Illinois § 7.3

§ 7.3.

Placement plan. The Department shall develop and implement a written plan for placing children. The plan shall include at least the following features: (1) A plan for recruiting minority adoptive and foster families. The plan shall include strategies for using existing resources in minority communities, use of minority outreach staff whenever possible, use of minority foster homes for placements after birth and before adoption, and other techniques as appropriate. (2) A plan for training adoptive and foster families of minority children. (3) A plan for employing social workers in adoption and foster care. The plan shall include staffing goals and objectives. (4) A plan for ensuring that adoption and foster care workers attend training offered or approved by the Department regarding the State's goal of encouraging cultural diversity and the needs of special needs children. (5) A plan that includes policies and procedures for determining for each child requiring placement outside of the child's home, and who cannot be immediately returned to the child's parents or guardian, the placement needs of that child. In the rare instance when an individualized assessment identifies, documents, and substantiates that race, color, or national origin is a factor that needs to be considered in advancing a particular child's best interests, it shall be considered in making a placement. (6) A plan for improving the certification of relative homes as certified relative caregiver homes, including establishing and expanding access to a kinship navigator program once established pursuant to paragraph (3) of subsection (u-6) of Section 5 of this Act, providing an effective process for ensuring relatives are informed of the benefits of relative caregiver home certification under Section 3.4 of the Child Care Act of 1969, and tailoring relative caregiver home certification standards that are appropriately distinct from foster home licensure standards. Beginning July 1, 2026 and every 3 years thereafter, the plans required under this Section shall be evaluated by the Department and revised based on the findings of that evaluation. (Source: P.A. 103-22, eff. 8-8-23; 103-1061, eff. 7-1-25.)