"Child welfare services" means publicly funded social services which are directed toward the accomplishment of the following purposes:
protecting and promoting the health, safety, and welfare of all children, including homeless, dependent, or neglected children;
preventing or remedying, or assisting in the solution of problems which may result in, the neglect, abuse, exploitation, or delinquency of children;
preventing the unnecessary separation of children from their families by identifying family problems, assisting families in resolving their problems, and preventing breakup of the family where the prevention of child removal is desirable and possible when the child can be cared for at home without endangering the child's health and safety;
restoring to their families children who have been removed, by the provision of services to the child and the families when the child can be cared for at home without endangering the child's health and safety;
placing children in suitable adoptive homes, in cases where restoration to the biological family is not safe, possible or appropriate;
assuring safe and adequate care of children away from their homes, in cases where the child cannot be returned home or cannot be placed for adoption. At the time of placement, the Department shall consider concurrent planning, so that permanency may occur at the earliest opportunity. Consideration should be given so that if reunification fails or is delayed, the placement made is the best available placement to provide permanency for the child;
providing supportive services and living maintenance which contributes to the physical, emotional and social well-being of children for whom the Department is legally responsible who are pregnant and unmarried; and
placing and maintaining children in facilities that provide separate living quarters for children under the age of 18 and for children 18 years of age and older, unless a child 18 years of age is in the last year of high school education or vocational training, in an approved individual or group treatment program, or in a licensed shelter facility. The Department is not required to place or maintain children:
who are in a foster home; or
who are developmentally disabled, as defined in the Mental Health and Developmental Code; or
who are female children who are pregnant, pregnant and parenting or parenting; or
who are siblings;
in facilities that provide separate living quarters for children 18 years of age and older and for children under 18 years of age. [20 ILCS 505/5]
These services include but are not limited to: counseling, advocacy, protective and family maintenance day care, homemaker, emergency caretaker, family planning, adoption, placement, child protection, and information and referral. (R 302, 304)