The Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) is an administrative agency with two main functions:
The IV-D program handles all administrative child support orders. This means that for all child support cases handled by HFS, one parent (typically the custodial parent) is enrolled in the IV-D program.
If an unmarried parent is enrolled in the IV-D program, HFS has the right to locate the child's other parent and begin a paternity (parentage) case. This means they can decide whether a person is a child's legal parent or not.
HFS will handle all legal paperwork on behalf of parents enrolled in the IV-D program for free. They are only able to help parents with paternity and child support cases. In some cases, HFS may appoint a state's attorney to handle paperwork for judicial child support orders. However, state's attorneys do not officially represent parents in court.
You can visit HFS's website to learn more here.