SPRINGFIELD — Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday signed a bill aimed at making it easier for relatives of children in the state care to get licensed as foster parents and receive financial assistance, creating a law advocates say could help thousands of families and children in Illinois.
“Wherever possible, a family member who already knows and loves a child can provide stability and familiarity, and most often leads to the least amount of disruption and trauma for a child,” Pritzker said at the signing ceremony in the Illinois State Capitol, flanked by lawmakers and other backers of the bill. “The research proves it. Youth in care, living with relatives, dramatically improves mental health outcomes, educational attainment, social function, child happiness and the list goes on.”
Heidi Mueller, who over the weekend marked her first year as director of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, said the new law has special significance for her.
She recounted how her grandmother died of cancer when her mother was a little girl, and that her grandfather was too preoccupied coping with his own grief and managing the struggling family farm to care for his daughter. So, Mueller said, her mother was taken in by her aunt, even though the woman was a widow and was raising her own daughter by herself.
“In doing that, she taught my mom really powerful lessons about love, about sacrifice, about taking care of each other, about mutual responsibility, and my mom passed those lessons on to me, and those lessons are what led me right here to this spot today,” Mueller said, speaking at a lectern in the governor’s ceremonial office.
The measure signed by the governor, which received bipartisan support when it passed through the General Assembly, provides incentives for relatives of children in DCFS care to maintain a home for those kids as an alternative to the children being placed in foster care with non-family members. The new law requires DCFS to seek federal funding to start a “kinship navigator program” to assist relatives who are caregivers with the agency and increase financial support to those relatives.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which pushed for the measure, more than 10,000 children in DCFS care live with relatives, but over 60% of these caregivers are denied the foster care benefits necessary to care for a youth being placed in their household because state law requires them to meet complex standards that were put in place decades ago.
Mueller noted that last Saturday was her one-year anniversary as head of the agency, which has been criticized for years by lawmakers and others for issues including how it has handled allegations of abuse and neglect involving children in the agency’s care. Mueller said pushing for this law is one of the things she’s most proud of during her initial year in office.
The law takes effect July 1. Its provisions are intended improve support for relatives raising children in the DCFS system by equalizing payments to relatives with the rate provided to traditional foster parents; helping youths in state care maintain connections with their families; tailoring services and supports to kinship families; and treating adoption and guardianship as equally viable options when reunification with parents is not possible.
Jeanette Byrd, a caregiver for her two grandchildren, spoke of the significance of the law and how it’s “taking notice of kinship caregivers and what we need and deserve in Illinois.”
“It’s given me great joy to care for them and a new sense of purpose,” Byrd told reporters about being a relative caregiver. “Although sometimes I look at myself like ‘What did I sign myself up for?’ but they climb in my lap, they hug me and tell me they love me, and it makes me know everything’s going to be all right.”
