About DCFS

On January 1, 1964, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services was formed as the first cabinet-level state child welfare agency in the country. At that time, the child welfare functions of the state were located in the Department of Mental Health; various state departments, private agencies, and county courts offered limited services and placement systems for children. Approximately 4,000 children were served during the first year of service of the agency, compared to a total of 51,000 foster-care children in 1997 and 15,000 today.

The history of the department is steeped in a long tradition of support and creativity for the neediest kids in the state. Illinois is home to the first juvenile court in the country, considers itself as the birthplace of social work (Jane Addams' Hull House), was one of the first states to enact child protection legislation, was an early signatory to legislation requiring notification to child abuse and neglect, and provided one of the first statewide hotlines for child abuse in the world.

Illinois DCFS 'mission is to protect children who are suspected to be abused or neglected and improve the ability of their families to care for them safely; provide for the well-being of children in our care; provide appropriate, stable families for those children who are unable to return home safely as soon as possible; promote early intervention and child abuse prevention programs and work.

Illinois DCFS is the largest child protection organization to obtain accreditation from the Children's and Family Services Accreditation Board. Helping more than 15,000 Illinois children find stable, caring homes through adoption and reunifying over 21,000 children over the last decade with their birth families; licensing nearly 11,000-daycare facilities; responding to more than 220,000 calls to the Child Abuse and Neglect Hotline and delivering services to 60,000 families annually; the department and its 2,600 employees;

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