Bill Text: IL HB4949 | 2025-2026 | 104th General Assembly | Enrolled

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Bill Title: Reinserts the provisions of the introduced bill with the following changes. In specified lists that include law enforcement, adds references to the Department of Children and Family Services. Provides that, if Department of Children and Family Services personnel are present on site at a Family Justice Center, they shall only interact with a survivor receiving services from the Family Justice Center upon the survivor's request. Provides that each Family Justice Center shall consult with certain types of statewide and local community-based agencies (rather than just certain types of community-based agencies). Makes changes to provisions concerning the survivor consent policy required for each Family Justice Center. Deletes a provision specifying that a Family Justice Center is not required to obtain consent before sharing information obtained from a survivor with a mandated reporter, a peace officer, or a member of the prosecution team if that person is required by law to report or disclose specific information or incidents. Makes other changes.

Sponsorship: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 13-1)

Status: (Enrolled) 2026-06-26 - Sent to the Governor [HB4949 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2025-HB4949-Enrolled.html

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AN ACT concerning government.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Family
Justice Centers Act.
Section 5. Findings. The General Assembly finds and
declares that:
(1) Underreporting of domestic violence, sexual
violence, stalking, and human trafficking to service
providers, law enforcement, and protective agencies is
detrimental to the health, safety, and welfare of the
State of Illinois. Survivors have stressed the need for
collaborative implementation of resources and interagency
communication and assessment of policies and procedures to
allow for intentional process improvement in the delivery
of and response to survivors.
(2) To support survivors and their children and
encourage the development of partnerships to close gaps
and implement best practices, entities must work
collaboratively and actively to build a trauma-informed,
survivor-centered community response to prevent domestic
violence, child abuse, sexual violence, stalking, and
human trafficking.

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(3) The enactment of the Family Justice Centers Act
promotes the health and safety of survivors of domestic
violence, sexual violence, stalking, and human trafficking
and provides alternative ways for survivors to seek
services in a trauma-informed, survivor-centered,
coordinated manner.
(4) In recent years, Illinois has experienced an
upward trend in domestic violence incidents, including
increased contacts to the Illinois Domestic Violence
Hotline and higher rates of domestic-related homicides.
Contacts to the Illinois Domestic Violence Hotline rose
26% from 2023 to 2024 to a total of 59,704 contacts, which
is 140% higher than in 2019, according to Measuring
Safety: Gender Based Violence in Illinois 2024, Illinois
Domestic Violence Hotline Report, published in June 2025
by The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence. This
rising rate of reports, coupled with the reality that many
incidents go unreported, demonstrates the need for a State
response.
(5) Given the intimate and personal nature of sexual
violence, advocacy services are necessary to support
survivors of sexual assault by providing comprehensive
assistance that addresses immediate and long-term needs.
The State of Illinois should continue to support these
programs, which have faced declining funds in recent
years.

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(6) In 2025, the Illinois General Assembly passed the
Illinois Statewide Trauma-Informed Response to Human
Trafficking Act, recognizing the need for a comprehensive
response to human trafficking in the State. This Act
requires agencies to investigate and respond in a
survivor-centered, trauma-informed manner to increase the
detection of survivors and provide a survivor-centered,
trauma-informed response when survivors present for
services.
(7) The Family Justice Center framework offers a
comprehensive and collaborative approach to addressing
domestic violence, sexual violence, stalking, and human
trafficking. Family Justice Centers bring together
professionals and services under one roof, providing a
safe and supportive environment for survivors and ensuring
a coordinated and effective response.
(8) Children's Advocacy Centers were established in
Illinois by Public Act 86-276 and are governed by the
Children's Advocacy Center Act. In response to the need
for a formal, comprehensive, integrated, and
multidisciplinary approach to child maltreatment,
Children's Advocacy Centers provide subject-matter
expertise that complements Family Justice Centers. This
Act is intended to enhance collaboration and sharing of
expertise and is not meant to supersede the expertise of
Children's Advocacy Centers. Domestic violence, sexual

