Illinois Custody Forms by County: Where to Find the Right Paperwork

Statewide Standardized Forms Come First

Illinois has a set of approved standardized forms maintained by the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice. These are the foundational documents for any custody or parenting case, regardless of which county you file in. You can download them from illinoiscourts.gov.

The core forms you'll need for a custody case:

• Petition for Allocation of Parental Responsibilities (or the Petition for Dissolution with Children, if filing through a divorce)
• Parenting Plan — the 15-provision document required under 750 ILCS 5/602.10
• Financial Affidavit — supported by three months of pay stubs, tax returns, and bank statements
• UCCJEA Declaration — confirms jurisdictional authority over child custody matters
• Summons — for serving the other parent
• Application for Waiver of Court Fees (Form CIR-GF-60) — if you cannot afford filing fees

These statewide forms are accepted everywhere in Illinois. But individual counties add their own requirements on top of them — local cover sheets, case management forms, and parenting class registrations.

Cook County

Filing fee: $388 for the petitioner. Appearance fee: $251 for the respondent.

Cook County uses its own domestic relations division forms alongside the statewide set. Download them from the Circuit Court of Cook County domestic relations page. You'll need Cook County's specific cover sheets and may need additional local forms depending on whether your case involves a GAL appointment, temporary relief, or emergency orders.

Parenting class: Cook County requires the "Focus on Children" program — a 4-hour in-person session at $50 per parent. Spouses must attend separate sessions. Register through Family Court Services.

Free mediation: Cook County Family Court Services offers limited free mediation (typically two sessions) for contested parenting cases.

DuPage County

Filing fee: $350 for the petitioner. Appearance fee: $225 for the respondent.

DuPage County's 18th Judicial Circuit maintains its own fee schedule and local forms through the circuit clerk's office. The statewide forms are your starting point, but check for any DuPage-specific filing requirements or cover sheets.

Parenting class: "Caring, Coping and Children" (CCC) — available both in-person and online. Cost ranges from $50 to $100. The online version requires passing a test with 80% or better.

Lake County

Filing fee: approximately $289-$334 for the petitioner. Appearance fee: approximately $191 for the respondent.

Lake County's 19th Judicial Circuit provides forms and filing information through the Lake County Circuit Clerk.

Parenting class: The "Children First Foundation Program" is administered through the College of Lake County — $60 for in-person, $100 for online. Register through the 19th Circuit Court website.

Will County

Filing fee: $364 for the petitioner. Appearance fee: $239 for the respondent.

Will County's 12th Judicial Circuit has its own fee schedule. Check with the circuit clerk for any county-specific filing requirements beyond the statewide forms.

Parenting class: Will County requires an approved local course at approximately $70. Online classes are generally not accepted without explicit court permission.

ILAO Easy Forms: The Guided Alternative

If blank legal forms feel overwhelming, Illinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO) offers "Easy Forms" — guided interactive interviews that ask you questions in plain language and generate completed court documents based on your answers. The parenting plan Easy Form walks you through each of the 15 mandatory provisions without requiring you to interpret the statute yourself.

ILAO is free and endorsed by the state bar. Access it at illinoislegalaid.org.

The limitation: ILAO helps you fill in forms correctly, but it doesn't guide you through the strategy behind your answers. It won't help you decide whether to request joint or sole decision-making, calculate how your parenting schedule affects child support, or draft a right-of-first-refusal clause with appropriate trigger times.

Self-Help Centers

Most Illinois circuits operate a self-help or legal aid center where court staff (not attorneys) can help you identify the correct forms, explain filing procedures, and direct you to local resources. They cannot give legal advice or tell you what to write on your forms.

Illinois Court Help is a statewide helpline: call or text 833-411-1121 for step-by-step guidance on filing procedures.

All Forms Are Filed Electronically

Regardless of county, all civil documents in Illinois must be filed through the Odyssey eFileIL portal. You'll need to create an account and set up a payment method (or upload a fee waiver application as your lead document). Paper filing is no longer accepted for most domestic relations cases.

Turning Forms into a Finished Plan

The state gives you the forms for free. What those forms can't do is help you work through the decisions each blank field is asking you to make — schedule configurations, decision-making splits, overnight counts that affect child support, relocation clauses, and right-of-first-refusal terms.

Our Illinois Child Custody & Parenting Plan Guide is designed to be the step between research and filing. It walks you through every provision the court requires, so by the time you open the state's parenting plan form — or start the ILAO Easy Form interview — you already know what you want each answer to be.

See more Illinois guides →