Maryville Academy Will No Longer House Teen Wards Of Illinois

(CBS) -- Maryville Academy is getting out of the business of providing residential services for abused and neglected teens.

There are 68 of the teens who live in the Maryville Academy facilities in Des Plaines, Bartlett and the city of Chicago.

According to executive director Sister Catherine Ryan, this summer the state Department of Children and Family Services will be trying to find new homes for most of them. DCFS is expected to have all the children placed before the next school year begins.

Sister Ryan says the director of DCFS, George Sheldon, wants to shift more children out of group-type homes and into foster homes.

She says the newest budget takes $23 million out of residential services and puts a large portion of it into foster care.

Maryville Academy began in 1883 as St. Mary's Training School for Boys on an 880-acre working farm in Des Plaines.

"We're saddened by the change in the residential care. We had not intended to make this change so drastically. We thought to do it a little bit over several years, but the reductions in funding for this kind of care made it necessary," Sister Ryan says.

She says Maryville will continue to provide services to young people in their communities.