Family & Safety

Worried about doing this on your own? You may be able to get free legal help.

Internet usage can be tracked. Use this to leave this site immediately. Remember to clear your browser history to hide activity.

Use this form to ask the judge to give you parental responsibilities for a child.

You will need Adobe Reader to read this

Can I use this form?

To use this form, the following must be true:

• You are the mother or father of the child,
• Legal parentage of the child has already been established by court order (including any divorce order that describes the child as “child of the marriage”) or by signing of a valid Voluntary Acknowledgment of Parentage (VAP) for the child,
• You are not currently married to the Respondent (the other parent), and
• The child has certain connections to Illinois.

Note: This form can be completed for multiple children at once.

It should be filed in the county where the child lives. Learn more about the allocation of parental responsibilities.

What do I need first?

To complete this program, you will need to know:

• The other parent's address, age, and occupation,
• All of the addresses the child has lived at in the past 5 years,
• Whether anyone other than you and the other parent claims to have rights to make important decisions for the child,
• Whether there are any other court cases involving the parents or the children; and
• Whether you want to split decision-making responsibilities and parenting time with the other parent.