(225 ILCS 10/9.1b) Sec. 9.1b. Complaint procedures. All child welfare agencies providing adoption services shall be required by the Department to have complaint policies and procedures that shall be provided in writing to their prospective clients, including birth parents, adoptive parents, and adoptees that they have served, at the earliest time possible, and, in the case of birth and adoptive parents, prior to placement or prior to entering into any written contract with the clients. These complaint procedures must be filed with the Department within 6 months after the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 94th General Assembly. Failure to comply with this Section may result in the suspension of licensure for a period of 90 days. Subsequent violations may result in licensure revocation. The Department shall adopt rules that describe the complaint procedures required by each agency. These rules shall include without limitation prompt complaint response time, recording of the complaints, prohibition of agency retaliation against the person making the complaint, and agency reporting of all complaints to the Department in a timely manner. Any agency that maintains a website shall post the prescribed complaint procedures and its license number, as well as the statewide toll-free complaint registry telephone number, on its website.
(Source: P.A. 103-22, eff. 8-8-23.) |