In IL, you can be licensed or a family/relative placement foster parent.
You get more money if you are licensed but you can be a relative placement although the department recommends getting the license. See below.
"How are licensed foster care and unlicensed relative foster care different?
Where it is in a child's best interest, DCFS and the courts may place a foster child in the home of a willing and able relative who is not yet licensed as a foster home. While relative foster families help meet urgent needs and provide some continuity in a child's life, it is most beneficial for relatives to become fully licensed as foster parents. During the period relatives are unlicensed, they receive significantly lower reimbursements for costs than licensed foster parents. DCFS strongly encourages all family members proving relative foster care to become licensed foster parents, but because licensure can take several months, many family members start out in the relative foster care program."
Foster Care - Foster Care