In re Z.S. CA2/4

BACKGROUND

Referral and Detention Hospital staff contacted DCFS shortly after Z.’s birth in October 2020, citing concerns about mother’s “erratic aggressive” behavior; positive drug test results at admission for amphetamines, benzodiazepine, and cannabinoids; failure to bond with or care for Z.; and threats to leave the hospital before being discharged. Z. was born healthy and tested negative for all substances. When a DCFS children’s social worker (CSW) arrived at the hospital shortly after the referral, mother was calm. According to the CSW, mother admitted she “occasionally” used marijuana for pain, but was “adamant” in her denial of other substance use. She suggested that the “random people on the street” from whom she purchased marijuana may have stored the joints she purchased next to other drugs. Mother reported that Z.’s father had been shot and killed in March 2020. She also reported that she had been homeless until August 2020, when she moved into transitional housing at St. Anne’s. Mother reported that she had been diagnosed with depression as a teenager, after her own mother died in 2013. Mother could not recall the name of the medication she had been prescribed, but…