Until June 3, 1995, rights and responsibilities for the individuals providing foster care were not clearly defined. Without a clear job description, caregivers, agencies and DCFS had struggled in placing caregivers’ rights and responsibilities within child welfare policy. 

The Foster Parent Law, signed June 3, 1995 at the Statewide Foster Parent Conference in Peoria, was the result of a collaboration of the DCFS director, the DCFS Statewide Foster Care Advisory Council, the Governor, the Illinois legislature, the Illinois Foster Parent Association, the Child Care Association, the Cook County Foster Parent Action Council and others.

The Foster Parent Law, nicknamed the “Foster Parent Bill of Rights”: 

• states the 15 general rights and 17 responsibilities of all Illinois foster parents; and 
• spurred the development of legislation to codify an official Statewide Foster Care Advisory Council to advise DCFS about foster care issues, and to oversee the implementation of the Foster Parent Law.

Section 8, Page 1