Senate Bill 3386

(Wilhelmi, D-Joliet; C. Gordon, D-Coal City) was signed into law on Tuesday with an effective date of January 1, 2011. It makes four changes to make it relevant to today’s society, which are as follows: • It gives the court jurisdiction to proceed on a petition for guardianship if the parent or parents have “voluntarily relinquished physical custody of the minor.” This language is borrowed from the Illinois Marriage and Dissolution of Marriage Act, and it complies with the superior rights of parents as required by the courts. Because the courts have repeatedly interpreted this language, it provides plenty of guidance on what this means. • It expands the requirements for a parent or parents to consent to a guardianship. It will require that the parent or parents must execute a written document that is dated and notarized or personally appear in open court and consent to the petition. • It provides a procedure for terminating a guardianship that is completely absent in the current statute. The court must terminate the guardianship if the parent establishes (by a preponderance of the evidence) that a material change in the circumstances of the minor or the parent has occurred since the guardianship was started unless the guardian establishes (by clear and convincing evidence) that the termination of the guardianship is not in the minor’s best interests. It then provides a list of criteria to help guide the court in making this decision, such as the ability of the parent to provide a safe, nurturing environment for the minor. This language complies with current case law. • It repeals the archaic fitness language because termination of parental rights is not a goal of guardianship petitions in the probate act—guardianships are not designed to be permanent.