ADMINISTRATIVE CODE TITLE 89: SOCIAL SERVICES CHAPTER III: DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES PART 415 RELATIVE HOME CERTIFICATION SECTION 415.30 DEFINITIONS
Section 415.30 Definitions
"Any other adult living in the home" means any relative or non-relative age 18 or over who regularly lives, shares common areas, and sleeps in the home. This includes an individual who is living, sharing common areas, and sleeping in a home temporarily for more than two consecutive weeks.
"Applicant" means a relative, as defined in this Part, who has applied for certification as a relative home.
"Background check" means a criminal background clearance and a review and evaluation of all components of the background check, including sex offender registries, child abuse and neglect registries or databases, and criminal offenses pursuant to 225 ILCS 10/3.4. The components of a background check include:
In-State (Illinois) Checks
A search of the Law Enforcement Agency Data System (LEADS). If the results of the LEADS search identify the types of prior criminal convictions outlined in this Part for any other adult living in the home, youth in care shall not be placed in the relative's home except as allowed by this Part or 89 Ill. Adm. Code 301 (Placement and Visitation Services);
Submission of fingerprints to the Illinois State Police (ISP) for a criminal histories record search;
A search of the DCFS State Central Register (SCR) to determine whether an individual is currently alleged, or has been indicated as a perpetrator of child abuse or neglect; and
A search of the Illinois Sex Offender Registry (SOR) and the National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW).
National Checks
Submission of fingerprints to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) using Next Generation Identification, for comparison to their national crime information databases; and
A search of the National Crime Information Center National Sex Offender Registry (NCIC/NSOR).
Interstate (Out-of-State) Checks
A search of the following registries, repositories, or databases in each state where an individual resided during the preceding five years:
State-based criminal registry or repository (fingerprint use optional);
State-based child abuse and neglect registry or database; and
State sex offender registry or repository.
"Background check clearance" for purposes of this Part, means the Department has communicated to the assigned worker that the background check did not identify any disqualifying offenses.
"Certification" or "Certified" means a relative home wherein the caregiver is related to the youth in care and has met the standards prescribed by 225 ILCS 10/3.4 and this Part.
"Certified relative caregiver" means a person responsible for the care and supervision of a child placed in a certified relative caregiver home by the Department, other than the parent, who is a relative. [225 ILCS 10/2.36]
"Certified relative caregiver home" means a placement resource meeting the standards for a certified relative caregiver home under Section 3.4 of the Child Care Act of 1969, which is eligible to receive payments from the Department under State or federal law for room and board for a child placed with a certified relative caregiver. [225 ILCS 10/2.37]
"Child" means any person for whom the Department is legally responsible who is less than 18 years of age.
"Child Welfare Contributing Agency" or "contributing agency" means a public or private entity that, by contract or agreement with the Department, provides placement, child welfare case management, or both to children and families.
"Concrete goods" means child safety items, clothing, shelter, furniture, utilities, transportation, or anything that can be provided to a family to maintain child safety and reduce risk, remove barriers to placement, or maintain a placement.
"Corporal punishment" means any type of physical punishment, discipline, or retaliation inflicted upon any part of the body of a child. This includes such actions as slapping, hitting, punching, spanking, shoving, pinching, or any other type of action geared toward inflicting pain or body discomfort upon a child.
"Department" means the Department of Children and Family Services.
"Diligent efforts" means conscientious attempts to accomplish all aspects of intervention with respect to thoroughness, timeliness, availability, and responsiveness. Diligent efforts in the context of family finding and relative engagement may include, but is not limited to interviewing the youth in care's parents, interviewing the youth in care if age and developmentally appropriate, interviewing identified relatives regarding other relatives not yet identified, conducting computer-based searches, and assessing the relative for certification.
"Family finding and relative engagement" means conducting an investigation, including, but not limited to, through a computer-based search engine, to identify any person who would be eligible to be a relative caregiver as defined in this Part and to connect a child, consistent with the child's best interest, who may be disconnected from the child's parents, with those relatives and kin in an effort to provide family support or possible placement. If it is known or there is reason to know that the child is an Indian child, as defined in Section 4 of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (25 U.S.C. 1903), "family finding and relative engagement" also includes contacting the Indian child's tribe to identify relatives and kin. [20 ILCS 505/7(b)(1)]
"Fictive kin" means a person who is unrelated to a child by birth, marriage, tribal custom, or adoption who is shown to have significant and close personal or emotional ties with the child or the child's family. [20 ILCS 505/4d]
"Kinship navigator" means a statewide program designed to ensure kinship (relative) caregivers the necessary resources for the preservation of family. [325 ILCS 42/5]
"Needed supports" means interventions to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the child. This can include, but is not limited to, concrete goods, safety modifications, and referrals for other services. Interventions shall be based on the needs, problems, and limitations and capacities of the relative and their home as identified in the Safety and Needs Assessment and Caregiver Assessment (see Section 415.40(d)(2) and (3)).
"Normalcy parenting" means empowering a caregiver to approve or not approve a child's participation in appropriate extracurricular enrichment, cultural and social activities based on the caregiver's assessment using the reasonable and prudent parent standard, without prior approval of the Department, the caseworkers, or the court. The purpose of normalcy parenting and the reasonable and prudent parent standard is to allow the child's participation in extracurricular, enrichment, cultural and social activities that are appropriate for the child's normal growth and development.
"Placing worker" means Child Protection Specialist, Permanency Worker or Intact Family Worker, or for the purposes of certification, Licensing Unit or contributing agency staff.
"Reasonable and prudent parent standard" means the standard, characterized by careful and sensible parental decisions that maintain the child's health, safety, and best interests while at the same time supporting the child's emotional and developmental growth, that a caregiver shall use when determining whether to allow a child in out-of-home care to participate in extracurricular, enrichment, cultural, and social activities. [20 ILCS 505/7.3a(b)]
"Relative" means a person who is:
Related to a child by blood marriage, tribal custom, adoption, civil union, or to a child's sibling in any of the foregoing ways, even though the person is not related to the child, when the child and the child's sibling are placed together with that person, or Fictive kin as defined in this Part.
For children who have been in the guardianship of the Department following the termination of their parents' parental rights, been adopted or placed in subsidized or unsubsidized guardianship, and are subsequently returned to the temporary custody or guardianship of the Department,
"Relative" also includes any person who would have qualified as a relative under this Section prior to the termination of the parents' parental rights if the Department determines, and documents, or the court finds that it would be in the child's best interests to consider this person a relative, based upon the factors for determining best interests set forth in subsection (4.05) of Section 1-3 of the Juvenile Court Act of 1987. [705 ILCS 405]
"Relative caregiver" means a person responsible for the care and supervision of a child placed by the Department, other than the parent, who is a relative. [20 ILCS 505/4d]
"Relative home" means a home of a relative that is not a foster family home or a certified relative caregiver home but provides care to a child placed by the Department who is a relative of a household member of the relative's home. [20 ILCS 505/4d]
"Youth in care" for the purposes of this Part, means a person placed in the temporary custody or guardianship of the Department pursuant to the Juvenile Court Act of 1987 [705 ILCS 405]. The Department is legally responsible for the youth; a youth in care includes youth for whom the Department has temporary protective custody, custody or guardianship via court order, or youth whose parents have signed an adoptive surrender or voluntary placement agreement with the Department. |