Section 359.2  Definitions

            "Auxiliary services" means those services provided by the Department to children in their own homes as well as to children in placement which supplement or complement the primary service.  For example, when advocacy services are provided to children in substitute care, this is an auxiliary service.

"Child only standard of need" means the assistance standard for cases in which no adult member is included, as determined by the Illinois Department of Human Services.

            "Children for whom the Department has legal responsibility" means children for whom the Department has temporary protective custody, custody or guardianship via court order, or whose parents have signed an adoptive surrender or voluntary placement agreement with the Department.

"Contact between siblings" means contact between or among siblings who are placed apart from one another, and may include, but is not limited to: telephone calls; video conferencing; in person visitation; sending/receiving cards, letters, emails, text messages, gifts, etc.; sharing photographs or information; use of any approved social media (e.g., Facebook); and any other agreed upon forms of communication technology.

"Family preservation services" means those services provided to children and families who require social services to maintain the family unit intact.

"Fictive kin" means any individual, unrelated by birth or marriage, who:

is shown to have significant and close personal or emotional ties with the child or the child's family prior to the child's placement with the individual; or

is the current foster parent of a child in the custody or guardianship of the Department pursuant to the Child and Family Services Act and the Juvenile Court Act of 1987, if the child has been placed in the home for at least one year and has established a significant and family-like relationship with the foster parent, and the foster parent has been identified by the Department as the child's permanent connection.  [20 ILCS 505/7(b)]

"Foster care payment" means the amount paid by the Department for a child's room, board, clothing, and personal allowance in a licensed foster family home.

            "Godparent" is a person who sponsors a child at baptism or one in whom the parents have entrusted a special duty that includes assisting in raising the child if the parent cannot raise the child.  If the person is considered to be the child's godparent, in order for placement to occur, the same placement selection criteria as contained in 89 Ill. Adm. Code 301.60 (Placement Selection Criteria) must be met. If the godparent is not a licensed foster parent, all the conditions currently in effect for placement with relatives in 89 Ill. Adm. Code 301.80 (Relative Home Placement) must be met.

            "Overpayment" means an amount paid for a service in excess of the actual incurred expenses or rate for that service or a payment for a service that is not rendered.  This includes board payments for a child that continue after the child is no longer in the placement for which the payment is made.

"Permanent connection" means a family-like relationship, consistent with a child's best interests, health, safety and well-being, that provides:

safe, stable and committed parenting;

unconditional love and lifelong support; and

a permanent legal status between child and family.

For a child for whom the Department is legally responsible, a permanent connection may be the child's parents or another caregiver in the child's home of origin.  When the child cannot be safely returned home, a permanent connection may be the current or former foster parent or relative caregiver, an individual identified as an adoptive or legal guardianship placement resource, or another individual from among the child's or family's lifelong connections with whom a child has developed a familial relationship.

"Relative", for purposes of placement of a child for whom the Department is legally responsible, means any person, 21 years of age or over, other than the parent, who:

is currently related to the child in any of the following ways by blood or adoption:  grandparent, sibling, great-grandparent, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, first cousin, first cousin once removed (children of one's first cousin to oneself), second cousin (children of first cousins are second cousins to each other), godparent (as defined in this Section), great-uncle or great-aunt; or

is the spouse, or party to a civil union, of such a relative; or

is the child's step-father, step-mother, step-grandfather, step-grandmother or adult step-brother or step-sister; or

is the partner, or adult child of a partner, in a civil union with the child's mother or father; or

is a fictive kin as defined in this Section.

Relative also includes a person related in any of the foregoing ways to a sibling of a child, even though the person is not related to the child, when the child and its sibling are placed together with that person.  For children who have been in the guardianship of the Department, have been adopted, and are subsequently returned to the temporary custody or guardianship of the Department, a "relative" may also include any person who would have qualified as a relative under this definition prior to the adoption, but only if the Department determines that it would be in the best interests of the child to consider this person a relative.  [20 ILCS 505/7(b)]

"Siblings" means children who have at least one parent in common.  Children continue to be considered siblings after parental rights are terminated or after one or more of the children are adopted or placed in private guardianship, if they were in the custody or guardianship of the Department pursuant to Article II of the Juvenile Court Act of 1987 immediately prior to the adoption or guardianship.  Step-siblings may be considered "siblings" when the children enter into substitute care together, have a positive relationship and share at least one parent in common.

            "Substitute care services" means those services provided to children who require placement away from their families or private guardians.  Substitute care includes foster family care, care provided in a relative home placement as defined in 89 Ill. Adm. Code 301.80 (Relative Home Placement), care provided in a group home, care provided in a maternity center or a child care facility, mental health or other institution, and care provided in an independent living arrangement.

"Visitation" means face-to-face contact:

between parents and their children who are in substitute care;

between siblings in substitute care who are placed apart from one another; or

between siblings in substitute care with siblings who are not in substitute care (e.g., emancipated, case closed due to independence, adopted, placed in private guardianship, living in home of parent, etc.).

(Source:  Amended at 42 Ill. Reg. 2246, effective January 17, 2018)