Illinois Administrative Code › Title 89 - SOCIAL SERVICES › Part 338 - APPEAL OF FOSTER FAMILY HOME LICENSE DENIALS BY RELATIVE CAREGIVERS › Section 338.20 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 28, July 12, 2024
"Administrative hearing" in the context of this Part means a
				formal review of the Department's decision to deny a foster family home license
				to the relative who is serving as caregiver of children for whom the Department
				is legally responsible.
"Administrative law judge" means the person who is appointed by
				the Director of the Department and is responsible for conducting the fair
				hearing.
"Administrator of the Administrative Hearings Unit" means the
				person who is responsible for coordinating the administrative hearing appeal
				process.
"Appeal file" means the correspondence, statements, reports,
				investigative files, documents and other written material submitted to the
				Administrative Hearings Unit and the appellant after the commencement of the
				appeal. It does not include any documents or other material that may be in the
				custody of any other unit of DCFS, unless the document or material has been
				submitted to both the appellant and the Administrative Hearings Unit.
"Appellant" means the person who requests a review or
				administrative hearing or in whose behalf a review and administrative hearing
				is requested.
"Children for whom the Department is legally responsible" means
				children for whom the Department has temporary protective custody, custody or
				guardianship via court order, or children whose parents have signed an adoptive
				surrender or voluntary placement agreement with the Department.
"Date of action" means the date on which any Department action
				becomes effective.
"Date of appeal" is the postmark date on the appellant's
				request to appeal the Department's decision to deny the application for a
				foster family home license.
"Date of notice" means the date of the written notice of the
				Department's decision.
"Department's representative" means an attorney or designated
				individual responsible for presenting the Department's case.
"Fictive kin" means any individual, unrelated by birth
				or marriage, who: is shown to have significant and close personal or emotional
				ties with the child or the child's family prior to the child's placement with
				the individual; or
is the current foster parent of a child in the custody
				or guardianship of the Department pursuant to the Child and Family Services Act
				and the Juvenile Court Act of 1987, if the child has been placed in the home
				for at least one year and has established a significant and family-like
				relationship with the foster parent, and the foster parent has been identified
				by the Department as the child's permanent connection.
[
				20 ILCS
				505/7(b) ]
"Final administrative decision" means the Department's final
				decision, order or determination on an appealed issue rendered by the Director
				in a particular case that affects the legal rights, duties or privileges of
				participants and that may be further appealed to the circuit court under the
				Administrative Review Law [ 735 ILCS 5 /Art. III].
"Full-time care" means the child is a resident of the
				household, whether on a temporary, emergency, or permanent basis, and is
				receiving family care usually provided by a parent or guardian.
"Godparent" is a person who sponsors a child at baptism or one
				in whom the parents have entrusted a special duty that includes assisting in
				raising the child if the parent cannot raise the child. If the person is
				considered to be the child's godparent, in order for placement to occur, the
				same placement selection criteria as contained in 89 Ill. Adm. Code
				301.60
				(Placement Selection Criteria) must be met. If the godparent is not a licensed
				foster parent, all the conditions currently in effect for placement with
				relatives in 89 Ill. Adm. Code
				301.80
				(Relative Home Placement) must be met.
"License" means a document issued by the Department of Children
				and Family Services which authorizes a relative caregiver to operate a foster
				family home in accordance with 89 Ill. Adm. Code 402 (Licensing Standards for
				Foster Family Homes) and the provisions of the Child Care Act of 1969 [ 225
				ILCS 10 ] and rules promulgated thereunder.
"Party" to any administrative hearing or other proceeding in
				the Department is the Department or the appellant, as the case may be.
"Permanent connection" means a family-like relationship,
				consistent with a child's best interests, health, safety and well-being, that
				provides
safe, stable and committed parenting;
unconditional love and lifelong support; and
a permanent legal status between child and family.
For a child for whom the Department is legally responsible, a
				permanent connection may be the child's parents or another caregiver in the
				child's home of origin. When the child cannot be safely returned home, a
				permanent connection may be the current or former foster parent or relative
				caregiver, an individual identified as an adoptive or legal guardianship
				placement resource, or another individual from among the child's or family's
				lifelong connections with whom a child has developed a familial
				relationship.
"Relative",
for purposes of placement of
				children for whom the Department is legally responsible,
means any
				person, 21 years of age or over, other than the parent, who:
is currently related to the child in any of the
				following ways by blood or adoption: grandparent, sibling, great-grandparent,
				uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, first cousin,
first cousin once removed
				(children of one's first cousin to oneself),
second cousin
(children of first cousins are second cousins to each other),
godparent
(as defined in this Section),
great-uncle,
				or great-aunt; or
is the spouse
, or party to a civil union,
of such a relative; or
is the child's step-father, step-mother,
				step-grandfather, step-grandmother or adult step-brother or step-sister;
				or
is the partner, or adult child of a partner, in a civil union
				with the child's mother or father, or
is a fictive kin as defined in this Section.
"Relative" also includes a person related in any of the
				foregoing ways to a sibling of a child, even though the person is not related
				to the child, when the child and its sibling are placed together with that
				person. For children who have been in the guardianship of the Department, have
				been adopted, and are subsequently returned to the temporary custody or
				guardianship of the Department, a "relative" may also include any person who
				would have qualified as a relative under this definition prior to the adoption,
				but only if the Department determines that it would be in the best interests of
				the child to consider this person a relative.
[
				20 ILCS
				505/7(b) ]