Becoming a Foster Parent in Illinois: Requirements, Training, and Home Study

To become a foster parent in Illinois, you apply through the Department of Children and Family Services or a licensed private child welfare agency, pass criminal and child-welfare background checks, complete 27 hours of pre-service training, and go through a home study before DCFS issues your license. The license is free, lasts four years, and the full process usually takes several months from first contact to approval.¹

Who Qualifies

You must be at least 21 years old and financially able to cover your own household expenses without counting on foster care board payments. Marital status does not matter: single, married, in a civil union, or cohabitating are all acceptable. What the state looks at is whether the household is stable.²

Every adult in the home has to clear a criminal background check through the Illinois State Police and the FBI, submit fingerprints, and pass a check against the state’s child abuse and neglect database (SACWIS). Household members ages 13 through 17 also have to clear SACWIS and the Illinois Sex Offender Registry.² DCFS will not license a home where drug or alcohol abuse has been identified. Applicants who have completed a treatment program and can show a safe environment may still be considered.³

Working outside the home is fine, but your job cannot interfere with proper care. You will need a written plan for supervising a foster child during work hours, and your supervising agency has to approve that plan in writing before any child is placed with you.²

Where to Apply

You file your application through the agency that will supervise your foster home. That can be DCFS directly or a licensed private child welfare agency. The supervising agency provides the application form, walks you through the paperwork, and submits everything to DCFS on your behalf.²

The application packet includes:

Signed background-check authorizations from every adult in the household, plus fingerprints.
Medical reports on DCFS-prescribed forms for each household member, confirming they are free from communicable diseases and have no physical or mental condition that would prevent safe care of a child.³
At least three character references from unrelated people, plus at least one relative who can speak to your ability to care for children.³

What Your Home Has to Meet

Your home does not need to be large or new. It needs to be safe, and it has to stay that way for the life of the license. During the home study, the licensing representative inspects for specific items drawn from Section 402.8 of the Illinois Administrative Code:

Bedroom space of at least 40 square feet for the first child sleeping in a room and 35 square feet for each additional child sharing it.
Working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors on every level of the home.
At least one operable fire extinguisher in a readily accessible spot.
A first aid kit stocked with bandages, sterile gauze, adhesive tape, scissors, tweezers, a thermometer, non-permeable gloves, and mild soap.²

Your biological and adopted children under 18 all count toward the home’s total capacity. Factor them in when you think about bedrooms.

Pre-Service Training

Before you can be licensed, you have to complete 27 hours of pre-service training.¹ Illinois uses the PRIDE curriculum (Parent Resources for Information, Development, and Education), which covers trauma-informed care, working with birth families, how the child welfare system functions, and the behavioral challenges foster children commonly bring with them. Most supervising agencies offer sessions on evenings and weekends, and some now run virtual options.

The training does real work. Fostering a child who may be reunified with their birth family is emotionally complex, and the sessions prepare you for that reality rather than only the paperwork around it.

The Home Study

The home study is the most intensive step and where most of the actual evaluation happens. A licensing representative from your supervising agency conducts at least one on-site visit to confirm the home meets safety standards, plus a separate visit when all household members are present so the representative can observe family dynamics. If more than 30 days pass between the initial visit and the final licensing recommendation, the representative has to visit again to confirm nothing has changed.²

Expect in-depth interviews about your background, parenting philosophy, motivation for fostering, how you handle stress and conflict, and your support network. The representative is also assessing whether you can work cooperatively with caseworkers, birth families, and health care providers. Before a final recommendation, you will sign written assurances that you understand and will follow specific rules on corporal punishment (prohibited), smoking, alcohol and drug use, and reasonable parenting standards.²

The representative writes a recommendation report, a supervisor reviews it, and the report then goes to DCFS for the licensing decision. There is no fee for the license itself.²

If You Are a Relative

If the child you want to care for is already part of your extended family, the path is different and simpler. The Kinship in Demand (KIND) Act, passed in 2025, created a separate certification track for relative caregivers. Instead of meeting the full traditional foster home licensing standards, relatives go through a more focused assessment of their ability to care for the specific child placed with them. Relatives still have to pass a background check, be free from communicable disease, and provide references including at least one family member.

If this describes your situation, tell the DCFS caseworker you want the kinship certification path rather than the standard foster home licensing process. The standard track was built for strangers caring for any child, not for a grandmother taking in a grandchild she already knows, and many relatives were previously deterred by requirements that did not fit their circumstances.

After You Are Licensed

Receiving your license does not mean a child arrives the next day. DCFS and your supervising agency match children to homes based on the child’s needs, your household’s strengths and preferences, proximity to the child’s school and community, and whether siblings can be kept together. You can indicate age ranges, the number of children you are willing to accept, and any special needs you feel equipped to handle.

Illinois pays monthly board payments to help cover the costs of care. The amount varies by the child’s age, with older children drawing higher rates. The payments cover food, clothing, shelter, daily supervision, and personal items; they are a reimbursement for the child’s expenses, not income for the foster parent. Foster children also receive medical coverage through the state, including doctor visits, dental care, mental health services, and prescriptions.

Keeping Your License

Your foster family home license is valid for four years.² To renew, you must complete 16 hours of approved in-service training during each licensing cycle. At least one foster parent in the household (or the single foster parent) also has to complete educational advocacy training, which can count toward those 16 hours.⁴

You also have to report certain changes to your supervising agency, and the required timing depends on the change:

Before someone new moves in, notify the agency.
Report immediately any situation affecting a child’s care, such as a serious illness, an incarceration, or a death in the household.
A change of address, a change of name, or a change in marital status (marriage, divorce, separation, entering or dissolving a civil union) triggers a new application rather than a simple notification.⁴

Failing to report can lead to investigation, suspension, or loss of your license. If you need a break from placements but want to keep the license active, you can request non-active status. The license remains valid, but the home cannot accept placements while in that status. Before returning to active status, the licensing representative has to complete a new monitoring visit, update background checks for any new household members, and reassess the home’s capacity.²

The first move is contacting DCFS or a licensed private agency in your area and asking for the foster parent application packet. Everything else follows from there.

1
Department of Children and Family Services. Foster Care
2
Illinois General Assembly. 89 Illinois Administrative Code 402 – Licensing Standards for Foster Family Homes
3
Illinois General Assembly. 225 ILCS 10 – Child Care Act of 1969
4
Department of Children and Family Services. Rules 402 – Licensing Standards for Foster Family Homes