DCFS provides many, but not all, services to children and families directly. Often DCFS contracts with other agencies, organizations, and individuals statewide to provide needed services. Agencies contracted by DCFS are private agencies because the agencies’ boards of directors decide their business and practices.

Illinois’ child welfare system is often referred to as a public/private partnership between DCFS, a public agency, and the many private child welfare agencies contracted by DCFS to provide child welfare services.

Private Agencies provide a variety of child welfare services:

Agency contracts are usually written for one fiscal year (July 1 – June 30). Contracts specify services to be provided and the rate DCFS will pay for these services.

• Family Maintenance enables families to remain intact by preventing further harm to their children and stabilizing the home environment. Depending on the needs of the families, different combinations of services are provided, including counseling, advocacy, emergency caretakers, homemakers, child care, etc.
• Substitute/Foster Care provides temporary placements to ensure safety. Children are placed in foster family homes, group homes, or institutions.
• Family Reunification services facilitate the timely and safe return of children to their families. Children and their families receive these services during the period children are in substitute care and after they are returned home.
• Adoption and Support encourages adoption of children who cannot return home. Services include recruitment and preparation of prospective adoptive parents, preparation of children for placement, and pre and post-placement counseling.
• Family-Centered Services consist of support, preservation or a blend of both. Support services are preventive, directed toward a specific population, such as all young parents in a community. Preservation services help stabilize troubled families in times of risk, crisis, or other special needs.

 Private Foster Care Agencies

Private agencies are contracted by DCFS to run foster care programs and receive foster care referrals from DCFS. Private agencies develop and enforce their own operating policies and procedures and their unique supports available to foster families and children, such as, camp, after-school care, and support groups.

These agencies:

• Work directly with the children and families.
• Meet foster children’s individual needs.
• Report and document families’ progress and children’s health, safety, and well-being or needs to Juvenile Court.
• Recruit, train, and recommend licensure of agency foster parents to DCFS.
• Implement the Foster Parent Law within their agencies.
• Supervise and support agency foster parents.

 DCFS Foster Care Program

DCFS also recruits, directly licenses, trains, supervises, and supports foster families for its own foster care program. Each DCFS region is responsible for recruiting, licensing, and training and must implement the Foster Parent Law within its region, just like private agencies. Like private agencies, DCFS decides what supports will be available to foster families under its direct supervision. Therefore, supports available to Illinois foster families may vary from agency to agency and from agency to DCFS.