For example, Sheldon reduced the number of wards in residential treatment centers from nearly 1,200 on any given day in February 2015 to fewer than 950 this February. But even with several recent promising pilot programs in the works, DCFS has struggled to develop a viable network of therapeutic foster homes for those youths. Many teens who are ready to leave the centers languish because DCFS has no placement for them — and that can lead to tragedy, said University of Illinois at Chicago clinical psychologist Alan Morris.