Illinois General Assembly

  Bills & Resolutions  
  Compiled Statutes  
  Public Acts  
  Legislative Reports  
  IL Constitution  
  Legislative Guide  
  Legislative Glossary  

 Search By Number
 (example: HB0001)
Search Tips

Search By Keyword

Illinois Compiled Statutes

 ILCS Listing   Public Acts  Search   Guide   Disclaimer

Information maintained by the Legislative Reference Bureau
Updating the database of the Illinois Compiled Statutes (ILCS) is an ongoing process. Recent laws may not yet be included in the ILCS database, but they are found on this site as Public Acts soon after they become law. For information concerning the relationship between statutes and Public Acts, refer to the Guide.

Because the statute database is maintained primarily for legislative drafting purposes, statutory changes are sometimes included in the statute database before they take effect. If the source note at the end of a Section of the statutes includes a Public Act that has not yet taken effect, the version of the law that is currently in effect may have already been removed from the database and you should refer to that Public Act to see the changes made to the current law.

20 ILCS 4104/5

    (20 ILCS 4104/5)
    Sec. 5. Findings. The General Assembly finds the following:
        (1) In 1994 the African-American Family Commission
    
was created by Executive Order to assist the Department of Children and Family Services in developing and implementing programs and public policies that affect the State's child welfare system.
        (2) However, in 2004 the Commission was renamed and
    
its role expanded to focus on the development of services and programs that aim to strengthen and preserve the social and economic well-being of African-American families.
        (3) This holistic approach to strengthening
    
African-American families and communities, though necessary, has yet to adequately address the disproportionate number of African-American children in foster care.
        (4) According to a 2017 fact sheet published by Child
    
Trends, in 2015 African-American children represented 50% of Illinois' foster care population even though they only make up 15% of the State's general child population.
        (5) In contrast, white children represented 38% of
    
the foster care population in 2015 even though they make up 52% of the State's general child population.
        (6) Hispanic children are underrepresented in
    
Illinois' foster care system as they only accounted for 9% of the foster care population in 2015 despite making up 24% of the general child population.
        (7) Unfortunately, the disproportionate number of
    
African-American children in foster care is a national dilemma.
        (8) According to an April 13, 2020 report published
    
by the Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT Data Center, even though "the share of children who are black and in foster care remains much smaller than it was nearly a decade ago . . . black children are still overrepresented among youth in foster care relative to the general population" as they account for 23% of all kids in foster care even though they only represent 14% of the total child population in the United States.
        (9) In light of these grim statistics, the General
    
Assembly finds the need for a separate advisory commission that is exclusively focused on identifying those causes and factors that contribute to the overrepresentation of African-American children in Illinois' foster care system and the policy measures needed to safely reduce the number of African-American children in foster care and keep them with their families.
(Source: P.A. 102-470, eff. 8-20-21.)