To meet Illinois foster care requirements, you must be at least 21 years old, financially stable, and able to pass state and federal background checks, complete a home study, finish 27 hours of pre-service training, and clear a health screening before the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) will issue your license.1Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Foster Care The full path from application to licensure usually runs three to six months.
Who Qualifies
The baseline is straightforward. You need to be 21 or older. Your marital status doesn’t matter: married, in a civil union, single, divorced, or separated are all acceptable.1Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Foster Care
DCFS expects your household income to cover your own expenses without leaning on the monthly foster care board payment. The stipend is meant to offset the cost of caring for a child, not to fund the household. If you can pay your bills before a child arrives, you meet the financial expectation.
Background Checks and Disqualifying Offenses
Every household member aged 18 and over has to complete a criminal background check. That includes fingerprint-based searches through the Illinois State Police and the FBI, a review of the Child Abuse and Neglect Tracking System, and searches of both the Illinois and National Sex Offender Registries.2Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Rules 385 – Background Checks
Certain convictions are permanent disqualifiers. The list is long. It covers offenses related to child abuse and neglect, sexual crimes, violent felonies such as aggravated battery and armed robbery, arson, and drug manufacturing offenses.2Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Rules 385 – Background Checks If anyone in the home has a history in one of those categories, expect that to end the application.
The Home Study
Before granting a license, DCFS conducts a home inspection and social assessment. A caseworker visits your home, evaluates the physical space for safety hazards, checks that the child would have adequate sleeping arrangements, and interviews household members about their motivations and their approach to parenting.1Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Foster Care
You also need a health screening with verification that your immunizations are current. The screening confirms you’re physically able to handle the day-to-day demands of caregiving.
PRIDE Pre-Service Training
Illinois requires 27 hours of pre-service training before licensure.1Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Foster Care The curriculum is called PRIDE, short for Parent Resources for Information, Development, and Education. It covers trauma-informed care, child development, working with biological families, and the legal framework of the foster care system.3Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. 2025-2029 Illinois Child and Family Services Plan
Training doesn’t end at licensure. DCFS requires annual continuing education for as long as you remain licensed, with online and in-person courses available through the agency’s Learning and Development Center.4Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Training Specialized tracks exist for foster parents caring for children with medical complexity or significant behavioral needs.
Types of Placements You Can Be Licensed For
DCFS matches placements to a child’s situation, and the license you hold shapes which children can be placed in your home.
Traditional Foster Care
Most children in state custody are placed in traditional foster family homes with licensed caregivers. These homes provide a stable family setting where the child attends school and takes part in everyday activities. Traditional foster parents coordinate with caseworkers, attend court hearings, and support the child’s relationship with their biological family when appropriate.
Therapeutic Foster Care
Children with significant emotional, behavioral, or medical needs are placed in therapeutic foster homes. These placements require additional specialized training, and the caregivers work closely with therapists and treatment teams. The monthly board rate for therapeutic placements is higher than the standard rate, reflecting the extra time and skill involved.
Kinship Care Under the KIND Act
If you’re a relative or close family friend of a child entering care, you don’t have to go through the full foster licensing process. In February 2025, Governor Pritzker signed the Kinship in Demand (KIND) Act into law, and it took effect on July 1, 2025.5Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. The KIND Act and Relative Caregiver Certification It created separate certification standards for relatives that are less burdensome than traditional licensing.
Certified relative caregivers are now eligible for the same monthly board payments that licensed foster parents receive, and the law expanded support programming for relatives.6Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Kinship in Demand (KIND) Act FY2025 Annual Report
Monthly Board Payments
Once licensed, you receive a monthly board rate from DCFS to cover the cost of food, clothing, shelter, daily supervision, and personal incidentals for each child in your home. The rate varies by the child’s age, with older children commanding higher payments. Children with specialized care needs receive an additional amount above the standard board rate. DCFS periodically adjusts these figures, so ask your caseworker or the agency for the current schedule.
Board payments are generally excluded from your federal gross income under Section 131 of the Internal Revenue Code. The exclusion covers payments made through a state foster care program for a qualified foster individual in your home, along with “difficulty of care” payments for children who need additional support because of physical, mental, or emotional challenges. The difficulty of care exclusion applies for up to 10 foster children under 19 and up to 5 who are 19 or older.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 131 – Certain Foster Care Payments In practical terms, most foster parents owe no federal income tax on the board payments they receive and don’t need to report excluded amounts on their return.
