Three years after becoming the state’s child welfare chief, Marc Smith presides over an agency inundated by crises — rising abuse and neglect complaints, growing vacancy rates among investigators and a litany of children who died in the agency’s care.

Smith, 53, who worked his way up the ranks of the Department of Children and Family Services and became a private sector executive before his 2019 appointment by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, said three years is not enough time to pass judgment on his administration’s record.

The Illinois attorney general’s office is investigating whether one of the state’s largest school districts, located in Chicago’s northwest suburbs, violated civil rights laws when police issued tickets to students accused of minor misbehavior.

Attorney General Kwame Raoul told the Township High School District 211 superintendent last week to provide records on students cited for municipal ordinance violations related to school-based conduct or truancy, according to a letter obtained by ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune. The office also requested data and records related to suspensions, expulsions, student transfers to alternative schools and calls to police regarding students since the start of the 2018-19 school year.

Former state Rep. Luis Arroyo will spend just under five years in federal prison for his part in a bribery scheme.

A federal judge sentenced Arroyo to 57 months in prison. He was charged with bribery in October 2019.