Illinois General Assembly - Illinois Compiled Statutes

Updating the database of the Illinois Compiled Statutes (ILCS) is an ongoing process. Recent laws may not yet be included in the ILCS database, but they are found on this site as Public Acts soon after they become law. For information concerning the relationship between statutes and Public Acts, refer to the Guide.

Because the statute database is maintained primarily for legislative drafting purposes, statutory changes are sometimes included in the statute database before they take effect. If the source note at the end of a Section of the statutes includes a Public Act that has not yet taken effect, the version of the law that is currently in effect may have already been removed from the database and you should refer to that Public Act to see the changes made to the current law.

225 ILCS 10/4

(225 ILCS 10/4) (from Ch. 23, par. 2214)

Sec. 4. License requirement; application; notice.

(a) Any person, group of persons or corporation who or which
receives children or arranges for care or placement of one or more
children unrelated to the operator must apply for a license to operate
one of the types of facilities defined in Sections 2.05 through 2.19 and in
Section 2.22 of
this Act. Any relative who receives a child or children for placement by the
Department on a full-time basis may apply for a license to operate a foster
family home as defined in Section 2.17 of this Act.

(a-5) Any agency, person, group of persons, association, organization, corporation, institution, center, or group providing adoption services must be licensed by the Department as a child welfare agency as defined in Section 2.08 of this Act.  "Providing adoption services" as used in this Act, includes facilitating or engaging in adoption services.

(b) Application for a license
to operate a child care facility must be made to the Department in the manner
and on forms prescribed by it.  An application to operate a foster family home
shall include, at a minimum: a completed written form; written authorization by
the applicant and all adult members of the applicant's household to conduct a
criminal background investigation; medical evidence in the form of a medical
report, on forms prescribed by the Department, that the applicant and all
members of the household are free from communicable diseases or physical and
mental conditions that affect their ability to provide care for the child or
children; the names and addresses of at least 3 persons not related to the
applicant who can attest to the applicant's moral character; and fingerprints
submitted by the applicant and all adult members of the applicant's household.

(c) The Department shall notify the public when a child care institution,
maternity center, or group home licensed by the Department undergoes a change
in (i) the range of care or services offered at the facility, (ii) the age or
type of children served, or (iii) the area within the facility used by
children. The Department shall notify the public of the change in a newspaper
of general
circulation in the county or municipality in which the applicant's facility is
or is proposed to be located.

(d) If, upon examination of the facility and investigation of persons
responsible
for care of children, the Department is satisfied that the facility and
responsible persons reasonably meet standards prescribed for the type of
facility for which application is made, it shall issue a license in proper
form, designating on that license the type of child care facility and, except
for a child welfare agency, the number of children to be served at any one
time.

(e) The Department shall not issue or renew the license of any child welfare agency providing adoption services, unless the agency (i) is officially recognized by the United States Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt organization described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (or any successor provision of federal tax law) and (ii) is in compliance with all of the standards necessary to maintain its status as an organization described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (or any successor provision of federal tax law). The Department shall grant a grace period of 24 months from the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 94th General Assembly for existing child welfare agencies providing adoption services to obtain 501(c)(3) status. The Department shall permit an existing child welfare agency that converts from its current structure in order to be recognized as a 501(c)(3) organization as required by this Section to either retain its current license or transfer its current license to a newly formed entity, if the creation of a new entity is required in order to comply with this Section, provided that the child welfare agency demonstrates that it continues to meet all other licensing requirements and that the principal officers and directors and programs of the converted child welfare agency or newly organized child welfare agency are substantially the same as the original. The Department shall have the sole discretion to grant a one year extension to any agency unable to obtain 501(c)(3) status within the timeframe specified in this subsection (e), provided that such agency has filed an application for  501(c)(3) status with the Internal Revenue Service within the 2-year timeframe specified in this subsection (e).

(Source: P.A. 94-586, eff. 8-15-05.)