Illinois Department of Children and Family Services
FFY 2012 Annual Progress and Services Report
227
The overlap in responsibilities of units performing adoption preparation/facilitation and post
adoption services and supports ensures that adoptive parents do not fall through the cracks as
they progress through adoption to serving as adoptive parents.
Recruitment and retention efforts include updating pre-service training for child welfare
professionals to include the role of foster and adoptive caregivers. Another tactical plan aimed at
supporting the recruitment and retention of caregivers includes incorporating in-service foster
parent PRIDE training elements in pre-service training for child welfare professionals.
The Office of Training and Professional Development has also begun offering pre-service
training for university students who are considering careers in child welfare. Pre-service training
is offered to graduate-level social work students attending the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Due to university regulations regarding curriculum approval, Aurora University and the
University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana were not able to offer pre-service training in the fall
of 2011 however, both universities are on track to offer pre-service in the fall of 2012.
Developing More Foster Homes And Enhancing Support Via The Adoption Units
In an effort to develop more foster homes, DCFS supervisors and staff continue referring non-licensed
families who call DCFS inquiring about adoption, to the respective DCFS licensing
representatives who can help them become licensed. DCFS adoption staff also provides these
inquiring families with phone numbers and contacts at the Adoption Information Center of
Illinois (AICI). Should the family already be licensed and is calling as a general inquiry about
available children, the family should be referred to AICI for listing and matching services.
The names of DCFS Adoption Supervisors, their phone numbers and email addresses remain on
the Adoption Information Center of Illinois (AICI) website (in the General Adoption
Information/Adoption Agencies section) so that prospective families can contact regional DCFS
staff directly. Families during the past year have been encouraged to register with AICI as a
family after they become licensed. Licensing staff continue providing families in the process of
being licensed with a CFS448 Adoption Listing Service registration, as well as the ALS-2, AICI
registration form. Families are instructed to mail the ALS-2 to AICI, who then matches the
registered family with a child. Matching information is sent to the family and to the child’s
caseworker. The child’s caseworker reviews the potential matches provided by AICI, and the
caseworker contacts the licensing staff for the family to get additional information. AICI has two
Recruitment Coordinators that can assist the worker in selecting the best match. The child’s
caseworker then schedules a visit to the prospective adoptive home if it appears to be a good
match. The child’s caseworker must provide disclosure information and facts about the child’s
needs to the prospective family prior to any pre-placement visits. DCFS continues to provide
support to the existing foster homes in order to help prepare the family and to provide the family
who is converting from a foster to adoptive home with the information, services, tools and
supports they will need to be able to meet the child’s life-long needs. These services are
inclusive of services to the TRIAD, meaning the child, the birth family and the foster family.
Recruitment and Kin Connection Project
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services was awarded a five year federally
funded grant by the Department of Health and Human Services – Administration for Children
