‘They deserve their story’: Bill aims to open foster care files

By Cat Barker | The Center Square contributor
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Illinois lawmakers are moving to ensure families adopting children from the state’s foster care system receive complete information about a child’s history, including medical, educational, and counseling records, at least 30 days before an adoption is finalized.

The bill, recently introduced by state Sen. Darby Hills, R-Barrington Hills, also guarantees former foster youth aged 18 and older can access their records for free.

Hills’ legislation would require the Department of Healthcare and Family Services to provide a complete, unredacted copy of the child’s full case record, while maintaining compliance with federal and state privacy laws.

Hills said the bill responds to concerns from adoptive parents who often face significant barriers in understanding a child’s history after adoption.

“We’ve had constituents tell us that they adopted children who never lived with their biological parents and weren’t able to access information about their time in foster care,” Hills explained.

One parent, Hills noted, adopted two of her three children from foster care. While she could access details about the biological parents, she had no information about the foster homes where her children had lived.

“Her children suffered trauma as a result of those living conditions, and she wasn’t able to get the information she needed to help them heal,” Hills said.

Under current practices, parents may receive some medical records, but other key details, such as case worker notes, placement history, or therapy records, are often inaccessible.

In some cases, parents have had to conduct their own research to uncover critical information, including incidents of unsafe conditions in foster homes.

“The point is that these children deserve access to their own story, and families deserve the information they need to help their children heal,” Hills said.

The bill sets a timeline of at least 30 days before adoption is finalized to give families adequate time to prepare. Hills emphasized that the records already exist in case files and that compiling them for adoptive families would not create significant additional costs for taxpayers.

Asked whether the 30-day review period could deter adoptions, Hills explained that most adoptive parents understand children from foster care may have experienced trauma.

“They want to adopt them and give them a wonderful life, but they can’t help them heal if they don’t know what happened to them,” she said.

Hills also pointed to the emotional toll the lack of records can take on adopted children.

She described one constituent who adopted her third child at birth and has full memories and milestones for that child, while her two older children adopted from foster care are left with unanswered questions.

“They ask, ‘What was my first word?’ or ‘When did I walk?’” Hills said.

While those details may not pose immediate safety risks, she emphasized they are fundamental to a child’s identity.

“It’s their story and it’s their life,” Hills said, adding that the information should already exist in state files and should be accessible to the families raising them.

She said the timeline is open for discussion and was intentionally included to encourage collaboration with DCFS and stakeholders, noting that she consulted with agency representatives and affected families before filing the bill.