Foster Care

Every year, thousands of foster families across Illinois provide a temporary safe haven for children who have been placed in DCFS care by local courts. DCFS strives to reunite children with their birth families, and nearly half of all foster children are reunified with their families within 12 months. When reunification simply is not possible, as determined by the courts, many foster families choose to adopt the children they have cared for.

How do you become a foster family?
Foster families come from all walks of life and are needed all across Illinois. Foster parents must be at least 21 years old and can be married, in a civil union, single, divorced or separated.

To ensure your success as a foster parent, prospective foster families are required to:

• Participate in a home inspection and social assessment.
• Complete 27 hours of training focused on foster care and the needs of children who are in foster care.
• Complete a criminal background check of all household members.
  Be financially stable.
• Complete a health screening that includes verification that immunizations are up to date.

DCFS maintains an online listing with pictures and descriptions of children in need of a loving family. Please click here to learn more.

Learn more about foster care:

• Top 10 things you need to know about becoming a foster parent information card: English   Spanish
• You can make a difference in the life of a child in your community: be a foster parent! brochure: English   Spanish   Polish
• Be a child's superhero card: English   Spanish   Polish
• What You Need to know about Being a Relative Caregiver brochure: English   Spanish
• Fill out the online interest form and a foster/adoptive parent recruiter will contact you with more information and next steps.
   

The KIND Act
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is proud to introduce the KIND Act, a kin-first approach of prioritizing the placement of children and youth with relatives when family reunification is not immediately possible. When children and youth grow up with people they know and love, in communities they’re familiar with, research shows they will have improved mental health, do better in school and have more positive behaviors and social skills.

The KIND Act, signed by Governor Pritzker on February 5, 2025 will:

• Ensure the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services works to identify relatives as placement and visitation resources for youth in care.
• Develop standards for relative caregiver home certification.
• Promote the voices of children, youth and their family members in permanency placement.
• Increase financial supports to relative caregivers.
• Treat adoption and guardianship as equivalent permanency options if reunification is not possible.
• Develop separate standards to certify relatives who can safely care for youth in the state’s care, rather than require relatives to comply with traditional foster parent licensing requirements.
• Qualify certified relative caregivers for subsidized guardianship.

DCFS exit interviews for youth in care (FARE)
To ensure that all Illinois youth in care have their voices heard and their experiences considered and documented, the Illinois House of Representatives passed House Bill 4304, known as the Foster Care Assessment and Rating at Exit (FARE) interview, that became effective on January 1, 2023 and the department began implementing on August 14, 2023. This mandate requires that all children 5 years and older who exit a foster home complete an exit interview about their experiences. The interview is to take place with a qualified DCFS designee in a private setting outside the home they are leaving. Learn more by reading the FARE Overview for Foster Parents.