MADISON, Wis. (AP) _ A Wisconsin official is defending the state's handling of a runaway foster child found in Chicago following criticism from an Illinois sheriff.
Department of Children and Families Secretary Eloise Anderson told Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart in a letter Tuesday that it was his officers, not Wisconsin officials, who didn't follow protocol.
Dart had sent a letter blaming Wisconsin officials after the 17-year-old girl's mother and two Dane County service agencies refused to pick her up when officers in Illinois contacted them.
Anderson says the officers should've first contacted their local child welfare agency.
According to Dart's letter, officers found the girl last week in a car on Chicago's west side with 420 grams of heroin and four grams of marijuana.