Guardianship of a Minor Forms in Illinois: CFS 444-2 and eFileIL

Illinois minor guardianship forms come in three sets, and which set you need depends on the kind of guardianship you’re setting up. A parent appointing someone for up to a year uses the Department of Children and Family Services short-term form (CFS 444-2) with no court involvement. Anyone asking a judge to appoint a standby or plenary guardian uses the standardized packet approved by the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice, which every circuit court in the state must accept.¹ As of 2024, the Supreme Court eliminated the filing and appearance fees for minor guardianship cases, so the court itself charges nothing to open the case.²

Pick the Right Path Before You Pick a Form

A short-term guardianship is a private, written appointment by a parent or existing guardian. No judge, no hearing, no filing. It lasts up to 365 days and the parent can revoke it at any time. A parent on active military duty can extend the appointment for the full period of service plus 30 days.³ The short-term guardian handles the child’s personal welfare — health, school, daily care — but cannot manage the child’s estate, apart from applying for government benefits.

A standby guardianship is appointed by a court in advance to activate on a specific triggering event: the parent’s death, inability to make daily child-care decisions, written consent, or detention or deportation on immigration grounds.⁴ Once triggered, the standby authority lasts 60 days, during which the guardian must petition for plenary guardianship or hand off to someone who will. The petition sits under 755 ILCS 5/11-8.1.⁵

A plenary guardianship is the permanent court-ordered arrangement, lasting until the child turns 18 or the court modifies the order. A court can only grant it when the parents are deceased, have voluntarily relinquished physical custody, consent, fail to object after notice, or are unable to consent due to immigration detention or deportation.⁶ Illinois law presumes a living parent is willing and able to care for the child, so a petitioner facing a non-consenting parent must overcome that presumption with evidence.

Completing the Short-Term Guardianship Form (CFS 444-2)

The DCFS form is a fillable PDF you can download directly from the DCFS website.⁷ Fill out a separate form for each child.

The form asks for the child’s full name, the appointing parent’s name, and the name and contact information of the person being appointed. Fill in an effective date and an end date. Leaving the effective-date field blank makes the appointment start the moment both parties sign. The appointing parent signs first in front of two adult witnesses, who then sign themselves. The witnesses cannot be the person being appointed. The guardian also signs, though not necessarily at the same time.

You don’t always need both parents’ signatures. The second parent’s signature is unnecessary if that parent has died, can’t be located, is unwilling or unable to make daily care decisions, or if the parents were never married and no court has established parentage.⁷ No notarization is required, and the form is not filed anywhere. Keep the signed original, and give copies to the guardian, the child’s school, and the child’s doctor.

The Court Forms Package for Plenary Guardianship

Every form you need for a plenary case is available as a fillable PDF on the Illinois Courts website.¹ The core forms are:

Petition for Guardianship of a Minor — the document that opens the case.
Consent to Guardianship of Minor and Appearance — signed by any parent or interested party who agrees to the guardianship and wants to waive formal service. Signing it also waives separate notice of the hearing.⁸
Notice of Hearing on Petition for Guardianship of a Minor — the document you send to anyone entitled to notice.
Order Appointing Plenary Guardian of Minor — the judge’s order, which includes findings about the child’s best interest and directs the clerk to issue Letters of Office.⁹

Type or print clearly. Names must match the child’s birth certificate and any government ID exactly, because any mismatch gets flagged by the clerk and will stall the case until you fix it.

What the Petition Has to Say

Under 755 ILCS 5/11-8, the petition must include specific information. Gather all of it before you start filling in the form:

The child’s full legal name (matching the birth certificate), date of birth, and current home address.
The names and addresses of the child’s parents, adult siblings, any appointed short-term guardian, and — if none of those exist — the nearest adult relatives.
The name and address of whoever currently has physical custody of the child.
If you’re asking to be guardian of the estate, the approximate value of the child’s personal property and the anticipated annual income and other receipts.
The proposed guardian’s full name, address, age, and occupation.
Details about any pending juvenile, adoption, parentage, divorce, or other guardianship case involving the child or parents, and whether any guardian is currently acting for the child.
If a parent was detained, arrested, or deported, the date of separation, the parent’s known or presumed location, and any related documentation such as records from the online detainee locator system.

If a short-term guardian is the one filing for plenary guardianship, the petition also has to explain when the short-term appointment was made, the circumstances, when it expires, and why court-ordered guardianship is needed. Attach a copy of the short-term form.

One useful shortcut: a single petition can cover multiple siblings when you’re only requesting guardianship of the person, not the estate. Separate cases aren’t required.