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violence, and child abuse are forms of community violence
that require coordinated responses. Family Justice Centers
and Children's Advocacy Centers should work
collaboratively.
(9) Family Justice Centers minimize the need for
survivors to navigate multiple agencies, to travel to
multiple locations, and to repeat their stories. They
offer services shown to improve access to services,
increase hope and well-being, reduce recantation, reduce
homicides, and increase successful prosecution of
offenders.
(10) Creating Family Justice Centers is essential to
provide multiagency, multidisciplinary support and
services to survivors of domestic violence, sexual
violence, stalking, and human trafficking; to ensure
survivors can access all needed services; to enhance
survivor safety; to increase offender accountability; and
to reduce the number of times survivors are questioned and
examined and the number of places survivors must go to
receive assistance.
Section 10. Definitions. As used in this Act:
"Domestic violence" means any act of abuse as defined in
the Illinois Domestic Violence Act of 1986.
"Human trafficking" means an act as set forth in Section
10-9 of the Criminal Code of 2012, including recruiting,

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harboring, transporting, providing, or obtaining a person for
labor or services through force, fraud, or coercion.
"Sexual violence" means physical sexual acts attempted or
perpetrated against a person's will or when a person is
incapable of giving consent, including, without limitation,
rape, sexual assault, sexual battery, sexual abuse, and sexual
coercion.
"Stalking" has the meaning given to that term in the
Stalking No Contact Order Act. "Stalking" includes, without
limitation, the following conduct:
(1) following a person;
(2) conducting surveillance of the person;
(3) appearing at the person's home, work, or school
without a reasonable purpose under the circumstances;
(4) making unwanted phone calls;
(5) sending unwanted mail;
(6) sending unwanted messages via social media;
(7) sending unwanted text messages;
(8) leaving objects for the person;
(9) vandalizing the person's property;
(10) injuring a pet; or
(11) using any electronic tracking system or acquiring
tracking information to determine the person's location,
movements, or travel patterns.
Section 15. Family Justice Centers.

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(a) A city, county, State, community-based nonprofit
organization, or a combination of these entities may establish
a multiagency, multidisciplinary Family Justice Center to
assist survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence,
stalking, and human trafficking, to ensure that survivors are
able to access needed services in one location, to enhance
survivor safety, to increase offender accountability, and to
improve access to services.
(b) A Family Justice Center is a multiagency,
multidisciplinary service center where public and private
agencies assign staff members on a full-time or part-time
basis to provide services to survivors of domestic violence,
sexual violence, stalking, and human trafficking from one
location, to reduce the number of times survivors must repeat
their accounts, to reduce the number of places survivors must
go for help, and to increase access to services and support for
survivors and their children. A Family Justice Center shall,
as appropriate, partner with other agencies to provide
services.
(c) Staff members at a Family Justice Center may include,
but are not limited to:
(1) domestic violence providers recognized by the
Department of Human Services;
(2) rape crisis organizations as defined in Section
8-802.1 of the Code of Civil Procedure;
(3) civil legal service providers, in accordance with

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memoranda of understanding developed by the Family Justice
Center;
(4) legal advocacy providers, in accordance with
memoranda of understanding developed by the Family Justice
Center;
(5) mental health care providers, in accordance with
memoranda of understanding developed by the Family Justice
Center;
(6) housing providers, in accordance with memoranda of
understanding developed by the Family Justice Center;
(7) substance-use counselors, in accordance with
memoranda of understanding developed by the Family Justice
Center;
(8) Family Justice Center administrative personnel;
(9) medical personnel;
(10) local Children's Advocacy Centers;
(11) law enforcement;
(12) the State's Attorney's office and victim-witness
personnel;
(13) supervised volunteers of partner agencies; and
(14) other professional agencies serving survivors of
domestic violence, sexual violence, stalking, or human
trafficking, in accordance with memoranda of understanding
developed by the Family Justice Center.
(d) If Department of Children and Family Services
personnel are present on site at a Family Justice Center, they

