards of the state in 1997 to just 15,500. McEwen was also praised in 2009 for his knowledge of the problems facing the system when he testified in U.S. District court.