A foster child placed in your home may also qualify you for the federal Child Tax Credit if the child lived with you for more than half the tax year, is under 17, has a valid Social Security number, and is claimed as your dependent.8Internal Revenue Service. Child Tax Credit For the 2026 tax year, the maximum credit is scheduled to revert to $1,000 per qualifying child following expiration of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provisions, unless Congress acts to extend or modify it.9Congress.gov. Selected Issues in Tax Policy: The Child Tax Credit That is half of the $2,000 credit available for tax years 2018 through 2025.
Your Rights Once Licensed
Illinois codifies foster parent rights in the Foster Parent Law (20 ILCS 520). You are a recognized member of the child welfare team, not a bystander waiting for a caseworker to tell you what to do.
- You have the right to receive relevant information about the child placed in your home, both at the time of placement and afterward when new information becomes available.10Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 20 ILCS 520 – Foster Parent Law
- You must be notified of meetings, staffings, administrative reviews, and educational planning meetings, and your input must be given the same weight as information from other professionals on the team.10Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 20 ILCS 520 – Foster Parent Law
- You are entitled to timely board payments that match the care needs described in the child’s service plan.
- You have the right to pre-service and ongoing training tailored to your assessed needs.
- If a complaint is filed against your license, you are entitled to a timely and impartial investigation, the opportunity to have a support person present, and the right to request mediation or administrative review of decisions affecting your license.10Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 20 ILCS 520 – Foster Parent Law
These rights matter most when something goes wrong. Caseworkers turn over, communication breaks down, and foster parents sometimes feel sidelined in decisions about a child they’ve been raising for months. The Foster Parent Law gives you standing to push back. If your right to be heard is denied, you can bring a mandamus action in court to enforce it.
Your identifying information is also protected. A foster parent’s address and phone number cannot be disclosed without authorization, and anyone who knowingly rediscloses that information commits a Class A misdemeanor.11Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 20 ILCS 505/35.3 – Confidentiality of Foster Parent Identifying Information
What DCFS Expects From You
DCFS expects foster parents to provide a safe, healthy, and nurturing environment that meets the child’s physical, emotional, and educational needs. In practice, that means coordinating with schools, keeping medical appointments, and following through on any services in the child’s case plan.
You must facilitate regular visits between the child and their biological family unless a court order restricts contact. This is often the hardest part of fostering, especially when the child’s home situation was chaotic or unsafe. Maintaining those connections is central to reunification, which remains the primary goal in most cases.
Prompt communication with DCFS is required whenever something significant changes in the child’s life or your household. That includes behavioral incidents, medical emergencies, changes in your own living situation, and any contact with the biological family outside scheduled visits. Foster parents who fail to report significant events risk licensing consequences.
Support After Licensing
Licensing is the beginning, not the end. DCFS and its partner agencies offer a network of services designed to keep placements stable.
Counseling is available for both foster parents and the children in their care. Many foster children arrive with histories of abuse, neglect, or multiple placement disruptions, and therapy is often a central piece of the service plan. The emotional toll on caregivers is real, and counseling for foster parents is worth using early.
Respite care is one of the most underused tools available. Licensed foster parents can place a child temporarily with another licensed foster parent for a short period, either for planned breaks like vacations and family events or for emergencies. DCFS policy requires respite providers to hold a valid foster care license. If you’ve never used respite, ask your caseworker to explain how it works in your area.
Foster parent support groups operate throughout Illinois, giving caregivers a community where they share experiences, troubleshoot problems, and build relationships with people who understand the pressures of fostering. Your licensing agency or DCFS caseworker can connect you with local groups.
When reunification isn’t possible, DCFS pursues permanency through adoption or guardianship. Adoption terminates the birth parents’ rights and makes you the child’s legal parent. Guardianship gives you legal custody without terminating the biological parents’ rights, and it lasts until the child turns 18.12Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Adoption and Guardianship Under the KIND Act, guardianship and adoption are now treated as equal permanency options rather than defaulting to adoption when reunification fails.5Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. The KIND Act and Relative Caregiver Certification Families who adopt or become guardians of children from DCFS care may receive financial assistance and supportive services.