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shall only interact with a survivor receiving services from
the Family Justice Center upon the survivor's request.
(e) This Section does not abrogate existing laws regarding
privacy or information sharing. Family Justice Center staff
members shall comply with the laws governing their respective
professions.
(f) Survivors shall not be required to participate with
law enforcement, the Department of Children and Family
Services, or the criminal justice system to receive services
at a Family Justice Center. A Family Justice Center shall
establish memoranda of understanding with law enforcement, the
Department of Children and Family Services, and State's
Attorneys' offices to facilitate collaboration, improved
processes, and systems change for the benefit of survivors and
the health, safety, and well-being of the community.
(g) Each Family Justice Center shall consult with
statewide and local community-based domestic violence, sexual
assault, stalking, and human trafficking agencies, in
partnership with survivors and their advocates, in the
operation of the Family Justice Center. Each Family Justice
Center shall establish procedures for ongoing input, feedback,
and evaluation by survivors and community-based survivor
service providers and advocates.
(h) Each Family Justice Center shall develop operating
agreements, policies, and procedures, in collaboration with
local community-based survivor service providers and local

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survivors, to ensure coordinated services and to enhance the
safety of survivors and professionals at the Family Justice
Center, including participants in affiliated survivor-centered
support or advocacy groups. Each Family Justice Center shall
maintain a formal survivor feedback, complaint, and input
process to address concerns about services or the conduct of
any Family Justice Center professionals, agency partners, or
volunteers.
(i) Each Family Justice Center shall provide survivors
with educational materials relating to rights available under
Illinois law.
(j) Each Family Justice Center shall maintain a survivor's
informed, specific, and time-limited consent. The consent
policy, and the sharing of any details gathered from the
survivor, the survivor's family, or other sources shall follow
all State and federal laws, including, but not limited to, the
Violence Against Women Act of 1994, so as to protect the
confidentiality of information gathered and any documents in a
survivor's file, including, but not limited to, medical
records, legal records, survivor counselor records, and any
other information gathered during intake or throughout the
period of engagement with the survivor. Each Family Justice
Center shall develop privacy policies and procedures
consistent with State and federal privacy and confidentiality
laws and the Fair Information Practice Principles adopted by
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Privacy Policy

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Guidance Memorandum 2008-01.
(k) A Family Justice Center shall obtain informed,
written, time-limited consent from a survivor before sharing
information obtained from the survivor with any staff member
or agency partner, except that a Family Justice Center shall
inform the survivor that information shared with staff members
or partner agencies may be shared with the Department of
Children and Family Services or a peace officer without the
survivor's consent if there is a mandatory duty to report or if
the survivor is a danger to self or others. A Family Justice
Center shall obtain written acknowledgment that the survivor
has been informed of this policy.
(l) Consent by a survivor to share information within a
Family Justice Center under this Section shall not be
construed as a universal waiver of any evidentiary privilege
that makes confidential communications or documents between
the survivor and a service provider, including, without
limitation, any lawyer, advocate, rape crisis counselor, or
domestic violence counselor, and including protections under
applicable State and federal law, such as the Address
Confidentiality for Victims of Domestic Violence, Sexual
Assault, Human Trafficking, or Stalking Act; and Sections
8-802, 8-802.1, and 8-802.2 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
Any oral or written communication or document authorized by
the survivor to be shared for the purposes of enhancing safety
and providing more effective and efficient services shall not

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be disclosed to any third party, unless authorized by the
survivor or required by State or federal law or court order.
(m) An individual staff member, volunteer, or agency that
has survivor information governed by this Section shall not be
required to disclose that information unless the survivor has
consented to the disclosure or the disclosure is consistent
with applicable State law regarding crime victims' rights.
(n) A disclosure of information consented to by the
survivor in a Family Justice Center, made for the purposes of
clinical assessment, risk assessment, safety planning, or
service delivery, shall not be deemed a waiver of any
privilege or confidentiality provision contained in any other
law of this State.
(o) In addition to any other required training, each
Family Justice Center shall maintain a training program with
mandatory training of not less than 16 hours per year for all
persons providing services at the Family Justice Center,
including, but not limited to, training on evidentiary
privileges, confidentiality provisions, information sharing,
risk assessment, safety planning, survivor advocacy, and
high-risk case response.