Parental rights - Illinois
Parental rights in Illinois
3 of 3 questions have been reviewed for Illinois. A question shown as "Not yet reviewed" makes no claim either way.
Educational reference, not legal advice. Nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship. Family law is state-specific and it changes: a statute or case cited here may have been amended, repealed or overruled since the review date shown. Verify against the primary source before relying on anything on this page, and talk to a lawyer licensed in your state about your own situation.
When a non-parent or the state asks a court to override a fit parent's decision about their child, what must they show?
Illinois: Harm or detriment required
Statute: 750 ILCS 5/602.9(b)(3), (4)
A grandparent, great-grandparent, sibling or step-parent may petition only after a parent's unreasonable denial of visitation that has caused the child undue mental, physical or emotional harm. The statute presumes that a fit parent's visitation decisions are not harmful and puts the burden on the petitioner to prove they will cause undue harm.
Authority
- 750 ILCS 5/602.9(b)(3), (4) Statute
A petition for visitation may be filed under this Section only if there has been an unreasonable denial of visitation by a parent and the denial has caused the child undue mental, physical, or emotional harm. ... There is a rebuttable presumption that a fit parent's actions and decisions regarding grandparent, great-grandparent, sibling, or step-parent visitation are not harmful to the child's mental, physical, or emotional health. The burden is on the party filing a petition under this Section to prove that the parent's actions and decisions regarding visitation will cause undue harm to the child's mental, physical, or emotional health.
Can parents' own custody or child-support agreement bind them without a judge approving it?
Illinois: Court approval required to bind
Statute: 750 ILCS 5/502(b)
A marital settlement agreement binds the court unless unconscionable, except its terms on child support and the allocation of parental responsibilities, which the court decides.
Authority
- 750 ILCS 5/502(b) Statute
The terms of the agreement, except those providing for the support and parental responsibility allocation of children, are binding upon the court unless it finds, after considering the economic circumstances of the parties and any other relevant evidence produced by the parties, on their own motion or on request of the court, that the agreement is unconscionable.
One parent enrols the child in daycare, an activity or a private school without the other's agreement. Must the other parent pay a share?
Illinois: Child care share limited to work or education related cost
Statute: 750 ILCS 5/505(a)(3.6), (3.7); 750 ILCS 5/602.3
Child care is a discretionary add-on the court may order, limited to reasonable expenses, and defined by purpose: actual expenses reasonably necessary to enable a parent to be employed, to attend training that improves employment prospects, or to search for work. School and extracurricular costs are a separate discretionary add-on, also limited to what is reasonable. Illinois separately lets a court award a right of first refusal to provide care during the other parent's time, but only as something the court may consider awarding it is not an automatic entitlement to be asked first.
Authority
- 750 ILCS 5/505(a)(3.6), (3.7) Statute
(3.6) Extracurricular activities and school expenses. The court, in its discretion, in addition to the basic child support obligation, may order either or both parents owing a duty of support to the child to contribute to the reasonable school and extracurricular activity expenses incurred ... (3.7) Child care expenses. The court, in its discretion, ... may order either or both parents ... to contribute to the reasonable child care expenses of the child. ... (A) 'Child care expenses' means actual expenses reasonably necessary to enable a parent or non-parent custodian to be employed, to attend educational or vocational training programs to improve employment opportunities, or to search for employment.
- 750 ILCS 5/602.3(a)-(b) Statute
If the court awards parenting time to both parents under Section 602.7 or 602.8, the court may consider, consistent with the best interests of the child as defined in Section 602.7, whether to award to one or both of the parties the right of first refusal to provide child care for the minor child or children during the other parent's normal parenting time, unless the need for child care is attributable to an emergency.
How this was checked
Every citation here was checked against the primary source rather than a summary. U.S. Supreme Court quotes come from the official United States Reports PDFs published by the Library of Congress, and the reporter page shown is the page the quoted words actually print on. State case quotes come from the Caselaw Access Project's page-anchored text of the official reporter. Statutes and regulations are quoted from the issuing legislature's or agency's own site. Quotes are normalised to plain ASCII, which changes punctuation only, never words. Holdings are distinguished from dicta and from concurrences and dissents, which bind nobody, and contrary authority is included and labelled. Not yet reviewed is NOT a finding: it means nobody has read that jurisdiction's law for this question yet, and such a row carries no claim at all. No authority found is a different and weaker statement: a search was run and turned up nothing on point, which is not proof that nothing exists.
Dataset last reviewed 2026-10-17.