Filing Through eFileIL

Illinois requires electronic filing for virtually all court documents, including guardianship petitions. You’ll submit through the Odyssey eFileIL system, which runs around the clock.¹⁰ Save your completed forms as PDFs, create an account on the eFileIL portal, choose the circuit court in the county where the child lives, and upload. Several electronic filing service providers connect to the system, and the Illinois Courts website publishes a comparison chart to help you pick one.¹¹

The court filing fee and appearance fee for a minor guardianship case are both $0.² Some filing service providers add a small convenience fee for using their platform, but the court charges nothing. Once your filing is accepted, the system returns a stamped copy and assigns a case number.

Giving Notice to Everyone Entitled to It

After filing, you have to notify everyone with a legal interest in the child. Under 755 ILCS 5/11-10.1, you must give notice of the hearing date and location, in person or by mail, to the minor (if 14 or older), all relatives named in the petition, and any appointed short-term guardian. Notice has to arrive at least seven days before the hearing.¹²

If everyone agrees, service is straightforward. Each consenting party signs the Consent to Guardianship of Minor and Appearance, which doubles as a waiver of formal notice. When a parent or relative can’t be found, Illinois civil procedure allows service by publication. File an affidavit with the clerk stating that the person’s whereabouts are unknown despite a diligent search. The clerk publishes notice in a newspaper in the county where the case is pending and mails a copy of the notice to the person’s last known address within ten days of the first publication.

ICWA Notice

If the child is a member of a federally recognized Indian Tribe, or is the biological child of a tribal member and eligible for membership, the Indian Child Welfare Act layers in extra notice. Send notice by certified mail with return receipt requested to the child’s parents, the child’s Indian custodian if any, and the designated ICWA agent for each tribe where the child may be enrolled, with copies to the appropriate Bureau of Indian Affairs regional director.¹³ If you’re unsure about the child’s tribal affiliation, contact the BIA regional office for help identifying the correct tribe and agent.

The Hearing and the Letters of Office

Once filing and service are done, contact the circuit clerk to schedule the hearing. The judge reviews the petition, makes findings about the child’s best interest, and determines whether the statutory conditions for guardianship have been met — whether the parents consented, failed to object, voluntarily relinquished custody, or are unable to care for the child.⁶

If the judge grants the petition, they sign the Order Appointing Plenary Guardian of Minor and direct the clerk to issue Letters of Office, sometimes called Letters of Guardianship. The Letters of Office are the single most important document you’ll walk out with. They are your official proof of authority to make decisions about the child’s health, education, welfare, and (if you’re appointed as estate guardian) finances.⁹ Request several certified copies from the clerk, because schools, doctors, banks, and insurers all want one and often insist on keeping their own.

The Letters remain in effect until the child reaches majority, at which point they revoke automatically as to that child. When the same letters cover multiple siblings, the guardianship continues for any minor children still under 18.¹⁴

Bond if You’re Appointed Guardian of the Estate

Being appointed guardian of a minor’s estate — meaning the child has money or property to manage — requires posting a bond before you can act. Guardian-of-the-person-only appointments do not require a bond.¹⁵ The court sets the bond amount based on the value of the estate under Section 12-2 of the Probate Act, and a surety company typically issues it for an annual premium paid from the child’s estate. Keep the child’s money in a separate, federally insured account; mixing estate funds with your own can lead to a court-ordered accounting and your removal as guardian.

1
Office of the Illinois Courts. Guardianship of a Minor
2
Office of the Illinois Courts. Illinois Supreme Court Eliminates Fees in Minor Guardianship and Small Claims Cases
3
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 755 ILCS 5/11-5.4 – Short-Term Guardian
4
Illinois General Assembly. 755 ILCS 5 – Probate Act of 1975
5
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 755 ILCS 5/11-8.1 – Petition for Standby Guardian of Minor
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Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 755 ILCS 5/11-5 – Appointment of Guardian
7
Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. CFS 444-2 Appointment of Short-Term Guardian
8
Illinois Courts. Consent to Guardianship of Minor and Appearance
9
Illinois Courts. Order Appointing Plenary Guardian of Minor
10
Office of the Illinois Courts. How to Successfully E-File in Odyssey eFileIL
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Office of the Illinois Courts. eFileIL – Statewide E-Filing
12
Illinois General Assembly. 755 ILCS 5 – Probate Act of 1975 – Section 11-10.1
13
Indian Affairs. ICWA Notice
14
Illinois General Assembly. 755 ILCS 5 – Probate Act of 1975 – Section 11-14.1
15
Illinois General Assembly. 755 ILCS 5 – Probate Act of 1975 – Section 11-13